Contract Negotiations Between County, Firefighters at Impasse

The Orange County Fire Authority reached an impasse this week in negotiations with firefighters over a new work contract that is more than a year overdue, and union members will meet Thursday to decide what happens next.

Firefighters are barred in California from striking. But for weeks, unhappy firefighters have considered other possible high-profile job actions, including picket lines at summer gathering spots like Disneyland and South Coast Plaza to plead their case to the public.

“We’re not going to do anything to undermine public safety,” said Joe Kerr, president of the Orange County Professional Firefighters Assn. “We want the public assured of that. But we’ve compromised long enough. It’s going to be a long, hot summer.”

Battalion Chief Pat McIntosh, speaking on behalf of the Fire Authority, insisted that service will be kept at current levels through the stalled negotiations.

“We have a contingency plan,” McIntosh said. “We won’t have empty fire stations.”

As for other limited job actions, like sickouts or work slowdowns, he declined to discuss the authority’s contingency plans.

The impasse came after 11 meetings over 80 hours since May between union and authority officials attempting to replace a two-year contract that expired in May 1996.

On Monday, union officials rejected the authority’s “best and final offer” of retirement benefit increases of 3% for 12 months or 4.5% for 18 months with no increase in base salary. The proposal, calling for the authority to assume more of the cost of firefighter retirement payments, would amount to a 5% or 8.25% benefit boost upon retirement, McIntosh said.

Kerr called the offer “ludicrous and irresponsible” and said firefighters want parity with other departments of similar size and function. The Fire Authority represents the fourth-largest fire department in the state.

The firefighters’ salary-and-benefit package is 14% less than that of other Orange County departments of similar size, Kerr said, and 30% less than departments of similar size throughout the state.

Authority officials haven’t disputed those parity figures but argued that the authority, formed two years ago, cannot afford any more than was already offered.

The union troubles come at an awkward time for the authority, which is struggling through growing pains and has been running a $4-million deficit annually. Several city managers have criticized authority management, saying its bloated bureaucracy should be trimmed before raising fees and generating money through other means, such as its controversial plan to take over patient transport from private ambulance companies.

The 21-member authority board of directors is scheduled to meet again in August. Directors representing the authority’s 19 member cities and the county could unilaterally implement all or part of the agency’s last offer or vote to attempt further negotiations.

Authority directors could also choose to continue having its firefighters work without a contract, McIntosh said.

Kerr addressed Fire Authority directors at their meeting last week and pleaded for them to make “human assets Priority One.” He pointed out that the authority board in January approved raises for its executive management of between 6% and 14%.

“When was the last time a city manager was routinely exposed to carcinogens and smoke, tuberculosis, HIV, hepatitis or spinal meningitis at work?” Kerr said.

If the authority’s 700 professional firefighters take actions protesting the expired contract, the authority is expected to rely more heavily on its force of 700 part-time firefighters, which constitute half of the work force. Paid-call firefighters earn $8 for every call and have only a fraction of the training hours of full-time firefighters.