LAKEPORT, Calif. – As the Lakeport Fire Protection District prepares to lay off three full-time firefighters next month, the district and the firefighters’ union are attempting to work out the procedures for how those layoffs will be handled.
At its Sept. 11 meeting, the district’s board voted to accept a budget that lays off three full-time firefighters, as Lake County News has reported.
District officials cited revenues that can’t keep pace with costs – including falling ambulance transport revenue and an outdated fire parcel tax – as key issues contributing to its inability to afford its current staffing levels.
Lakeport Fire Chief Doug Hutchison said the district had no choice, but Matt Finnegan, the representative for Teamsters Local 856/Lakeport Professional Firefighters Union, said the district could have taken the union’s offer of a 10-percent across the board pay cut. He added that he thought the district took an “all or nothing” approach.
“I don’t think the board did the right thing, for the community or the firefighters,” Finnegan said.
Finnegan said the district and union had been in negotiations for a few months over a memorandum of understanding when the district changed course and announced to the union that it was time to lay off people because they were out of money.
In addition to a 10-percent pay cut the union offered, Finnegan said the district also wanted to lay off four nonunion firefighters.
In a memorandum to district staff and members dated Sept. 20, Hutchison said he fully understood “that this is a tense and emotional time for all of us.”
He continued, “The situation we are facing is highly undesirable. The District had hoped to avoid this situation through negotiations with the Union, but when those efforts failed the District was forced to cut expenses in the only places possible. Again, I understand everyone’s frustration and share in it myself that this was not avoided.”
Hutchison said it’s of the utmost importance that district members move forward with their heads wup and displaying their professionalism, as well as courtesy and respect to each other and the public.
The memo then goes on to lay out the district’s next steps.
Those steps begin with the cessation of regularly staffing a fourth position at Station 50, the district’s downtown headquarters, with part-time personnel, who instead will be utilized to cover the interfacility transport ambulance unit as well as fill in when full-time personnel are unable to fill shift vacancies, Hutchison’s memo explained.
He also said that, effective Oct. 16, the district will eliminate three full-time positions. Station 50 will then be staffed daily with two personnel and part-time or qualified volunteers may be used to fill in when full-time staff is unavailable for fill shift vacancies or on the interfacility transfer unit.
Hutchison said the district is moving forward with placing a measure on the ballot, possibly as early as March, “to increase the fire tax to a level necessary to sustain our former level of operations and hopefully allow for expansion in the future.”
He added that getting such a measure passed “will take a highly cooperative approach” in order to get the necessary 66.67 percent to get it to pass. Even if it does pass, Hutchison said it may take a full year for the funding to come through.
Hutchison also anticipates applying for a Federal Emergency Management Agency SAFER grant in the spring in order to restore the previous staffing level. He cautioned that while it’s not guaranteed, the SAFER grant’s highest funding priority is funding laid off positions. “We have already been approached about professional grant writers who would be willing to assist us.”
The chief ended the memo by noting that the district’s adopted budget can be amended at any time – and staffing therefore increased – if the district and union can agree to the terms.
Hutchison told Lake County News that the district and union have been communicating about setting up a meet and confer about how the layoffs should be carried out.
Regarding the district’s budget, community members who have criticized the budget raised issue with the new dispatch contract Lakeport Fire and other local fire districts now hold with Cal Fire. Before that contract went into effect earlier this year, fires were dispatched from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Central Dispatch.
Hutchison said Lakeport Fire previously paid $46,000 a year for the services. When the sheriff’s office rebid the contract, it sought $57,000 a year. Under the new Cal Fire contract, Lakeport Fire pays $59,000 a year, which is determined on a sliding scale, with the district paying by call percentage. He added that the district also is now required to pay the county $5,200 annually for the use of its own radio equipment.
Regarding the use of part-time staff, Hutchison said the details of how they are used was misunderstood in the budget discussion.
He said part-timers can’t be laid off, but their use will be curtailed as they were used to staff a fourth position on shifts.
Going forward, part-timers will still be used for out-of-county ambulance transfers – as they’re available – and for other duties, he said.
Union responds to memo
In response to the district’s notice of layoffs letter, Finnegan wrote a letter to the district explaining that they did not have any legal authority for how the layoffs should be handled and that the union was requesting a meet and confer on that topic.
The subjects of the meet and confer, Finnegan wrote, include an agreement that the layoffs should start with the least senior firefighters, an accurate seniority list of all union firefighters, the method used in determining seniority, a minimum of a 30-day notice period after personal service of the layoff notices, a letter of agreement that any laid off firefighters will have the right of return with all seniority, accruals and benefits they had prior to the layoff, and an agreement that any and all laid off firefighters will have priority and the right of first refusal on any future opening of union firefighter positions.
“The layoffs are a downward spiral creating a safety issue for the firefighters and public,” Finnegan wrote. “The reduced staffing will also lead to less and less revenue from the ambulance services, creating a greater budget problem in the near future.”
He said the union’s offer of a departwide 10-percent reduction in base pay with a written guarantee that they will staff a minimum of 10 shifts for out-of-county interfacility ambulance transfers – beyond their normal work shifts – still stands in an effort to maintain having four firefighters on duty.
Finnegan told Lake County News that the 10-percent pay cut offer offer wasn’t possible if the district went ahead and laid off firefighters.
His letter also stated, “The Board passed a budget that incorporates the most extreme solutions that were premature.” Finnegan said they could instead have approved a budget that accepted the union’s offer, avoiding layoffs by using reserves, interim financing and cutting nonessential budget items.
Without having a fourth firefighter position staffed daily, Finnegan said a number of repercussions will immediately be realized, including reduction of services to the community by 50 percent, revenue loss for 911 emergency medical transport, revenue loss for interfacility transfers, significant reduction in the safety of the public and firefighters, increased dependence on neighboring fire districts, reduction of insurance safety office rating, reduction in ability to conduct daily company training, increased reliance on the district’s volunteers and an increased workload for the remaining firefighters.
“The harsh reality is, two of our guys are definitely going to be laid off,” Finnegan told Lake County News. The third firefighter to be laid off is not a union member.
One of those to be laid off has been with the department for 12 years and was a part of the negotiations team, Finnegan said.
He said the union has been talking to the Lake County Board of Supervisors about the district board trustee appointment process, as one seat is vacant and waiting to be filled.
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Lakeport Fire prepares to move forward with layoffs; union requesting meeting
- Elizabeth Larson
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