Pay Raise Issue Flares Up Again

Firefighters in Orange County say they were duped--and so were taxpayers.

In vivid photos and TV footage, the nation saw firefighters battling a Laguna Beach blaze that burned 14,337 acres and damaged or destroyed 441 homes.

Their heroism and that of firefighters who fought other Southern California wildfires in 1993 seared itself into the public’s awareness. And in November that year, voters approved a half-cent sales tax increase, with the money designated for public safety agencies.

But the Orange County Fire Authority says none of the revenue raised by that tax has been passed on to the agency, and very little has gone to other fire departments.

Gathering Monday for a protest at the site of the 1993 Stagecoach fire, which burned 750 acres and two homes near Anaheim, city and county firefighters demanded their share.

“I’ve worked for the Orange County Fire Authority [and county Fire Department] for 23 years--half my life--and for that I have the proud honor of being the lowest-compensated fire captain in Orange County,” said Rick VanAuken, vice president of the Orange County Professional Firefighters Assn.

After a rally at which he and other union leaders exhorted firefighters to speak up, they led a 30-mile caravan from Anaheim Hills to Laguna Beach and finally to Crystal Cove State Park. An estimated 100 fire personnel and supporters joined the parade.

Anaheim and Orange County firefighters have been working without a contract for almost 500 days and say that, though their wages are lower than salaries in other areas, they have been offered no increases.

“It’s humiliating, that’s what it is,” said firefighter Jon Jones of Fire Authority Station 22. “We still love helping people, but now lots of guys are leaving to go to other places. It never was like that before.”

The union has seized on the issue of the 1993 tax increase, Proposition 172 on the statewide ballot. The money was intended to replace $2.6 billion a year in property taxes that the state in the past had returned to cities and counties. The Legislature voted that year to keep the money in state coffers.

Even before the election, Orange County officials had decided not to designate the Fire Authority as a public safety agency, Board of Supervisors Chairman William G. Steiner said.

But firefighters at the rally say that was not clear at the time. They pointed out that Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates, who chaired the statewide Yes on 172 campaign, cited local firefighters’ heroism in TV ads for the ballot measure.

Steiner agreed Monday that firefighters deserve more money but said Proposition 172 funds are earmarked for law enforcement agencies, such as the Sheriff’s Department and Orange County district attorney’s office.

Steiner acknowledged that TV ads for the ballot measure might have been misleading because they focused on soot-covered firefighters, even though the county fire agency never was intended to get any of the money.

Protesting firefighters “have legitimate issues because the general public supported 172 based on the visibility of firefighting in California at that time,” Steiner said. “There was a very strong emotional response for firefighters laying their lives on the line for us.”

Bill Fogarty, secretary-treasurer of the Orange County Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, put it more strongly: “We were lied to, taken advantage of and deceived,” he said.