Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/02/2012 04:25:33 PM PST
Document: Ballot Title and Summary
San Bernardino City Professional Firefighters Local 891, the union representing 126 city firefighters, has introduced a ballot initiative proposing an elected fire chief.
In the last two years, 25 positions have been cut at the department and engine companies have dwindled from four-man crews to three-man crews, said Steve Brown, the union’s vice president.
While budget cuts factor into that scenario, union representatives say they are fed up with “politics as usual in San Bernardino.”
“Too often, the current administration at City Hall has injected politics into the management and operations of our Fire Department,” said union President Scott Moss in a statement Thursday.
An elected fire chief, Moss said, would remove the taint of politics from decisions affecting hiring, promotions and fire protection policies at the department.
A notice of intent to circulate a petition was filed with the city on Jan. 9, but the union has yet to begin gathering the roughly 12,000 signatures needed to get the initiative on the ballot, Brown said.
“We’re not even sure we’ll have our ducks in a row by November. It’s a work in progress right now,” Brown said.
The proposed charter amendment would establish an elected fire chief, to be elected at the 2014 general election, who would have complete autonomy in running the department, without interference by the mayor and city manager. In addition, the proposal requires the Fire Department to have an assistant fire chief and a chief of staff, appointed by the fire chief with the consent of the mayor and City Council.
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Elected Fire Chief? So the Fire Chief’s will be able to lie and promise everything in-order to get elected. Bad idea!
All Fire Depts should be Volunteer or Paid Call. Enough with these overpaid, $100K/year blue collar bums. That way CA will be just like 95% of the rest of the country. Get rid of these entitled, lazy, worthless union bums!