The Press Enterprise
HEMET, Calif. — Hemet City Council members confirmed Thursday, Sept. 27, that they want to explore the possibility of contracting fire service with Riverside County.
The decision could throw a wrench into negotiations with the union representing the city’s 45 firefighters, who had offered to give up a 5 percent pay raise scheduled to take effect in November to save the jobs of nine firefighters facing layoffs.
“We actually accepted their offer,” Mayor Robert Youssef said by phone Thursday, “and we are gong to look at other options for fire.”
Youssef and three other council members said that one of those options is to seek a contract offer from Cal Fire, which provides fire protection in San Jacinto and much of Riverside County’s unincorporated territory.
“We are not saying we are going to contract with Cal Fire,” emphasized Councilman Robert Epps. “I feel it is our fiduciary responsibility (to Hemet taxpayers) for us to look at other options.”
Epps said the council has instructed Interim City Manager Mark Orme to contact Cal Fire and determine the process for seeking a bid.
Orme said he did not expect to make a public announcement until late next week. Youssef said he expects the council to formalize its decision at a council meeting later this month.
Hemet Firefighters Association President Steve Sandefer said union representatives “were really caught off guard” when they were notified by the city’s labor lawyer. “We thought that this issue was put to rest a year ago.”
He said the city had obtained an informal $9.2 million bid in April 2011 from the Riverside County Fire Department/Cal Fire to provide fire service that was $500,000 larger than the department’s current annual budget.
Youssef said the biggest reason the council is looking at other options relates to “the level of service. We do not have paramedics on our trucks now and Cal Fire has paramedics. And there is the cost. There is an opportunity to save millions and put that money toward our Police Department.”
Sandefer conceded that the county’s 2011 bid would have provided paramedics.
Councilman Larry Smith said he doesn’t know if Cal Fire would provide a better deal than keeping the Hemet Fire Department, “but we won’t know unless we pursue it. Cal Fire may have a lot of things to offer our Fire Department simply does not have: paramedics and some economies of scale and things like that.”
The union’s offer, altering terms of a two-year labor contract that does not expire until Nov. 1, 2013, was aimed at saving nine positions in the Hemet Fire Department that were funded by a now-expired federal grant.
Smith said that accepting that offer and still looking at the possibility of disbanding the department are not related issues.
“There was never any discussions going on” about exploring a contract with Cal Fire. “The most important thing is to look for every efficiency that we possibly can to stop the bleeding financially in the city.”
Even with the firefighters giving up raises, Epps said, the city is more than $200,000 in the red.
“We are approaching 70 percent of the general fund (going) toward public safety,” he said. “Obviously, we need to keep safety a priority, but we can’t go broke paying for public safety.”
Sandefer said the union will focus on convincing the city and the public that “we are less expensive and able to provide the same level of service.”
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