LAGUNA BEACH : Firefighters Vow to Oust Incumbents

Frustrated that City Council members were unsympathetic to recent labor contract grievances, the city Firemen’s Assn. has reluctantly agreed to a new three-year pact while also vowing to throw out of office two council incumbents seeking reelection Nov. 6.

“We are hoping that if we can get politically active and educate the citizens about our situation and get some people onto the City Council that also understand where we are coming from, we might be able to make some headway,” firefighters’ spokesman Steen Jensen said Wednesday.

The firefighters union broke a long-standing tradition of impartiality in council races when it decided to endorse city Planning Commission members Norm Grossman and Wayne Peterson, and attorney Steven C. Leonard for three City Council seats, Jensen said.

The incumbents targeted by the firefighters are Mayor Lida Lenney and Councilman Robert F. Gentry.

After working for more than three months without a contract and making no progress in negotiations with the city until an independent mediator stepped in, Jensen said the group accepted a wage and benefits package that includes five pay raises during the next three years totaling 18%. But he claimed that even with the new pay hikes, the city’s 36 firefighters will still be the lowest paid in the county.

“We are kind of at the bottom of the barrel now, and when we come out of the contract in 1993 we are not even going to be in the barrel,” Jensen said.

“How do they know that? Nobody knows what the rest of the cities are going to do,” City Manager Kenneth C. Frank responded.

Frank said the first pay raise, effective immediately, will bring the top firefighters up to a salary of $3,043 per month, placing the city fourth from the bottom among the 16 fire departments in the county.

He added that Laguna Beach is in the same pay range as La Habra, Orange, San Clemente and Garden Grove.

“Orange and San Clemente are due increases in January, but come July, we are going to go ahead of them, and we go back and forth,” Frank said.