In an effort to keep Sunrise Fire Station open, Councilman Craig
Gartman is asking the fire union to temporarily decrease the number
of firefighters required to staff each engine.
In an effort to keep Sunrise Fire Station open, Councilman Craig Gartman is asking the fire union to temporarily decrease the number of firefighters required to staff each engine.
Gartman proposed opening negotiations with the Fire Fighters Local 2805 to lower staffing requirements at the city’s other two stations – Chestnut and Las Animas – on days when there are not enough firefighters to staff Sunrise. Several fellow council members support the idea, but firefighters are wary of making any concessions.
“I think this would be an interesting compromise that kind of has everyone winning,” said Gartman, who came up with the idea while reading a series of e-mails about the matter Friday.
The Gilroy Fire Department won a binding arbitration settlement against the city several years ago that required four firefighters per engine at all times at its Las Animas and Chestnut stations. Jim Buessing, secretary and treasurer of Local 2805, said the four-person-per-engine requirement adheres to a standard set by the National Fire Protection Association. Gilroy’s fire department lacks some of the resources of larger fire departments in the area that allow three firefighters per engine, he said.
Gilroy is one of only two cities in Santa Clara County that requires four firefighters per engine.
Starting this month, the city began closing the Sunrise Fire Station in northwest Gilroy on “brownout” days when the city does not have enough firefighters on duty to staff the Las Animas and Chestnut stations. Staffing shortages have resulted from layoffs and furlough days that the city approved late last year while shoring up a multi-million dollar budget deficit.
City officials say the brownouts have been implemented in accordance with an agreement with Local 2805 earlier this year, but union members say they merely acknowledged – not agreed to – the city’s decision.
Gartman expected an agreement with the union to be temporary – only long enough to resolve the immediate brownout problem. Still, he believes an agreement would need to last at least through 2010.
“We need to get through this economic crisis, which is the worst we’ve experienced since the Great Depression,” Gartman said. “Either we’re going to work together or else we’re going to have some major issues.”
Buessing said Local 2805 would need to see the specifics of a proposed agreement with the city before he could comment on it. It sounded as if the agreement would require further concessions of firefighters, so the city would need to persuade the union that such an agreement was better for its members and that they would be able to carry out their jobs as adequately as they do now, he said.
Still, he said members were open to hearing any new proposal.
“If the city wants to come to talk to us, we’re always open to meeting with the city,” he said.
Several council members have said that they have received lots of feedback regarding the fire station, particularly after union members began distributing fliers stating the Sunrise station was closing. On Monday, a few council members said they approved Gartman’s proposal to reopen talks.
When it came to negotiating the number of firefighters required per engine, the city had “been there, done that,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said.
Still, he approved of reopening negotiations over the staffing mandate.
Councilman Perry Woodward said he believed new talks with the fire union need to happen, and he believed Gartman was right on target.
“Frankly, I’m surprised that Local 2805 didn’t propose this earlier so we couldn’t avoid brownouts,” Woodward said.
Buessing maintained that current staffing agreements constitute a safety issue, and that the safety of firefighters translates into the safety of residents.
“This department is at its bottom,” he said. “It can’t go back any further.”
