When the Davis City Council delayed the decision to go forward with fire staffing changes recommended by former interim Chief Scott Kenley, several members both publicly and in private suggested that putting the fire issue into the broader budgetary context would be the way to go.
While the newly-presented budget, agendized for tonight at the city council meeting, turns up the heat, assuming the savings from both fire staffing changes as well as concessions during the collective bargaining process, the fear has been that giving the firefighters another three to four months to organize would be a huge risk.
In just the one-month delay between the January roundtable and the February continued discussion on fire staffing, the union was able to leaflet the town, producing a number of emails and bringing a number of supportive citizens to the council meeting to lobby on their behalf.
On Monday, a group called Friends of Davis Firefighters sent out a press release announcing that a new organization has been launched to defend the Davis firefighters.
“A group of prominent Davis citizens today announced the formation of a new community group, the Friends of Davis Firefighters, to educate the community about the ongoing efforts of the Davis Fire Department to ensure the safety of the City of Davis’ 69,000 residents through its emergency and preventive services,” the release said.
“Davis firefighters work around the clock to ensure our safety yet they are under attack by a vocal minority in our community,” said Alan Fernandes, a Wildhorse resident and community volunteer. Mr. Fernandes ran for school board last fall and managed Don Saylor’s 2008 City Council campaign.
“It’s time that our city officials understand that public safety is a core function of local government and that we need to attract and retain the finest firefighters we can so our families and property remain safe. As a resident of a neighborhood which is outside the desired 911 response time, it is important that this group educate city officials and other citizens about the value of the firefighters and the level of service they provide to our community,” said Mr. Fernandes.
“The last thing these brave men and women need is someone playing Monday morning quarterback about the hard-earned benefits they deserve for being on the front lines of every emergency that comes Davis’ way,” said Gina Nunes, a dedicated school parent volunteer. “The Friends of Davis Firefighters is a group of concerned residents who are willing to say ‘enough is enough’ and show that the overwhelming majority of Davis citizens appreciate the hard work of these public servants.”
Ms. Nunes said the group will launch a public awareness campaign about the Davis firefighters that will include social media, a website, and local advertising.
The Davis Fire Department consists of three fire stations located in Central, West, and South Davis. These facilities are staffed by one fire chief, three division chiefs, one fire marshal/division chief, 36 shift personnel, and 2 support staff. With the shift personnel broken up into three shifts, each shift works a 24-hour day or the equivalent of a 56-hour work week. The department, which protects an area of 133 square miles, responded to nearly 4,400 calls in 2012 and is charged with a range of responsibilities that includes:
- Providing pre-hospital emergency medical services at the EMT-1D level;
- Minimizing loss from fires, hazardous materials incidents and natural disasters and other emergency services;
- Ensuring that the community’s emergency service resources are effectively and efficiently managed; and
- Coordinating citywide planning for large scale disasters and emergency incidents.
The Davis firefighters have their work cut out for them here. The timing of the press release coincides with the commencement of a budget discussion that begins with bleak news, as the city faces not only a $2 million deficit, but has to grapple with how to fund road maintenance, parks maintenance, and other infrastructure demands.
The city manager suggests that the city will likely “need to explore additional revenue sources since the supplemental Sales Tax expires in 2016 and the Parks Maintenance tax expires in 2018. The one-half cent supplemental Sales Tax annually generates approximately $3.7 million and the Parks Maintenance Tax brings in about $1.3 million per year.”
The budget faces a structural imbalance of up to $2.02 million in the General Fund for 2013-14, which represents 4.7 percent of the budget.
“This means that the City doesn’t have enough ongoing revenue to meet its ongoing expenses,” the city manager writes. “In order to close the gap, the City has to choose between making cuts, raising revenues, using one-time resources; or, a combination of these measures to balance the budget. Approximately 71 percent of the General Fund goes toward paying for Police, Fire, Parks and Recreation and Infrastructure services.”
The city is putting just $2.3 million for street maintenance, while most scenarios call for tens of millions of immediate funding and annual payments up to $7 or $8 million thereafter.
The firefighters’ union, along with DCEA (Davis City Employees Association) are the two holdouts in agreeing to new collective bargaining agreements.
Right now, the budget assumes that all labor groups will have settled by July 1, but if they do not, the cost to the General Fund will increase by $144,000 per month and $1.7 million per year without an agreement.
In addition, well ahead of the council’s fire staffing decision, the city manager has simply cleverly budgeted for 11 firefighters per shift, and then notes ominously that the cost of staffing for that 12th person per shift would result in an additional cost of $443,663.
The gauntlet is now thrown down – between the labor contracts and fire staffing, the city is looking at another nearly $2.2 million in deficit, more than doubling the $2.02 million that currently sits there.
This is the environment that the firefighters will have to contend with. They will have to argue why the city should restore nearly half a million in funding, particularly at a time when they are holding out on contract concessions – the labor contracts for fire and DCEA are nine months overdue, and that is a cost already to the city of $1.296 million.
The city manager projects about $1.7 million per year as the cost of the two labor contracts. That means that fire is not only asking for the city to spend $443,000 more for maintaining the staffing level, but also has cost the city probably three-quarters of a million by failing to agree to a new contract.
The Friends of Davis Firefighters will have to answer for this if they wish to make any headway at all with the council majority.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
David wrote:
> Mr. Fernandez ran for school board last fall and
> managed Don Saylor’s 2008 City Council campaign.
But forgot to write:
…and is looking for firefighter (and other union) cash next time he runs for office…
P.S. I know the editor is not up yet but the fact that David put a “z” at the end of Alan’s last name is why the unions and the Democrats are so excited about Alan since odds are most people in California who have a last name that ends with a “z” will vote for him…
The press release said:
> A group of prominent Davis citizens today
> announced the formation of a new community
> group, the Friends of Davis Firefighters
I did a Google search to see who the other “prominent Davis citizens” were and found the site is not live yet. I did find out that Bpbby Weist and the Davis Firefighters Union are the “Friends” who set up the site:
Domain Name: FRIENDSOFDAVISFIREFIGHTERS.COM
Created on…………..: 2013-02-01 23:41:13 GMT
Registrant Info: (FAST-19586191)
Robert Weist PO Box 896 Davis, California 95617
P.S. PO Box 896 is the union PO Box….
Good work SOD, so FODF is actually an astroturf group.
Good sleuthing SOD.
[quote]”Davis firefighters work around the clock to ensure our safety yet they are under attack by a vocal minority in our community,” said Alan Fernandes[/quote]
I would say there’s a silent majority in the community that are tired of the firefighters antics, overpaid jobs and benefits. Proof of this is no candidate in the last council election dared to take firefighter money knowing what the consequences would be. If Mr. Fernandes has any future aspirations of running for a local office in my opinion he just shot himself in the foot.
Tis is no different than Mike Harrington’s group. My guess is this is being set up to allow employees to campaign anonymously and make it seem like pressure is coming from the community. Thanks for the alert. It is valuable to know who is behind these anonymous groups that seem to be more and more common in Davis politics.
I am still waiting for even one single bit of evidence, as opposed to emotional appeals, indicating that the current union supported configuration
Is any safer than the model suggested by Interim Chief Kenley. Firefighters ? Friends of Firefighters ? As a doctor, much of my career has been based on the concept of prevention and early intervention. You will have to look very hard to find anyone more appreciative of your role and contribution to our community. So please, some evidence based information rather than hyperbolic threats about loss of community safety.
Just another thought – With the vast majority of fire fighters living out of town, there is difficulty in trying to lobby our elected representatives The union is their only avenue to do this, as employees of the City. Setting up a “Friends of” group would allow out of town fire fighters an avenue to lobby the City Council and make it appear that this pressure is coming from the community. All they need is a couple of local people to sign on and it appears to be a legitimate local citizen group.
David’s right. The longer you give the IAFF to mobilize the harder it’s going to be to push this. Given the recent layoffs and other staffing setbacks across CA with Stockton being the prime example the CPF (IAFF of CA) is looking for a victory. The Davis local will undoubtedly be getting a great deal of support both moral and financial from the state and even national the longer this drags on. I’ll wager if it’s not done by July 1 it won’t happen.
It baffles me that firefighters are paid as much as they are. There is no disputing that they are hardworking and brave, but simple supply and demand would dictate a lower salary based on how many people would love that job. In fact, I’d wager if they were in the public sector they would be paid much, much lower. For instance, look at airline pilots: They have as much if not more training, require long hours, and have hundreds of passengers’ lives in their hands at any one time, yet they are paid a fraction of what fire fighters make. What it comes down to is the unions, which are in the pockets of elected officials and which time and time again holds municipalities hostage by pulling the “don’t put the lives of citizens at risk” card. But I don’t see it changing anytime soon, especially in this state.
The FODF press release said:
> each shift works a 24-hour day or the
> equivalent of a 56-hour work week.
I hope we can get more and more people to point out that the firefighters don’t “work” a 24 hour day or “56-hour work week” and most weeks “work” less than a 25 hour work week (about half as much as the typical college educated professional on salary that makes about half as much). I don’t know about Davis but my firefighter friends are not expected to “work” on Sundays so if they don’t get a lot of calls and work a Sunday they have weeks where they “work” under 10 hours (great money for a captain that only went to junior college who makes $3K a week)…
Typical California firefighters today make about four times more per “working” hour than most Californians (including most of the MDs medwoman works with)…
Many people work 24 hour shifts but it is only the firefighters (that I know of) that claim to “work” (and expect to get paid) for all 24 hours. If you sign up for the Army or Marines and get shipped off to Afghanistan you will get less than $2K a month (and I have never heard a member of our armed forces claim to “work” a 168 hour work week). Soon after the “Big 8” became the “Big 6” they got strict of making us keep track of our hours. Anyone that tried to say they “worked” 24 hours a day would have been fired for lying…
Hopefully our city council has the guts to stand up to the firefighters and do the right thing for Davis. I have my doubts.
How about 12 hr shifts. Wouldn’t that be cheaper?
I was told by Kenley that it would be more expensive. Right now they can use three shifts, 36 firefighters. With a 12 hour shift, you would need four shifts, which would be 48 firefighters, so it would actually be a lot more expensive.
[i]”How about 12 hr shifts. Wouldn’t that be cheaper?”[/i]
No. It would not save any money for the City. What would is the Rifkin Rydea: In every 24-hour duty cycle, have the firefighters clock in when they arrive at the station, clock out three hours a day for meal breaks; clock out one more hour per day for shopping runs; and clock out 4 more hours per day for sleep + rest + TV time + relax time. I am sure all of that adds up to a lot more than just 4 hours in 24. However, I am one wild and generous guy.
In every 24 hour duty cycle, therefore, they would be on the clock for 16 and off for 8. Doing that would eliminate all of their guaranteed overtime each pay period; and it would reduce their salary + pension costs down to roughly what Davis police officers are paid per year.
[i]”With a 12 hour shift, you would need four shifts, which would be 48 firefighters, so it would actually be a lot more expensive.”[/i]
I discussed this with Bill Emlen. (I think Paul Navazio was also in the room when we spoke.) Bill explained that because we have 12 firefighters on duty at any given gime and each firefighter only works 1 day in 3 (or 10 days per month), we need 3 x 12 = 36 ff’s for minimum staffing*. However, if we put them on 12 hour shifts, then in 30 days, each ff would have to work 20 12-hour shifts, assuming we did not add any personnel.
In other words, we would still have crews A, B and C. On the first day of the month, A would work 12a-12p; and B would then work 12p-12a. On the second day, C would work 12a-12p; and A would then work 12p-12a. On the third day, B would work 12a-12p; and C would then work 12p-12a.
So after every shift a crew worked, it would always have 24 hours off. If we did not add a 4th crew, no ff’s would ever get “a weekend,” meaning 2 days off in a row. From the firefighters’ perspective, that likely would not work. Moreover, they would have to commute to Davis (some from a long distance) twice as often.
But Bill told me, even if the ff’s would go along with that and we did not add new ff’s, he did not think there was any benefit to making this change. It did not reduce the costs of benefits. It would not make the ff’s more productive. And because some emergency calls (most fires, most hazmat spills, a lot of freeway accidents and some medical) take more than an hour to “clear,” the DFD would either have to change shifts in the middle of an operation twice as often as happens with a 24-hour shift, or the ff’s on duty previously would keep working (such as putting out a fire or freeing a cat stuck in a tree) and make overtime pay, while the new people would be paid regular pay to sit at the station and wait for the engines to return.
*Under minimum staffing, if anyone calls in sick or is on vacation or on jury duty, the person replacing the missing ff will get overtime pay for that shift. Despite the cost of overtime, having a minimum staff is cheaper than adding one or two extra ff’s to cover in times when a regular is out, because the added person will cost at least $42,000 per year extra in medical costs (present costs and OPEB).