Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

E-mail: nancyarcuri@the citizensvoice.net

Fax: 626-307-9081

The battle over the Monterey Park Fire Service continues.

In 1999 86% of the taxpaying voters said NO to going County fire.

Our votes said to leave our hometown fire service alone. We want to keep local control.

In 2012 the greedy and power hungry Firefighters Union is still pushing to take over our fire service with the help of Councilmember Betty Tom Chu.

They even tried to rewrite Measure J with her assistance.

Since they failed to change our Measure J to suit their ravenous desire for more money and power they pushed us against a wall to have an Ad Hoc Committee review their union paid County study to take over our fire service and the independent study on this issue due sometime this May.

During the May 2 Council Meeting the city attorney’s legal opinion is city was not legally required to continue with the Ad Hoc Committee as stated in Measure J.

Councilmembers David Lau and Anthony Wong took a stand to stop this process in its tracks.

The city manager stated that in April 7, 2010 the Council approved a MOU (contract) with the city firefighters to include their request for a feasibility study to transfer our fire service to Los Angeles County.  The union agreed to pay for this study and an independent study of the County’s study.

The Firefighters Union threatened a lawsuit unless the As Hoc Committee proceeds so the Council majority (Betty Tom Chu, Mitch Ing and Teresa Real Sebastian) decided to vote to give in the firefighters’ demands.

The greatest irony is that our Measure J states the County must provide that same staffing personnel or better, the same equipment or better and the same response time or better.

Monterey Park firefighters currently have a 17 member staff per shift with three fire trucks, one hook and ladder truck and two paramedic ambulance units that treat and transport the patient to a local hospital.

Almost 91% of all of the 911calls are for medical emergencies. Our average medical emergency response time is 4:32 minutes. Our average fire emergency response time is 5:02 minutes.

Our city belongs to Verdugo Dispatch with mutual aid from their other members as well as mutual aid from Los Angeles County.

Los Angeles County only has a 12 member staff per shift with fire trucks stations outside of our city and no paramedic ambulance units.  They have a paramedic rescue truck that arrives on the scene from outside the city and a private ambulance unit to transport the patient to the local hospital.

The County response time is anywhere from 8 minutes or longer according to their records. It depends where the units are being dispatched from to the scene.

Monterey Park taxpaying voters have already said NO to going with the County fire service in 1998 and 1999.

It is very frustrating for the residents to have to battle the Firefighters Union to keep our hometown fire service.

Our greatest issue is the potential loss of life based on their slow response times to medical and fire emergencies.

Another issue is their outrageous overtime. In 2009 we paid them $1,193,495 in overtime.

Each year their overtime is more expensive.

The general employees who run the city have been cut to the bone and are taking a reduction in their paychecks.

The police officers are working hard to protect us and have taken a 5% pay cut with no overtime.

The firefighters decided not to take a pay raise in 2010 but demanded the city again be subject to another County fire study.

They know full well that the County cannot provide us with the same services we currently receive.

I, for one, would like to have their scandalous overtime reduced to save our hometown.

I will be attending our Budget Hearings at City Hall on June 4 and 5 from 6 to 9 PM.

The city can brown out an engine or brown out a fire station or reduce our firefighting staff to save us money.  It will be a Council decision so attend these meetings and provide your input.

If we still need to cut our expenses than we can reduce our firefighting staff to 12 personnel per shift just like Los Angeles County and Montebello.

Firefighters are no longer a protected class of personnel and they can be laid off like their counterparts in Los Angeles, Montebello and many other cities across this country.

According to the latest unemployment statistics approximately 132,000 police officers and firefighters have been laid off across our country.

Our management can use the same criteria for staff reduction that they used for the general employees.

By California law any laid off employees can file for Unemployment Insurance, which has a weekly maximum benefit of $450 a week.

Maybe the firefighters will be happy with their base pay and reduced overtime since they all earn more than $450 a week.

Since the Council chose their AD Hoc Committee members be on the lookout for the legally posted meetings to be held on Monday nights at City Hall.

Ask your questions and demand fair answers from the participants on our important fire service issue.

It is matter of life and death for you and your loved ones in Monterey Park.

On Memorial Day please remember all of the men and women who have died over the years protecting our rights of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom to vote.

Honor their sacrifices by voting your conscience on June 5th.