Sacramento – With the City Council’s approval of the proposal put forward by Sacramento City firefighters to save the city $10 million through reduced firefighter salaries, firefighters will now hold an expedited emergency vote of their membership to approve the deal this week.
The firefighter’s offer includes a 5% pay-cut for 30 months in exchange for maintaining current levels of public safety in fire protection for fiscal year 2009/2010. Firefighters have remained at the negotiating table to prevent the city’s threat to lay off 68 firefighters the day before the 4th of July.
“Firefighters are pleased to take this deal back to our membership in the hopes that we can continue to protect public safety, keep firehouses open and firefighters on the job,” said firefighter Chris Harvey. “We’re glad that the City Council accepted our last, best and final offer. As members of this community, we want to move on from this process and focus on doing what we do best – fighting fires and protecting neighborhoods”
The Sacramento Fire Department budget has been chronically underfunded for years. Most cities spend about two-thirds of the budget on public safety, while Sacramento spends just over 50%, and the consequences are devastating. Sacramento has about 40% more fires than similar-sized cities, and a fire death rate that exceeds the state average.
Because of the current budget cuts, neighborhood firehouses are being closed on a daily basis. Recently, two firefighters were injured in a neighborhood where the local firehouse was closed because it took them longer to respond to the crisis and the danger had escalated.
In an emergency, every second counts. That is why national medical and fire safety experts recommend an emergency response time of 5 minutes or less to save lives. But because of cuts to fire and emergency services already in place in Sacramento, response times in our city can be more than 8 minutes. These additional budget cuts would make response times even longer, putting more lives and property at risk.
Voting will take place tomorrow Thursday, July 2 and Friday, July 3 on the LOU's agreed upon by Local 522 and the City of Sacramento. The City Council accepted the offer at their special meeting this evening. Balloting will be held at the Training Tower on J Street in Classroom C and at Station 56 from 0900 - 1400. If you can assist Nominations & Chair Dave Stoner with the ballot count at 1400 at the Union Hall, please contact him at 916-761-8013.