Santa Ana : Firefighters List Their Complaints to Council

Emotions ran high Monday night when firefighters came before the City Council to protest what they called demoralizing conditions in the department. At one point, Mayor Daniel E. Griset asked the crowd to stop hissing at City Manager Robert C. Bobb.

Ray Comeau, a spokesman for the Firemen’s Benevolent Assn., proposed that the council establish a citizens’ committee to investigate the conditions and to “help restore the excellence” the department once held.

However, the council took no action. Instead, Griset instructed Bobb to hold more discussions with the firefighters.

Battalion Chief Jim Dalton, president of the Fire Management Assn., said he favors establishing a citizens’ group because it would be “an unbiased third party that would be able to identify the problems, how the department got into the crisis it’s in, and recommend solutions.”

He said the problems include “mismanagement and a lack of leadership,” excessive discipline, a lack of communication between administration and employees and the department’s recent move to an all-civilian paramedic corps.

Bobb said he is working to institute some changes in the department, including writing out policies, formulating guidelines for firemen’s duties and freezing personnel changes for a year.

He denied that he is trying to make the paramedics a privately run service. But when he said that paramedic service has improved since the switch to civilian employees, a loud hissing broke out in the audience.

The firefighters sued Bobb and the city for $10 million last week in response to Bobb’s request that each firefighter file a “declaration of employment” stating whether he intends to remain with the department. Bobb said he took the action in response to a recent newspaper advertisement by the firefighters, which said that the about 200 employees are “immediately available for employment elsewhere.”