ABSTRACT: On Wednesday, March 26, 2008, The Monterey County Herald published the article, “Administrative merger of fire departments gets mayor's backing" by Herald Staff Writer Dennis Taylor. Rebuttals to statements in the article are presented. The format is, as follows: Statement from The Monterey County Herald followed by a Rebuttal. COMMENTS are made regarding Mayor Sue McCloud, Vice Mayor Ken Talmage and City Council Member Karen Sharp, a Citygate Associates Fire Department Feasibility Analysis for the Cities of Monterey, Pacific Grove and Carmel Final Report finding and governance. Lastly, PERTINENT REFERENCES FROM THE CITYGATE ASSOCIATES Final Report are reproduced.
• The Monterey County Herald:
But they (McCloud, Talmage and Sharp) say a formal merger of the three departments is not a viable option.
Rebuttal:
The McCloud/Talmage/Sharp position is diametrical to the Citygate Associates Final Report; the Final Report states, “There is clear recognition that neither operationally nor with appropriate cost effectiveness can Carmel maintain its own fire headquarters function basically from now on.” “The fiscal, legal and operational changes in the fire service make small departments so longer viable in providing fully effective emergency services.”
• The Monterey County Herald:
"Our fire department has worked very effectively with the Pacific Grove fire chief acting as our fire chief," Sharp said. "He has created a very good working relationship with the firefighters in our department, as well as his own."
Rebuttal:
“Presently, Carmel contracts with Pacific Grove for chief officer assistance...However, Pacific Grove does not really have the appropriately sized fire management staff to continue this arrangement in the long-term,” according to the Citygate Associates Final Report.
• The Monterey County Herald:
McCloud says an administrative consolidation of the three departments is the only one ever discussed because Monterey's firefighters union has a binding arbitration arrangement with its city — something the city of Carmel would rather not adopt.
"And if there's some way around the issue of binding arbitration, the rest of it could be discussed,” McCloud said.
Rebuttal:
Despite the “City of Carmel” not wanting to adopt binding arbitration, “it cannot be determined at this point if Binding Arbitration may or may not be an issue for consolidation,” according to the Citygate Associates Final Report. Moreover, in the words of Carmel Professional Firefighter Mitch Kastros,”’binding arbitration’ is not considered a deal breaker.”
Therefore, it appears Mayor Sue McCloud is using “binding arbitration” as a ruse to prematurely halt progress towards full consolidation of the Carmel, Monterey and Pacific Grove Fire Departments.
• The Monterey County Herald:
Talmage and Sharp noted that only seven of Carmel's 1,243 fire calls in 2007 were for significant fires. A total of 881 were medical calls, and 20 were for minor fires or smoke.
Rebuttal:
“Major fires within a jurisdiction account for about 1% of total calls, including large city jurisdictions such as Los Angeles and New York City. They usually run a little less in smaller departments such as ours. According to the figures in the article our number is .56 of one percent, which is misleading. Take away the approximately 500 mutual aid calls the ambulance ran outside of the City in 2007 and we are at .94 of one percent,” according to Carmel Professional Firefighter Mitch Kastros. Ergo, these statistics do not support the anti-full consolidation positions of Council Members Ken Talmage and Karen Sharp.
COMMENTS:
• Finally, if Mayor Sue McCloud, Vice Mayor Ken Talmage and Council Member Karen Sharp truly believe “the high quality of service is worth preserving,” then they should defer to the recommendations of the Citygate Associates Final Report and the judgment of the Carmel Firefighters and resume consolidation talks now with the cities of Monterey and Pacific Grove towards full consolidation of the Carmel, Monterey and Pacific Grove Fire Departments beginning July 1, 2008!
• It is especially important to note that “with or without consolidation, Carmel needs to have 3 career firefighters assigned daily to the to the engine company rather than the present 2 in order to have an effective fire and EMS presence at the scene of an emergency. While this represents an added cost of $400,000 per year to the City of Carmel, this added staffing need would be there regardless of whether Carmel operated its own fire department or merged line operations with Monterey and Pacific Grove,” according to the Citygate Associates Final Report.
• According to The Herald, “McCloud and council members Ken Talmage and Karen Sharp — all up for re-election — are in conflict with the Carmel Professional Firefighters Local 4579, whose firefighters say merging with Monterey and Pacific Grove is the only way to maintain top-flight service to the Carmel community.” Question: Is this evidence of good governance and creating a healthy working environment for our Carmel Firefighters or is this evidence of poor governance and city council members unnecessarily jeopardizing the health, welfare and safety of Carmelites?
PERTINENT REFERENCES FROM CITYGATE ASSOCIATES FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS FINAL REPORT:
While Carmel does use the JPA Ambulance personnel as two other “on-duty” firefighters, this is not a complete solution as the ambulance covers a much larger area than the community of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Given this, the ambulance crew is not always available for structural fire staffing. Of the departments reviewed in this study, Carmel is the most “fragile” line firefighting staffing situation and, regardless of consolidation, should strive to add a 3rd full-time firefighter to the engine every day to staff this unit more effectively and at a level comparable to its neighboring fire departments. (Pg. 15)
Presently, Carmel contracts with Pacific Grove for chief officer assistance...However, Pacific Grove does not really have the appropriately sized fire management staff to continue this arrangement in the long-term. (Pg. 18)
Carmel has clearly recognized that it cannot provide even the minimally necessary range of headquarter staff functions...and has contracted with the City of Pacific Grove..There is clear recognition that neither operationally nor with appropriate cost effectiveness can Carmel maintain its own fire headquarters function basically from now on. (Pg. 20)
5.2 BINDING ARBITRATION
Without meet and confer with all three employee groups to determine consolidated wages, hours and working conditions and without a final CALPERS Actuarial Study to determine which city or a new Joint Powers Authority (JPA) would be fiscally the best to become the consolidated employer, it cannot be determined at this point if Binding Arbitration may or may not be an issue for consolidation. There are several possibilities: the combined firefighters and/or management personnel may choose to no longer need it; the two other partner cities in this consolidation effort could agree to leave it in place if Monterey were to become the consolidated employer; or if Monterey was not to become the consolidated employer, then binding arbitration would not have to be included in a new labor relations agreement. (Pg. 33)
...we noted that with or without consolidation, Carmel needs to have 3 career firefighters assigned daily to the to the engine company rather than the present 2 in order to have an effective fire and EMS presence at the scene of an emergency. While this represents an added cost of $400,000 per year to the City of Carmel, this added staffing need would be there regardless of whether Carmel operated its own fire department or merged line operations with Monterey and Pacific Grove. (Pg. 35)
...what is important is that the cities have recognized that neither Carmel nor Pacific Grove can continue to provide cost-effective stand-alone headquarters supervision and incident command for their fire departments at their present headquarters staffing levels...The fiscal, legal and operational changes in the fire service make small departments so longer viable in providing fully effective emergency services. (Pg. 42)
Source: CITYGATE ASSOCIATES LLC
FIRE DEPARTMENT CONSOLIDATION FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS FOR THE CITIES OF MONTEREY, PACIFIC GROVE & CARMEL
Final Report
June 12, 2007
2 comments:
People tell me Karen Sharp’s father was a firefighter. I am extremely disappointed in her not taking a leadership role on the council and supporting the Carmel Firefighters and the consolidation of the three departments. Her comments to the Herald read like memorized, rote talking points. Her remark about only 7 in 1243 fire calls are significant fires, etc. shows how ignorant she is on firefighting statistics and their meaning as the Carmel firefighter points out. She implies Carmel should have more significant fires. I guess she is unfamiliar with one duty of a fire department, prevention. In an ideal world, she would feel ashamed of her comments and lack of leadership on this life and death issue.
What is really astonishing is the fact that after the fire engineer spoke to the public at a past council meeting and the Carmel firefighters sent out their mailer, the usual suspects of Sue, Ken, Karen & Rich are still giving us the same discredited lines. So they are dismissing the professional judgment of the firefighters, relying on their ignorant, ill-informed opinions and have the gall to say they stand for preserving a high quality of service. It is truly beyond belief!
Post a Comment