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Brothers & Sisters,
PEER Support Quarterly Training - 2024
Thank you to Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos for again opening its doors to our membership and hosting the 2024 Quarterly Peer Support training and education event. The Los Angeles County Peer Support Team, now pushing 200 members, is the epitome of what a professional fire department Peer Support Team should look like. Our Peer Support Team consists of mostly active-duty Fire Series members, with a large contingent of retired firefighters, dispatchers, non-sworn personnel, Chief Officers, and our Peer Support K9s. The team responds to crises within our department and nationally when called to help others.
This was a remarkable training session organized and moderated by two of our Peer Support Captains, Chaplain Vince Roldan and Captain Steve Blackburn. They took the lead with an amazing support staff, and the Lead Peer cadre pulled off an in-person training with well over 150 members in attendance. In attendance were not only the Peer Support Team Members but also Dr. Steve, our Lead Clinician, and our three contracted Clinician Doctors, Carl King, Lyndee Venosta, and Niki Stepanian, President Gillotte, Chief Deputy Jon O Brien, Deputy Chief Denny Breshears and Assistant Chief Gigi Gonzales.
This training was very special in that the topics we covered included a history of the Peer Support Program dating back to Chief Hokanson, Kevin Welsh—speaking about an offsite Peer Support and Wellness Program, a “Fire Up Program” for members to develop resiliency and camaraderie, break-out training specific to intervention tools for our members, and a special presentation by Retired Captain Joe Woyjeck about coping and surviving tragedy.
One of the most impactful moments was Captain Joe Woyjeck’s profoundly personal and impactful words. Joe became a Peer Support Team member and has not only responded to many incidents to help but also has been talking nationally about losing his son, Kevin Woyjeck, at age 21 in the Granite Mountain Fire when 19 of 20 Hotshot crew members were overrun and lost their lives. We also spoke of our friend and amazing human, Brendan Mc Donough, aka “Donut,” whom Joe and many of us keep in contact with and who have also been sharing to help others in our profession. The journey of healing, surviving, and serving others was conveyed to the room in a deeply personal way, highlighting not only the tools needed through behavioral health and professional care but also through serving others. The Woyjecks started a charity organization in honor and memory of Kevin, The Kevin Woyjeck Explorers for Life Association, which raises funds and awareness for Explorer Programs nationally to help find our future firefighters. The association has raised over $700,000 to date. Please support as much as you can.
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Finally, the retired Firefighters of Local 1014, who are members of the Labor Management efforts, gave a presentation on retired firefighters and a new program being developed to help our members “PREPARE for RETIREMENT” mentally. Just like our LACERA and 1014 prep events on how to retire, it occurred to the Peers that there is no preparation to go from the action-filled amazing job of professional firefighter to “being a retired guy or girl wandering around Home Depot looking for a tool.” The announcement was made about the effort to put together a program that addresses the impact of retirement and helps our members move to retirement. Remember, our retirees are still part of our family and suffer from the impact of the job well into retirement, and we ask that you invite them back into the stations for lunch or dinner and call them into the lineup on occasion to let them know you are forever an LA County Firefighter!
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RETIREMENTS
The March/April mad rush is on! Hanging it Up - LACOFD Retirement Events is a Facebook group where you can find pictures and videos as well as announcements for those who are heading up to LAO to hang up their turnout coats for the last time. The March / April rush is in full swing, and this week, the following members hung up their coats:
- Fire Captain Scott Miller
- Fire Captain Mike Aplanalp
- Fire Fighter Specialist Henry Szczypiorski
- Fire Captain Jeanie Barrett
- Fire Captain Chris Swartz
- Fire Fighter PM Chris Enriquez
- Fire Captain Brian “Dallas” Jones
- Fire Captain Robert "Tex" Teixeria
Fire Captain Brian “Dallas” Jones is the son of Union Brother and Great Fire Captain Dallas Jones, whom Local 1014 and CPF wrote and passed the Cancer Presumption II—The Dallas Jones Cancer Presumption Law extending Cancer Presumption ten years into retirement from five. Captain Jeanie Barrett paved the way for women in the fire service and LA County. Congratulations to all this week’s retirees. Please check the page and the list and attend when you can. Thanks to Rob Weaver, a recent retiree who put the page together to allow us to connect via social media for this important time. |
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A NEW GENERATION OF FIREFIGHTERS - RECRUITMENT AND DRILL TOWERS
While we see the retirement rate increase with a generation of firefighters hired in the 80s and 90s leaving this amazing job, we are hiring and promoting to fill the shoes of those heading out. The reality of the time is evident by the number of promotional exams and promotions and the rate of recruit classes we have had to sustain over the last few years, and this next year will prove to be another fast-paced hiring and promoting year.
As such, we have been working feverishly with Chief Marrone to revamp our recruitment, entry-level testing, and drill tower processes. We chose to “own” recruitment and testing and bring a credible and rigorous process to hire tomorrow’s LA County Fire Fighters. Most departments can either embrace and own the very real aspects of the recruitment and training process and probation or ignore it and let others from outside our department dictate what we do. We chose revamping and owning the process after Chief Marrone took over, and in partnership with our Board of Supervisors and our affinity group leaders, we put together a team of Labor and Management to tackle drill tower issues, probation, recruitment and diversity, and the testing process to attract and hire the states best for our future.
In partnership with Chief Marrone, President GIllotte and Local 1014 have openly stated we will own the narrative and stand together to navigate this path. Open discussion and processes crafted in alliance with all of our member organizations, along with training services, is the key to a process that has credibility and sustainability and can be not only embraced by all, including our Board of Supervisors but can also be the pride of the profession. Great time has been taken to redraft the entry-level testing with a pilot program utilizing the FCTC written exam, along with the FCTC CPAT and EMT, to garner our candidates on all lists that can be refreshed day by day annually. We are also working to put in place a selection interview and the possibility of a chief’s interview prior to the tower.
We have also negotiated with Chief Marrone’s Support to implement the BEEP Test before the tower date, and if someone is injured in the tower or doesn’t complete the tower, an evaluation and determination of whether another attempt should be granted or not will take place, not an automatic redo numerous times. Also, a recruit must complete a tower within one year of selection or begin the testing process again. We have a probation process that evolves to include physical standards testing in the first two follow-ups, but also credible testing standards that measure candidates' work to perform. Numerous recruits on probation have not passed probation.
We are working very closely with Training Services Chief Derrick Chapman and BC Freeman on our drill tower program and through JAC hosting a Paramedic Class for outreach and recruitment for low-income and low-opportunity members of our communities. We will also be dispersing FCTC scholarships for the written and CPAT through WFL, Stentorian's, API and Los Bomberos as well as partnering with Chief Marrone and the BOS in each Supervisorial District to disperse scholarships to those who may need the help including some of our explorers who come from disadvantaged communities. We will be evaluating what is working and what is not, and making changes where needed. Chief Marrone is to be commended for embracing the changes we have negotiated and, in fact, helping navigate the steps needed to gain BOS and Big County support where needed.
This path sometimes involves conversations that are not easy. When making changes that affect the recruitment process and involve discussions about gender, race, opportunity, and quality of candidates in preparation and testing, it can be difficult and polarizing at times. We want to thank our partners in the Women’s Fire League, Stentorian’s, API, and Los Bomberos for working through the Union and the Department Fire Chief to support our direction and the path to get to FCTC - JAC written and recruitment and we stand solidly with you in our work. We encourage our members to get involved in the training services section or in the affinity group training if they want to have an impact and help guide the processes.
We thank our personnel who make the commitment to the drill tower as recruit captains, firefighters, and engineers who put in countless hours and who had input to Chief Chapman and the Union in crafting some changes to help our process. We look forward to the written testing and interviews as we move this forward, with recruitment and diversity in hand, BEFORE THE TEST, and with work to blend the quality of candidates.
We also encourage members to be cognizant of what they post on social media while we work through these issues. While social media can be a powerful and positive tool, it can also be a haven for keyboard warriors to carelessly post divisive and harsh comments directed toward our membership with little regard for impact. For members with input, suggestions, or comments on these issues and programs, you can reach out to any Union Board Member, to the Fire Chief and Executive Staff, Training Services Section if you want to have an impact and help. If you are going to post your feelings or comments, we encourage you to think through your post and your comments and evaluate whether they will be divisive and harmful to any of our members.
Thanks to all who have worked to navigate Big County and all we have done to make a change that will have an impact, as it has not been easy. Our members and the AOC members who care and are willing to work hard to get it done have been the moving force to reinvigorate our process. |
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| LA County Fire Safety Measure |
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Local 1014 continues aggressively moving forward on the signature gathering for our ballot initiative to secure more funding for our Department, including staffing, infrastructure, apparatus, and equipment. We are currently gathering signatures in locations throughout the district.
REMINDER: If you get questions while in the field working or calls at the station, you can confirm there is a citizen's initiative for additional funding for the LA County Fire District. You can also direct them to the website above or any Local 1014 Executive Board member.
If someone approached you in the station asking for firefighters to gather signatures or sign petitions, do not accept. Get their name and ask them to leave the station.
We have a lot of work to do to secure those votes, but together, we can win for the future of our Department and our families. Thank you all in advance for your consideration of our collective efforts.
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In Solidarity,
President Dave Gillotte and the Local 1014 Executive Board |
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