Budget/Fiscal

Imagine for a second a scenario where the Davis firefighters took the same agreement as all other bargaining units of the city of Davis and then, when the city of Davis proposed staffing cuts, the firefighters said, look, we’ve taken contract concessions, we understand that the city needs to find additional cuts, let’s create a subcommittee that can look at alternative service providing models.

Under that set of scenarios, it would be perfectly reasonable for the city of Davis to look at the firefighters as partners in the city’s efforts to cut costs, and to work with them on a solution that both sides could live with.

On October 7, 2013, the City of Davis received the recommendations of the fact-finding panel appointed to hear the labor dispute between the city and the Davis City Employees Association (DCEA).

The most recent round of negotiations with DCEA began in March, 2012. Since then, several other bargaining groups – representing a majority of the city’s employees – have reached agreement with the city on contracts containing much-needed economic concessions. DCEA is one of two groups, along with the firefighters, that have not yet reached agreement.

It was a night where the subtext not only became the text, but became more important than the text itself.  It began like every other night this fall, with a protest in front of City Hall by the firefighters pushing for public support, for traction, for anything that could prevent their last vestiges of power from slipping away into the night.

But something different happened on this night – something that represents not just a game-changing event, but a new game altogether.  A few minutes before 6:30, in walked a group of men and women wearing the white shirts of the Davis Police Officers’ Association (DPOA).  They had had enough, they were ready to take back their city.

“The check book is tapped out,” Chamber leaders Gregg Herrington and Michael Bisch write in an op-ed today.  “Therefore, Davis business leaders are adamant that our City Council continue to rein in the unsustainable growth of city employee compensation. The Davis Chamber PAC supports the council’s hard-earned gains and trusts that the council will remain resolute during Tuesday evening’s closed-session meeting with negotiators who are bargaining with the Davis City Employees Association and Firefighters Local 3494, the only groups that have not accepted the city’s reasonable position.”

Tonight’s Davis City Council meeting is quickly becoming extremely important in terms of the future of the city’s economic sustainability.  While the city must grapple with the critical issue of shared fire services, as well as moving toward a permanent full-time chief, the city faces the continued unpleasant reality that two of its bargaining units continue to hold out on accepting the concessions that the remainder of the city’s employee groups have taken.

On Monday afternoon UC Davis Fire Chief Nathan Trauernicht responded to complaints from a retired Davis fire captain about a dereliction of duty, arguing that he monitored the scene from his vehicle and determined that his assistance was not needed.  Chief Trauernicht noted that, in more than three years of service as Chief at UC Davis, this is the only complaint he has against him.

For the last several months, the Davis firefighters’ union has been clamoring for a permanent, full-time chief to head up the department.  It turns out that the city believes the most qualified person for the job is already in the area and in the employment of the UC Davis Fire Department.

The city of Davis’ staff report buried the lead when it recommended toward the end the immediate hiring of UC Davis Fire Chief Nathan Trauernicht as the new fire chief for both the city of Davis and UC Davis.

Staff notes that UC Davis would be receptive to implementing the “shared management oversight prior to finalizing a Joint Powers Agreement.”

In a move that offers the promise of some fiscal savings, but figures to change the way fire service is managed in Davis and UC Davis, the city staff is recommending that council “direct staff to prepare the documents necessary to create a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) between the City of Davis and UC Davis to provide Fire Management Services for each entity.”

The move also may resolve firefighters’ concerns about the next fire chief.  Staff recommends that the city agree to this one-year joint exercise of powers agreement “for Shared Management Services between the City of Davis and UC Davis.”

The Davis Professional Firefighters Union continues to protest on Tuesday afternoons in front of Davis City Hall, pressing for a new fire chief, and for changes to staffing and overtime policy, but, while the union has been both vocal and visible, there is little evidence that their struggles have gained them any advantage.

Jesse Hodorowski, a 22-year veteran firefighter, 14 of the years with the city of Davis, spoke during public comment and stated that he was deeply concerned about the fire department.

In the waning days of the old council, the city imposed the last, best and final offer on the Davis City Employees Association.  Everyone else in the city had accepted the city’s contract offer, which at the time the Vanguard strongly criticized as insufficient – a belief that history has proven rather dramatically to be correct.

DCEA held out for a better contract and even the old council finally had enough and imposed the last, best and final offer.  The problem was that the city failed to go through the entire process, which has now become even more difficult, and the Public Employment Relations Board overturned it.

By Steve Pinkerton

Editor’s note:  On September 10, 2013, firefighters’ union President Bobby Weist and two of his members explained to the Davis City Council their concerns about the major changes the department is undergoing under the control of non-firefighters.  They were joined by about a dozen members in the audience. Among their complaints was the amount of overtime.  Mr. Weist told Council, “we just went on a strike team, people were forced to work overtime prior to leaving on a strike team.  They went on a strike team, they were there for ten days, working 16 hours and when they came back, they had to come back to work.”

Prior to Tuesday’s City Council Meeting, Mr. Weist and about a dozen firefighters took to the streets complaining about staffing levels, calls for service, and overtime.  Davis City Manager Steve Pinkerton sent out a lengthy response to the complaints by the firefighters, in response as well to requests for clarification from the city council.  We have reprinted that response in its entirety.

Model Heavily Dependent on Water and Personnel Costs Being Properly Addressed – On Monday the city’s Finance and Budget Commission will receive the preliminary analysis of the Cannery Fiscal Model.  Staff writes, “The Cannery development is the first project to have its fiscal impacts modeled with the City’s updated Fiscal Impact model. The fiscal model attempts to create a reasonable representation of the General Fund impacts of new development.”

While acknowledging that “there is no way for a model to completely predict the future,” city staff concludes “on balance, this project would be expected to generate a positive net general fund balance at buildout.”

At Tuesday night’s Davis City Council meeting, the firefighters’ union President Bobby Weist and two other firefighters came forward to speak about their vote of no confidence against Landy Black and Steve Pierce, who have been acting as interim chiefs for the fire department as the city continues to restructure staffing and other operations.

During the course of his talk, Mr. Weist discussed his concerns about boundary drop.

In July, firefighters’ union President Bobby Weist issued an email to his membership indicating a vote of no confidence, “The firefighters in the City of Davis have no confidence in the ability of Chiefs Black and/or Pierce to carry out the Fire Department’s primary duties to the community.”

The standard view of folks who have been critical of the firefighters has been to separate the economic and fiscal impact of the firefighters from the vital service they provide.  After all, my firefighters are our heroes.  They rush into burning buildings and put their lives on the line fighting forest and brush fires.

And so for several years I bought into the idea that the problem with the firefighters is that we are paying too much compensation to them for this city to remain fiscally solvent.  Their union was able to purchase influence through their numbers and unity in supporting political candidates that would support four on an engine, 3% at 50, 36% salary increases, hiding the fire report critical of their union and their chief, and resisting most other policy reforms coming out of city hall.

Imagine that this is a private company setting and that, after a series of long negotiations, you have formed a partnership to conduct regional training.  It’s a big deal and you get to show off your company’s stuff.

However, your shift supervisor has other ideas and complains loudly and in front of the employees he supervises about this “bullshit training,” and whines that the company better buy him and his employees dinner because the training is in the evening.

Union Alleges City Disciplined Union President In Retaliation For Union Activities – The Davis Professional Firefighters Association has filed an Unfair Labor Practices Complaint against the City of Davis, noting that the two parties reached impasse in April 2013, and that the city has unilaterally initiated a performance improvement plan (PIP) for Fire Captain Robert Weist, which sets forth areas in which he needs to improve his performance within a year.

The complaint goes on to allege that the city unilaterally changed its vacation procedure, and that it did so in retaliation for lawful union representational activity.

Yesterday we highlighted four possible initiatives that could be on the ballot by June 2014.  While you may be overwhelmed at that prospect, in a way we actually underplayed our cards by looking only at four possible citizen-based ballot measures.  Again, right now, we only see the water initiative and a Cannery referendum as likely.

However, that is just the tip of the iceberg as to what faces Davis voters.  Right now, it looks like the primary battle is between Joe Krovoza and Dan Wolk – and, oh by the way, there is also Matt Pope, Anthony Farrington and Bill Dodd in that battle.

Council was impressed about the impact of the potential Cannery Park development on fire coverage.  An individual writing as Karen G asked, “Where is the fire department for this side of town?”

The individual continued, “Can someone please address how an already thinly stretched fire department is supposed to handle MORE? How are the people needing services supposed to WAIT even longer in a life threatening emergency? How is this town supposed to grow when it is having a hard time providing for itself (police, fire, schools) now?”

The projections for the city of Davis’ budget are headed in the wrong direction over the next five years and, while some of these blows are self-inflicted in the sense that the city is finally addressing their unmet needs and dealing with rising water costs, some of it is coming from the state and changes to CalPERS (California Public Employees’ Retirement System) accounting rates.

Last year, facing similar problems in San Jose, the voters overwhelmingly approved a pension reform plan and now that plan is going to be tested in court in a trial that started a few weeks ago, but has yet to receive a verdict.

The report in the California Professional Firefighters Second Quarter publication is entitled, “Davis Firefighters Battle Organized Campaign to Discredit Local.”  Ironically, the article itself is full of half-truths and distortions, with veiled and pointed attacks on many in the Davis community.

The tone gets heated from the start, referring to critics and reformers in the city of Davis as “haters.”