COUNTYWIDE : Firefighters Picket Board’s Meeting

While Ventura County firefighters picketed the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday to ask for better wages, a negotiator said the firefighters are asking for more than three times what the county is offering.

County Assistant Personnel Director Edward McLean said the Ventura County Professional Firefighters Assn. is asking for wage, benefit and stipend increases totaling 10%, while the county has offered a 3.1% increase.

McLean issued a news release saying the union’s demands would cost county taxpayers an additional $3,030,211 a year, while the county’s offer would cost $1,360,736 a year.

Union President Ken Maffei said that McLean’s figures were high and that the union’s last demand was for an increase of 8% to 10%.

Earlier, more than 100 firefighters had filled the board’s chambers at the County Government Center to protest the county’s offer and criticize its negotiators.

Firefighter-engineer Brian Dilley ridiculed what he said were negotiators’ pleas “to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.”

“I’ll challenge any person here to put yourself on top of a lightweight roof with a fire burning underneath, or to pick up a severed limb and pack it in ice so it can be put back where it belongs, or to stick your lips against the lips of a baby whose body you’re trying to breathe life back into,” Dilley said.

Firefighter Scott Dettorre told supervisors that while salaries for the county’s top fire officials are among the top 10% in the state, firefighters’ salaries are among the bottom 50%.

“We find this fact demoralizing,” Dettorre said.

Union attorney Stephen Silver asked the board to explain why firefighters were offered a 3.1% wage and benefit

raise while some members of the Professional Employees Assn. of Ventura County received a raise totaling 8.37%.

Supervisors Chairman John K. Flynn declined to answer, saying the board’s policy forbids supervisors from responding to questions during the public comment portion of their weekly meeting.

However, he said the supervisors would discuss the firefighters’ demands in closed session.