My View: Firefighters making sacrifices, city compromising safety

By Conrad Frausto Special to The Bee Published: Monday, Jun. 15, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 13A

As a firefighter who received a pink slip from the city of Sacramento last week, I've got a lot at stake in the contract negotiations taking place between the city and firefighters.

I love my job – I don't want to lose it – but I've witnessed how city officials have ignored basic public safety concerns throughout this process. I'm proud to stand by my brothers and sisters to make our voices heard, despite the city's threats to lay us off.

The fact is we want to keep firehouses open, firefighters on the job and staffing levels adequate. Without those critical elements, public safety is put at risk.

When firehouses are shut down during the city's schedule of rotating closures, response times are delayed, property damage increases and people get hurt. A rotating closure is just that, meaning that every 10 days the fire engine in your neighborhood sits locked behind closed doors.

And when firefighter positions are cut and the number of firefighters sent to a scene is decreased, lives are at stake. When a crew of only three firefighters is sent to an emergency, firefighters often must wait for a second engine to arrive before they can safely fight the fire, losing precious time and making already dangerous situations even more treacherous.

We know what it takes to put out fires safely and protect lives, and we believe that shouldn't be jeopardized during budget negotiations. That's why last week, Sacramento city firefighters offered to absorb a 5 percent pay cut, freezing our salary for 2 1/2 years, if the city would've agreed not to lay off firefighters for the same length of time. This would have saved the city more than $10 million over the duration of the contract extension. Instead, firefighters will be voting this week on a new tentative agreement reached Friday with the city that doesn't include those assurances to keep firefighters on the job and firehouses open past this year.

We are all struggling in tough economic times right now, and understand that the city has grave financial challenges. That's why when negotiations began, firefighters were the first to come to the table offering to take a pay cut, despite being among the lowest paid in comparable cities across the state, making significantly less than our counterparts in Stockton and Fresno.

When the city signed the initial contract with firefighters, it was projecting a deficit that was $8 million worse than the deficit the city now faces.

Despite being in a better financial situation than they had anticipated, city officials are now playing politics with public safety.

Approximately 86 of the 168 pink slips that went out were to Fire Department rank and file. That means fire protection is absorbing 51.1 percent of all of the cuts the city of Sacramento is making.

We don't believe cutting public safety reflects the values or priorities of the people of Sacramento. Over the past 30 years, the city of Sacramento has seen significant reductions in fire protection. While the population has nearly doubled and calls for firefighter service have more than quadrupled, the number of city firetrucks and engines has decreased.

In 1977, there were 15,317 calls for service and 21 engines, and 10 trucks located within city limits. In 2008, there were 70,907 calls for service and only 19 engines and nine trucks stationed in the city.

As our city's population and needs continue to grow, these cuts jeopardize the safety and well-being of our citizens and families.

The fact is that Sacramento's firefighters want to move forward and focus on doing what we do best: protecting our neighborhoods and fighting fires.

http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/1946733.html