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VICTORY IN POMONA!
All 1014 Endorsed Candidates Elected!
To all 1014 members:
On Tuesday November 2, while people throughout California watched the statewide election results coming in, Local 1014 was also watching the results from the city of Pomona council elections. In one of the most important municipal elections in the County in years for firefighters, and certainly in one of the hardest and at times emotional campaign efforts we have ever been involved in, all three candidates who 1014 endorsed, supported, phoned for and walked for were victorious!
During the past month of the campaign 1014 rented a hotel meeting room in Pomona for our campaign headquarters to coordinate walking and phoning for our candidates. Local 1014 members made literally thousands of phone calls and knocked on thousands of doors talking to residents about why we supported our candidates. We had targeted Pomona because of the economic and political chaos and budget battles there and because of the threats of closing multiple stations and pieces of equipment. We made it clear to all that we would support candidates who support the fire service, and we did just that. And now three who were not our supporters are out, and three who are our supporters are in.
Make no mistake, two of our three candidates won by narrow margins, and our 1014 volunteers endured personal confrontations and public name calling by some of the opposing candidates who resented our endorsing anyone other than them. If we had not put in the enormous amount of work that we did in this campaign, the opposing candidates would have surely won and we would be in a much more vulnerable position for station closures in Pomona.
And this is just in Pomona. Across the County many cities are coming to the LACoFD and asking to “renegotiate” their fire services. Many cities think that cutting back on fire protection is the solution to their fiscal problems. That’s what we’re facing in multiple cities, and it is 100% up to 1014 to address this problem on the political front. Pomona is the latest battlefield, but more are ahead of us. That is a fact we will have to face for the foreseeable future. This was huge battle we won, but the stark truth is that the war countywide will continue. There are other important battles still ahead of us.
Thank You to All Who Contributed In Pomona The volume of work and number of man hours 1014 members put into this project were enormous – but so is the impact of this win. There are so many people who contributed to this effort and this victory that we can’t cover them all, but we can name some.
First, special thanks go to our Pomona Elections point people from the 1014 Board: Paul Rusin, Andy Doyle, and Lew Currier and Dave Lopez. Each and every member of the 1014 Executive Board walked and phoned in Pomona, but these four individuals carried the lion’s share of the load and responsibilities.
We also want to thank the many 1014 members who came in off duty to walk and phone and put up signs. We don’t have a complete list of everyone who helped, but we do have a partial list, and we want to print what we have. Thanks for your contributions to:
John Tuck Tim Cody Al McConnell Mario Ianni Dan Cline
Jason Ghorbani Joe Granados Ron Larriva John Lopez Mike Ahlgrim
Marques “Ed” Wilson Billy Mendez Travis Wilson Eric Buege Elodia Diaz
Ronnie Hernandez Chris Judd Mike Pacheco Juan Diaz Nathan Crain
Graciela Orozco Gus Medina Brad Goodfellow Scott Ross Gerry Silva
Steve Brown Pat Richardson Al Yanagisawa Khoi Dao Tim Bloom
Mario Gutierrez Eugene La Porte Kevin White Rydell Stye Joe Burruel
Joe Williams Scott Fellhoelter Darryl Jacobs Louis Gonzales Imy BcBride
Cindy Marshall Stan Maloof Ed Kapu Mark Tolbert Larry Jordan
Jon Robinson Dave Caballero Jon Ferguson Jason Bibboney Steve Miller
Rob Texeira Steve Maloof Fred Carter
We know this is a partial list – probably with some misspellings -- and that others contributed as well, and we want to thank all of you. There is no way we could have accomplished what we did in Pomona without everyone’s help, just as it will always be in campaign efforts of this sort.
Politics and political action. That’s what we live and breathe at Local 1014 at both the local and state levels, and we do it because we must. Political action is seldom fun or pretty, but it is the lifeline that provides for all that we are able to achieve as firefighters regarding wages, benefits, hours, working conditions, staffing, retirement, safety, and whatever else you would like to add to the list. Especially in today’s economy and political climate, where every available public dollar is being fought over by every possible interest, we must choose whether to go hard or give up and go home.
At 1014, we will always choose to go hard. Thank you for your continued support!
President Dave Gillotte and the 1014 Executive Board
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