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| This week, Monterey Park Firefighters & Local 1014 members presented a check for $5,685.74 to the Monterey Park Community Healing Fund. This money was raised at the barbecue fundraiser on March 25th. Special thanks to all community members and our members who supported and donated to the special cause. Your generosity is truly appreciated. |
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Brothers & Sisters,
This week, Battalions 10 and 15 came together once again in one of the best and most amazing ongoing events that foster brotherhood and sisterhood at its finest as we send off the newest east-end retirees.
Well over two hundred (200) members descended upon Las Vegas Treasure Island and Hogs and Heifers to stand in solidarity and family as we congratulated the following brothers:
- BC Steve Bowie
- FF/PM John Hirth
- FF/PM Allen Burney
- Captain Pat Long
- Captain AJ Cleveland
- FF/PM Charlie Martin
- FF/PM John Cryder
- Engineer Tom Merrill
- Captain Pat Dolan
- BC Dave Toigo
- Engineer Sam Flores
- Engineer Nino Vanillo
This was the 26th Annual Battalion 10 and 15 Vegas Retirement Trip, and with over 240 folks in attendance, a good time was had by all. Stories were told, careers recounted, and many a tear and a laugh were shared. There was a fantastic sense of East Side Pride as both retirees and active duty members of all ranks came together to break a little bread and share a drink as we honored our newest members of the LACERA Retirement Club. Congratulations, and enjoy your hard-earned retirement.
Also on Monday night of the event, the members descended on Hogs and Heifers watering hole where good old Pete Martinez played the bagpipe and a toast in honor of fallen Brother Steve McCann took place as “we shall never forget” laid across the room like smoke from a fire. This event is yet another example of the brotherhood and sisterhood that is alive and powerfully well on our job. Thanks to all who made an effort to get there and be a part of this year's love.
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Behavioral Health / Wellness Division / PEER Support and Chaplain Programs
Labor and Management have worked hand in hand to build one of the world's most dynamic and well-trained Peer Support teams. Our LACoFD Peer Support and Chaplain Team is now over 200 members and we have the world's premier Culturally Competent Fire Fighter Clinician in Dr. Steve Froehlich. In simple terms, that means a Fire Fighter Savvy Shrink! The program is Firefighter Peer Support driven, Clinician Supported Program. We have been working over the last two years with Dr. Steve as our lead clinician, consultant, educator and coordinator, together with Scott Ross, Steve Blackburn, Vince Roldan, and the Lead Peers, to build our Peer Support Program and secure funding and resources to take care of our firefighters and families.
Local 1014 hired Dr. Steve Froehlich for two years in a partial partnership with the Department when we almost lost him to other agencies because of a lack of a hiring mechanism through the Department. We are proud to announce that Dr. Steve Froehlich will be retained for one additional year on a contract extension with a full partnership funded and supported by our new Fire Chief, Anthony Marrone.
This commitment from the Fire Chief is an amazing part of our mission to rebuild the Department. We want to highlight and score his direct actions along with President Gillotte through their California Firefighter Joint Apprentice Committee (CAL-JAC) relationship to get this done and secure this critical resource for the additional year.
From the most critical incidents in LA County Fire such as the Sierra Incident to working with our family members on issues, Dr. Steve has provided professional mental health experience, training, referrals, and more to our members in our most heavy of times. We will be working over the next year not only to keep the program in shape for response and pre-active education for our members but also to structure, fund, and move forward with BH evaluations annually through our WFI Physicals to give our members the tools to keep themselves in shape not only physically, but mentally.
Thank you again to Chief Marrone and President Gillotte as well as Dr. Steve and the Lead Peers for your commitment to serve another year, ensuring our health and safety are in good hands.
FFS - FFT Candidates
Last week we went to work to ensure the FSAs who took jobs as candidates on the FFT list were not left behind. Only 11 of the FSAs in this situation were processed for Class 170 or beyond. We put forward a proposal to the Fire Chief to process conditional offers of employment for all 57 of these FSAs and set for Class 170, 171, and 172 if needed to accommodate all. We have an agreement with the Fire Chief, but we also found out that the FFT list was terminated in October of last year, officially rendering anyone left on the list without an already garnered conditional offer Ineligible to be processed for a tower.
It is unconscionable that our Department HR and Big County HR are disconnected from items like this in fate first place, and that needs to change, but the Fire Chief is working with County DHR along with our push to find a mechanism to reinstate the list and pick up the additional FSA’s who came for the FFT list. We will continue to work on this item. If necessary, to leverage movement from Big County, we would consider job actions as well as legal appeals. We look forward to a positive outcome in the DHR ask, and also are optimistic we can negotiate a plan that works for the Department and the Union as we represent our members in this issue.
Thanks again to our new Director Aaron Katon for tackling this issue and working so hard to get all the information for us to make this appeal. Also on a side note, congratulations to FSA Dorsey, who worked on behalf of all of his FSA brothers and sister on this item. He has garnered an offer from LAFD, and in reality, because our system has been slow and disconnected, we will lose one of our best to the team from the West. Good luck Dorsey! We know there are other FSAs who are moving forward in other agencies' processes as well, and we have communicated to the Fire Chief that this has to change so our Department HR is connected and aware of such issues.
FCTC Written Test
We are meeting with Big County and Department DR, along with the Fire Chief and CAL-JAC FCTC personnel, to work on the logistics to utilize the State FCTC written exam as part of our ongoing testing process. We have the CPAT physical abilities test and EMT as a requirement now, and adding the FCTC will ensure we always have a written test in the process each month and a list that always has candidates for us to draw from. We also are pushing to add an in-person oral interview with two sworn personnel.
We believe that moving to a transparent and fire department-oriented testing process along with drill tower policies that ensure graduates are qualified on all fronts is the key to hiring good personnel with diversity embedded, who will give us a good productive 30 years as part of our team. We meet again with the Department and the County, and CAL-JAC mid-April. We also are working to halt all work on the ill-drafted FF PM test that errantly went out last month. We are challenged administratively also, and we understand that while the limit of applicants was to be 1,500, somewhere around 300 applied, and more drop off on our request not to patronize the test. We can secure Paramedics in time of need off the FCTC list at any time, and we have plenty of FF’s ready to go to PM school and step into the traditional and amazing role of FFPM with LACoFD. |
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STAFFING SURVEY SENT! --CHECK YOUR EMAIL/SPAM FOLDERS
Member input is essential. Our members are filling out the staffing survey that seeks to input for all battalions on the recent trial to protect 4-dayers from recall, and provide recall relief through trial policy changes. This is the time for our members from all regions to weigh in with perspective and the staffing committee compromised of both labor and management will review the input and evaluate what is working and what is not to make adjustments.
Please take the time to fill out the survey that was sent out to your personal e-mail addresses. Please call any of the directors or the staffing committee members, if you have any questions about the survey. Thank you to all during this trial period for your patience and your input to improve our system so it works for everyone.
If you have checked your spam folder and still have not received the email please email ssaporito@local1014.org. |
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State Legislation
Local 1014 will be in Sacramento this month to testify on many important bills affecting our members, and to lobby for state funding to aid our Camp, Crews and Air Operations budgets. We provide resources to SRA areas and aid to the state with our strike teams and such monies are appropriate especially in light of the dwindling of inmate crews.
Our goal is to build more paid FSA crews and support our air and wildland needs with additional state monies. Of note are AB 40 which seeks to reduce wall time for PMs in the hospital by enforcing penalties for hospitals that don’t have the staff and use our personnel to care for patients we bring in. In some cases for hours in the ER. We also are working to extend or remove the sunset provision for Post Traumatic Stress Presumption and add Public Safety Dispatchers to the bill through SB 623. We are also working with our 1937 Act Counties on a Retirement Presumption Bill AB 1020 that seeks to add heart issues for any firefighter working over 5 years, including hernia and pneumonia into the bill.
Take a look at all the bills we will be lobbying in the upcoming months. Next week your Local 1014 team will be in Sacramento walking the halls to get support. Next month, we will be at the Capitol with all CPF Locals at our Legislative Conference to lobby final support of the bills for our members. Political Action and Legislative advocacy are imperative for our profession and our members' health and safety and protection of our retirement benefits and healthcare. This is why we are active in elections and supporting candidates who support us. Click here to view a full list of the bills we will be lobbying for and their current status in Sacramento. |
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In Solidarity,
President Dave Gillotte and the Local 1014 Executive Board |
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