GARDEN GROVE : Councilman Scolds Firefighters Union

City Councilman Robert F. Dinsen has taken the Garden Grove Firefighters Assn. to task for distributing flyers through the mail and by hand at the recent Strawberry Festival Parade warning that city officials were planning to close a fire station.

In a letter addressed to editors of four Orange County newspapers last week, Dinsen said the firefighters appeared to be the motivated by the frustration over requesting “huge pay increases” but not receiving them.

Dinsen said the City Council does not plan to close the station. He also wrote that firefighters gave large campaign contributions to some of the City Council members “and apparently figured this would entitle them to whatever pay increase they wanted.”

“Possibly,” Dinsen’s letter went on, “they think Garden Grove taxes should be increased in order to obtain sufficient revenue to grant their demands for huge pay increases. After all, only about 8% of them live in Garden Grove and would be subject to the tax increases.”

Capt. Warren Hartley, president of the Firefighter Assn. since 1972, said Friday that pay increases and contract negotiations have become a closed issue and he was surprised by Dinsen’s letter reviving the controversy. Firefighters have resigned themselves to working without a pay raise or a contract, he said.

Harley said Garden Grove firemen are the lowest paid and most understaffed in Orange County. He said they had asked for a 6.5% raise for the year. The union also had sought a long-term contract, deferring pay increases for the first year, but was turned down, he said.

“We’re going to take a breather and then work hard in the (City Council) election,” he said. “Maybe we can get someone more realistic than Bob Dinsen.”

Hartley said it was only after pressure brought by the firefighters that council members changed their minds and decided not to close Fire Station No. 5 on Western Avenue.

Dinsen said the city is having a tougher time than ever in balancing the budget this year because of the recession, extra expenses mandated by state government and the taking of revenue by the state “that historically belonged to cities.”

“The Garden Grove Firefighters are a fine group of people,” Dinsen said in his letter, “and I am proud of them except when it comes to negotiating wages.

“When the city is in a recession and having to significantly reduce the number of city employees in order to stay in business, it concerns me to have a city employee union demand huge pay increases.”