WESTMINSTER : Fire Department Reorganization OKd

The City Council this week unanimously approved a proposal to reorganize the Fire Department’s management team to put emphasis on assigning permanent duties rather than rotate positions, as was the practice.

It will take six months to a year to carry out the plan, according to Fire Chief John T. DeMonaco. He said the reorganization will require complicated negotiations with the firefighters’ union.

The reorganization, involving the department’s seven senior officers, also will include new job descriptions, a look at retirement options, and may require hiring new people, DeMonaco said.

The Fire Department’s management team is now composed of a fire chief, four battalion chiefs, two captains and an administrative assistant who is also the fire chief’s secretary.

Under the reorganization plan, certain positions will be combined and new ones created. Among these will be an assistant fire chief who will be responsible for the department’s day-to-day operations and emergency preparedness.

The Westminster Firefighters Assn. Local 2425 called the plan “top-heavy” and said that it will cost more to operate than the current structure.

“It can’t be done,” said Paul Gilbrook, president of the firefighters’ union. “There wouldn’t be enough firefighters to serve the people.”

The city laid off six firefighters last month, reducing department personnel to 68. City officials said the move was necessary to control the department’s overtime costs, which during the past two years have risen to more than $2 million.

But an Orange County Superior Court judge blocked the layoffs and ordered the city to “meet and confer” with the firefighters’ union on the effects of the staff reductions on the safety of remaining firefighters.

The six firefighters are on leave with pay. Negotiations between the city and the firefighters are continuing, officials said.

DeMonaco, 46, who was hired as fire chief last month, said the management team reorganization is necessary to make the department more efficient, stable and accountable.

In addition to the assistant fire chief position, the plan calls for several senior officers: a division chief for fire prevention; an administration division chief; and three battalion chiefs, each of whom would be responsible for one shift of the city’s three fire stations. The current fire marshal will become fire prevention division chief, and the duties of the training officer and paramedic coordinator, currently held by two people, will be combined in a new administration division.

A captain will be elevated to head the administration division, DeMonaco said.

DeMonaco said current senior officers will assume the new jobs after the reorganization and that hiring outside people will be a last resort.

“My people will have to tell me if they are interested or not,” DeMonaco said. “If they are not, then I have to go outside.”