Los Angeles County Fire Fighters are at the Center of Many Victories in Statewide Elections and Local City Elections!

Once again, our great Union with the strength of our numbers, our money and our efforts has been a rock in determining the political landscape for California and our Local Cities, most notably the City of Pomona…with Inglewood on the horizon.  We made many decisions on key endorsements and when to endorse to put our membership and the interests of the Los Angeles County Fire Fighters, Professional Firefighters and Paramedics into the mindset of the elected officials who make decisions and votes affecting our work, our pay, our benefits.

We are once again plugged in from the highest seat in the state, the Governor’s seat…counting Governor Elect Jerry Brown as not only an advocate for our memberships interests, but a close personal friend as well.  We also worked hard for Gavin Newsome (Lt. Governor), Kamala Harris (Attorney General) and Dave Jones (Insurance Commissioner) as well as Barbara Boxer for United States Senator.  We also worked our tails off for a variety of Assembly Seats and Senate Seats to keep the vote count in our favor for our issues.

Some ask why we have to do this and the answer is simple…access and relationships with elected officials is key to having our issues heard and advocated for in the political process and let’s face it, that’s where the decisions are made affecting our pay, our benefits, our healthcare, our staffing levels, our budgets, our health and safety….END OF STORY. 

So, Local 1014 will now have relationships again with the top Elected Official in the state, the Governor.  We also will have a relationship with the Lt. Governor who has jurisdiction over the UC School Systems, the Attorney General who is in charge of Title and Summary of Ballot Initiatives (Very Important to Define the Issues on a Voter Initiative) and Attorney General Opinions on case law and statutory law affecting our membership, and a relationship with the Insurance Commissioner who has jurisdiction over Workers Compensation Issues and Auto and Homeowner Insurance Issues.  We have continued personal access to one of only two California State Senators by having the huevos to stand with her in the storm when others would not.  We will enjoy a relationship with the Assembly and Senate Leadership and all individuals serving in those positions as we have tended to those relationships by reaching across the aisle and supporting both Democrats like our good friend Norma Torres out of Pomona, Betsy Butler in the South Bay, and also Republicans Curt Hagman out of the east end, Bob Huff from Diamond Bar, Cameron Smyth, Jeff Gorrel and Audra Strickland from the north end of Los Angeles County.

We are diverse in our membership, Diverse in our support of elected officials centering on advocacy of our issues and access and relationships with those officials…plain and simple.  It is pretty easy to see that we have planned well, spent well, and worked well to put you, put us, put our Union in the Drivers seat in the State of California once again.  There was no other Local that out worked our membership and we should be very proud of our efforts.  Nowhere was our effort more prevalent and powerful than in the Governor’s race and the Elections in the City of Pomona where we have so many issues regarding funding and staffing.  Pomona was the center of a heated and very volatile cycle pitting the Pomona Police Officers Association against us.  Their candidates and their efforts led them to wake up with ice packs on their wounds and cold steaks on their black eyes.  Although we do not like to be pitted against other public safety groups, when the gloves come off as a result of attempts to steal our funding and our resources…there is no greater fighter in the ring then the Los Angeles County Fire Fighters, Local 1014.  We were victorious in 3 of 3 City Council races, one race against all odds to defeat a strong incumbent and put in a Latina Republican former miss Pomona Debate Champion who is college educated and cares not only about our issues, but cares deeply about her community as well.  The defeated candidate continues to rail loudly including threatening Director Rusin and President Gillotte personally.  We will not tolerate his tirades and authorities have been notified.

We have so much work to do on the heels of this election cycle, and as many of you already know, we are a long way from being out of the woods with regard to the economy and the very slow recovery as it affects our budget and contract talks.  As a matter of fact, we cant get a moments rest as we re-opened 167’s in El Monte and elect 3 for 3 in Pomona, we also woke to the City of Inglewood singing the budget blues and the numbers appear bleak to say the least.  We are moving the Local 1014 machine into the City of Inglewood to work with the City officials to try and come up with short term revenue solutions and long term revenue solutions.

The long term solution for all of these cities appears to be rooted in a different way to pay their bill through property tax shift, carve out of Redevelopment Agency Agreement monies, and of course a good solid look at what monies can be saved by going Los Angeles County Sheriff for their Law Enforcement services.  The later issue has always had the most political challenge, but the numbers regarding savings are so great in this economy, that no person of sound mind and body could possibly look away.  We will be raising all potential solutions for these contract cities…there can be no silence or blindness to potential solutions any more.

Thank you for your support and as you can see, the dues structure we all voted in has given us the resources to move our Local in the Direction we need to stay strong on so many fronts.  The work is just getting started and it will no doubt be a difficult road ahead, but united and strong we can accomplish much as we always have.  Historically and as we speak, I believe we can confidently claim we are one of the strongest and most politically active Fire Unions in the State of California if not the Nation…A Very Bold Claim that is not only true, but challenges us to continue to perform at the high bar. 

Please check out some of the information following in links back to the website and update your contact information.  Please print out the stories and share the information with all sisters and brothers in the firehouses and administrative sites. 

Be safe and thanks again for your work.

President Dave Gillotte and the Local 1014 Executive Board