Update on Pomona’s Emergency Services

Local 1014 would like to thank the 1014 Firefighters, including those from the Monterey Park Fire Department, who showed up for the Pomona city council meeting on April 19. Over 250 citizens, police officers and County firefighters packed the city’s council chambers, lobby, and outside overflow area as the Pomona city council addressed critical fire and police issues. More than 30 citizens, police officers, and Local 1014 President Dave Gillotte spoke on issues that carry major consequences for how public safety services are and will be delivered in the city of Pomona.

Passions often ran hot, and a council meeting that was scheduled to start at 7:00 PM didn’t end until after 1:00 AM in the morning. After all the emotions and rhetoric were expressed and heard, Local 1014 was able to help guide the Pomona city council to decisions that will help to address fire and police services equally and fairly. In these times of fiscal crisis for cities throughout LA County, that is the only rational path for cities to follow, and that is the only path that Local 1014 will accept and support.

The actions that the Pomona City Council decided include the following:

• The LA County Sheriffs’ Department will put together an analysis of Pomona’s Police services and then offer a “Phase One” proposal for the services and costs they would provide to the city.
• Pomona will contract for a third-party consulting firm to analyze the Sheriffs’ proposal when it is completed, as well as look at Pomona’s present police services. The consulting firm will also analyze LA County Fire services in the city of Pomona, including costs, services, operational efficiencies, and projected savings or losses over the years since the LACoFD took over.
• Within the next few weeks the Pomona city manager, the police association president, and 1014 President Dave Gillotte will sit down together to determine the consulting resource to be used and the processes to be followed.
• The LACoFD and Pomona will continue to explore the feasibility of consolidating two Pomona fire stations into one.

Neither Local 1014 nor the LA County Fire Department will ever run from an honest examination process. We have one of the best Fire Departments in the world and as such we provide world-class services in a cost-efficient manner to the cities and citizens we serve, and we know that for a fact. What we demand is for any negative guesses and assumptions to be replaced by straightforward evaluations and hard facts. That’s the high road, and that’s where we travel.

Having said that, Local 1014 will continue to meet challenges to LA County Fire services head-on whenever and wherever they occur. And while we will always support an open examination of our emergency services, we also stand firm on the following principles:

• The same examination process that the LACoFD is open to must apply equally to police services.
• Before a city council considers any decision that could adversely affect the ability of the LACoFD to provide emergency services, all of the facts, figures and data regarding a city’s financial well being must be open, available, and verified by independent analysis, affirming its true and actual financial status, including its reserves.
• Before a city council considers any decision that could adversely affect the LACoFD’s ability to provide emergency services, all reasonable fiscal alternatives must be explored and considered.
• If all else fails and cuts must be made, any temporary reductions in Fire services must be tied proportionately to temporary reductions in police services.
• Any temporary reductions in Fire services must include fiscal recovery “trigger points” whereby the temporary cuts would be restored.
• At the end of the day, there are certain minimum Fire staffing levels that cannot be compromised.

Local 1014 will continue to work with the Los Angeles County Fire Department and the cities it serves to find solutions to the wide-spread fiscal threats so many of our cities face. In the final analysis, we are all in this together.

In solidarity,

President David Gillotte and your Local 1014’s Executive Board