WESTMINSTER : Recall Drive Sparks Feud Between Unions

Efforts to recall Mayor Charles V. Smith and three other City Council members have triggered a public fight between the police officers’ and firefighters’ unions.

Traditional rivals in local politics, the two unions are now on opposite sides of the recall drive. The firefighters, angry about last year’s cuts in the Fire Department, are supporting the recall, which the police officers oppose.

In statements this week, officials from both unions have also charged each other with using the recall as part of attempts to sway the council at a time when both unions are in the midst of contract negotiations with the city.

The firefighters have been working without a contract since Dec. 31, 1992. The police officers, whose contract expired last December, have been negotiating a new contract for the past four months.

“They (police officers) have invested a lot of money on this council,” said Mike Garrison, a director of Westminster Firefighters Local 2425. “They don’t want this council removed.”

In 1992, the police officers union spent more than $40,000 to support Smith and council members Charmayne S. Bohman, Tony Lam and Frank G. Fry Jr. Fry is not a target of the recall. The fourth recall target, Councilman Craig Schweisinger, was elected in 1990.

The firefighters supported Smith’s opponent, Joy Neugebauer, and council candidate Margie Rice, who both lost the election. The firefighters union contributed more than $5,000 to their campaigns.

The recall effort, launched last October, stems from the council’s decision to cut more than $1 million from the Fire Department’s budget last year, a move that led to layoffs and one firetruck being put out of service.

Al Brackett, president of the 100-member Westminster Police Officers Assn., said that charge is unfair and inaccurate, “because if this council is a police union council, we should have a contract by now.”

“We’re being asked for take-aways in employee benefits,” Brackett said. “The council is trying to work with a budget. If it means we have to take cuts, as long as they are justified, we have to take those cuts.”

Brackett said that Smith, Schweisinger, Bohman and Lam should not be recalled “just because they cannot afford $1 million for the Fire Department to spend on overtime.”

Brackett said the “firefighters can not justify their excessive overtime. They have exceeded their $75,000 overtime budget (for this fiscal year) in just 1 1/2 months.”

According to city financial records, the Fire Department spent more than $280,000 in overtime from July 1 to Sept. 15, 1993. Firefighters union officials say the overtime is justified because city officials have refused to hire more firefighters.

The county Registrar of Voters is in the process of verifying the signatures turned over by recall proponents Feb. 21 to determine if there are enough valid names to call a recall election. City Clerk Mary Lou Morey said that she expects the registrar to finish the check by the end of the week.

If a recall election is held, it will likely coincide with the June 7 state primaries, Morey said.