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FIRE FOUNDATION DEBACLE
Local 1014 has communicated with the Department, the Foundation, and the BOS our complete disappointment in the handling of the Foundation vs. Department disagreement has been handled. The Foundation was established to generate donations and alternative one-time funding for projects and or programs and equipment to aid our department with the mission of serving the people of LA County. Like other jurisdictions in the state, this is an avenue for organizations businesses, and individuals to earn a tax deduction while partnering and helping our cause. Many great things have been accomplished through the program, such as purchasing equipment for our job and supporting programs for our Peer Support Canine program, EPCR help, and more. While this form of funding is extra and not part of the budget nor the lion's share of any budget work for our Department, it is not only helpful but also a partnership with our community based on trust desire, and philanthropy. That trust has been harmed by having a fight between the department and the foundation on operations going public with the BOS involvement.
We have communicated our disappointment and our expectations for leadership on this issue to the Fire Chief and the Foundation. The fact that the Current Fire Chief and the Ex-Fire Chief sit at the heads of both organizations and could not and continue to not discuss and talk and negotiate for a path of resolve on the current issue as well as functionally how the foundation will exist and operate long term is a failure on the parts of both Chiefs. The foundation and how it exists as the LA COUNTY FIRE FOUNDATION is subject for discussions and a conciliation agreement for the future. The issues identified in the BOARD MOTION are over the top in their assertions of wrongdoing, exacerbating the discord between the Department and the Foundation. The facts are clear and reporting standards and timelines and delinquency in reporting has been identified by the Attorney General's office and must be corrected. This leaves room for a major overhaul of the Foundation leadership and operational professional help to ensure compliance with the many laws regarding stewardship of donated monies through the charity at issue.
Local 1014 will be communicating in writing to the Fire Chief, the Foundation Leadership, and the BOS our solution to this issue. We are going to press to have all parties who could not handle this discussion and work privately and collaboratively to the table to get it done. Local 1014 is going to ask for ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (ADR) involvement, where a third party recognized by the state will step in and mediate a conciliation agreement for the situation, which will be transparent and clear to all, and should provide answers and solutions to the reporting delinquencies and any other violations of operational issues not unlike many other 501C 3 organizations have faced, but will also provide agreement for how the foundation is formed, board member selection, standards of donors and donations with core member interests represented with those appointments by structure. It is troubling that the leadership both past and present could not get this done on their own. Achievement and or lack thereof is measured on work product and while we have many issues where we have seen good work, this, unfortunately is not one of them and is unacceptable and in the public eye. We all have ownership and a stake in the issue. It is time to get after this ASAP and get it done. We will keep you posted as we push this issue hard, and also know that the programs and equipment in the interim will be funded by the Department as they work through this. Additionally, the Centennial Celebration for our great Department will be rescheduled for the spring where we will all have the ability to celebrate our 100-year anniversary as a Department.
VIOLENCE IN THE WORKPLACE AND WORKING CONDITIONS
Local 1014 has been leading the charge in working to establish best practices and policies for ensuring a safe and non-hostile workplace following our life-changing Sierra Incident and other workplace friction cases within our Department and also upon surveys up and down the state. This issue has likely been left off the radar and out of sight for management throughout the years. We intend to be bold and progressive in pushing an evaluation of the issue and solutions that are provided for our members and binding on managers who oftentimes are untrained unskilled and unprepared for such issues as we experienced with Sierra and the situations leading up to the incident, in fact a complete failure on the part of management in failure to act.
Local 1014 is part of the California Fire Service Behavioral Health Task Force, made up of Labor and Management statewide and also with the IAFF and IAFC standing committee on Behavioral Health in partnership nationally, we have a unique opportunity to partner with Chiefs and drive national standards for dealing with hostile, angry, difficult working conditions either between members, between shifts or sometimes with violence against our members in the field from persons on calls we respond to. The IAFF has been active in addressing violence against our members in the field, in large part from the drug-addicted and mentally unstable population, with large numbers of persons unhoused at the core of the responses. We have had members verbally assaulted on many occasions and physically assaulted, resulting in injuries highlighted by a slashing and a stabbing in two instances, and proper reporting, prosecutions and training for our members on how to recognize and respond to such situations is well underway and we will bring this to you soon.
In addition, Local 1014 is driving a body of work that will end up in policy for both rank-and-file members and chief officers to deal with member-on-member conflict resolution and management when situations begin to brew rather than when they explode due to inaction up front. Our department is a prime example of CPOE, which is a FAILED SYSTEM to deal with issues of equity, fairness and a safe work environment where once reports are filed or lawsuits are levied, our managers throw their hands up and say it’s “ABOVE MY LEVEL” and the members slide into acceptance of the fighting and festering conditions of divide and off we go with hope and chance left to deal with potentially hostile situations. This is simply unacceptable for us all, and we all deserve and want a workplace that provides a safe space for all, but also invokes and embraces our long-standing traditions and expectations for a team working in solidarity with brotherhood and sisterhood alive and well. There are many ways to ensure that pride and sense of family are the norm, and when, like families that break down, we have tools to deal with it, and policies and practices employed with authority from management are available and in play. Simply, we need to all embrace the concept that supports the thought “No One Has the Right To Be at Work if they are Verbally of Physically Threatening to Others”, and they will be removed from service. It’s simply for one tool that will prevent and exclude those who meet “reasonable criteria” that is negotiated and based on behavioral health data and science to prevent personality or favoritism actions in such situations. Much like our reasonable suspicion criteria used very effectively by both labor and management, we are working on a reasonable cause form for evaluation and eventual fit for duty based on mental and behavioral actions while at work. This criteria will also come with an action plan that immediately does not threaten the employees' job status of salary of benefits, but rather covers their time and gets them into the critically needed help for their situation. The core issues that drive behavioral health actions at work must be identified and dealt with in order to restore the family's brotherhood and sisterhood and for far too long, we have left this to chance. There will be consequences and also paths of travel to be cleared back to work.
Oftentimes times, we find that situations like this are not easily resolved and need professional help to bridge the broken relationships and perspectives. To date, we have tested the use of the conflict resolution and mediation staff from the Sheriff’s Department and had some success, but they are not really culturally aligned with our workforce and our ways. The Behavioral Health task force is working to establish training for our members in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) so that we can build an army statewide of trained mediators who can step into situations like those we encounter in our stations and, WITH AUTHORITY, negotiate and mediate conciliation settlements. The members would be PEER Support members who have a level of training already acknowledged by the state through our legislative advocacy in law and would have the privilege of confidentiality protection and, with the 40 hours of Alternative Dispute Resolution, would be authorized to resolve issues by written agreement in lieu of lawsuits, administrative filings, discipline and more. This is key and important for resolving issues that often get layered with standard discipline and reporting that does little to solve the problem. We are working with two tracks of education for our members. One is the rank and file toolbox to deal with anger and emotion and know about conflict resolution and management tools and one path for Captains and Chief Officers with policies and practices to CALL FOR MEDIATION and or FIT FOR DUTY evaluations with subsequent removal from service and entry into help by mandate, all negotiated between labor and management to ensure protection of employment rights and to prevent discriminatory actions by management as we have seen in the past. These classes will likely take shape in the form of F Step classes through the State Board of Fire Services and also layer into the IAFF, IAFC and CICCS and FIRESCOPE training and will become standards for our members and promoted officers going forward. We are on an aggressive track to get this done early next year in formal approval, but we will begin putting out the training that has been developed with and emotional regulation and anger training for both rank and file and management through the IAFF next week.
We owe it to our members… those with us today, those not with us, and those who will join us in the future to not forget, to boldly call for change and make that change both in culture and in policy, and we will not rest until this now two-year project is completed and in service in LA COUNTY and throughout the state and nation. We deserve better, and we can move our machine to give us the tools to get better. More next week but we are excited about the embrace from the Labor Management task force giving a path to codified, legislated and empowered policies and practices that become standards going forward.
OT CAP
We have called on the Department to Lift the OT CAP once and for all. We will have to press this legally and formally in administrative appeal as the department holds on to a faded past and fails to agree to lift the cap permanently. Our next step will be to put a public records request in for annual Chief Officer salaries with bonuses and also a list of managers who have sued the Department on the way out, resulting in settlements or payouts that also are pensionable as the driving force for a cap is annual income. So let’s see what annual income looks like at the top end if perception is the driving force and what rules would need to mirror the OT cap in all fairness as we continue to bargain to remove the CAP.
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We all know that a day in the fire service can be filled with emotional highs and lows. The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) is now offering new, on-demand training in Emotion Regulation for Emergency Responders (ER 4 ER) training is to increase healthy coping skills in fire service members. Fire service members will learn to recognize, process, and manage emotions, using evidence-based techniques rooted in cognitive behavioral therapy. Strong emotional regulation can aid in a higher quality of life, both on and off the job.
This on-demand course is divided into four video modules, which can be completed in one sitting or in separate sessions. This course will take about two hours to complete.
This course was developed by the Warriors Research Institute in collaboration with the IAFF to enhance the knowledge of IAFF-trained peers but is open to any fire service member or the public. Click here for more information and to sign up.
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End Social Security's Penalty on Fire Fighters - Repeal the WEP/GPO
Through our legislative efforts the International Association of Fire Fighters, we are working hard to urge Congress to end the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) which affects many of our Local 1014 members. Political actions most effective when we work as one voice, click below to have your voice heard!
When firefighters work a second job, they are often unaware of the Social Security penalty awaiting them in retirement. Firefighters who paid into Social Security through a second job expect to receive these benefits when they retire. Unfortunately, if these retirees didn't also pay into Social Security through their fire department, their benefits will be dramatically reduced. The WEP and Government Pension Offset (GPO) are two provisions that allow the federal government to reduce retired firefighters' Social Security benefits - even if they paid if they paid these taxes through a second job. The IAFF opposes this unfair penalty on retired firefighters and strongly supports legislation to repeal the WEP and GPO.
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In Solidarity,
President Dave Gillotte and the Local 1014 Executive Board |
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