Well I see that Kyle Hayes did what everyone expected and hired Pete Shelton as the interim fire chief. This is simply nothing more than another attempt by the City Manager to harass the firefighters. Although it has been several months since Micky Bertrand announced his retirement. Kyle Hayes saw fit to not attempt to fill the position. I guess he has special plans for the interim chief (like continued efforts to demoralize the firefighters).
It appears that at some point in time the City of Beaumont worked with the Firefighters to come to an agreement following an arbitrator ruling in favor of a significant pay increase for the Firefighters.
From the September 29, 1983 Beaumont Enterprise
“City, firefighters tentatively settle
David Plesa
Staff writer
In an “outstanding display of cooperative effort,” the city and its firefighters reached a tentative agreement on a new two-year contract this week.
Members of Fire Fighters Local 399 voted Monday and Tuesday nights to accept the contract proposal, which calls for a slight wage increase and improvements in some benefits. City Council still must approve the agreement.
The contract proposal, which the two sides will begin putting down on paper today, includes a 3 percent wage increase effective in April in the first year and a clause to reopen wage negotiations in the second year.
“It was an outstanding display of cooperative effort on (the union’s) part” as well as by the city, City Manager Karl Nollenberger said Wednesday. “The union took an extremely responsible attitude.”
Benefits outlined in the contract proposal include increases in shift differential payments for firefighters who work a 40-hour week, the establishment of an insurance fund for retiring members and the creation of a task force to study firefighter job practices and functions.
A “sizable margin” of the 240-member union voted to accept the proposal Local 399 President Larry Keith said.
“In an overall review of the city’s financial condition and an overall review of the state of the economy and the needs of the citizens, we decided it would be better to cooperate with the city rather than arbitrate the issues,” Keith said.
Last month, a three-member arbitration panel awarded firefighters an 8 percent wage increase retroactive to the fiscal year beginning last Oct. 1. But the panel rebuffed a bid by the union to have the city pay health and dental insurance coverage for retired and disabled firefighters.
Local 399 members worked without a contract from last Sept. 30 until August, when the union and council approved the arbitration award. That contract expires Saturday.
The first year of the contract proposal includes an increase of 10 cents and 20 cents an hour shift differential pay for 40-hour firefighters working the evening and midnight shifts, respectively. In the second year, firefighters working evening and midnights will receive a second 10-cent and 20-cent increase for the evening and graveyard shifts, respectively.
The shift differentials under the contract that expires Saturday are 40 and 80 cents per hour.
The proposal also establishes an insurance benefit fund for union members who retire after April 1.
A task force will study manpower levels within the department, apprenticeship programs, including hiring and promotional practices, and job descriptions.”
Does anyone think that a cooperative agreement can be reached under the current City Manager and Council?
Excellent letters in the Readers Write section of the Enterprise on Thursday, December 28.
One person pointed out that the firefighter's union is asking the Beaumont City Council who is developing the fire protection plan for Beaumont. A member of the local media stated that someone from City Hall told them that there is a plan in the works for civilianizing the Fire Communications office, closing some fire stations, and staffing fire engines with four persons. The firefighter's union was wanting to know who was working on this plan because no one in the Beaumont Fire Department, from the Fire Chief down to the Fire Captains, had any knowledge of this plan. The bottom line is that it appears City Hall seems to want to run the Fire Department although none of them are qualified! How good for the citizens of Beaumont is this?
Another wrote about the Beaumont City Council giving themselves a standing ovation 10 years ago when they won an arbitration case against the firefighters. The person that wrote this said that the firefighters sucked it up and went on about their business. They compared this to the current situation with the City coming out on the losing end. In the current situation, rather than sucking it up like the firefighters did ten years ago, the City Administration is crying about it and continuing to appeal the arbitrators decision. What does this tell you about the current City of Beaumont leadership?
" I have to admint, we didn't have certified fire fighters handling dispatching . . . we had certified fire dispatchers. As a certified firefighter I have to say, I am trained to do, not to speak on the telephone. A certified dispatcher can be a great assett to the team."
Beaumont fire dispatchers are certified Fire and Ems dispatchers as well as being certified Firefighters and ECA/Emts. They are trained to talk on the phone and radio! So they are the best of both worlds. The people the city want to replace them with are at present NONE of those things. They aren't certified Fire dispatchers. They aren't certified Ems dispatchers. And they have NO experience in the Fire/ EMS fields. Now tell me how thats going to improve service.
....and in an effort to maintain that community trust you are going to do what you feel is in the best interest of the citizens.
If the City of Beaumont and the Firefighters had a history of trust between them it would not be difficult to evolve a fire department into the best possible one that works for the community. The problem that the Firefighters are faced with here is a long standing history of mistrust between the Firefighters and City Hall. The continuous efforts by the City to civilianize many positions may be appropriate in an attempt to reduce operating costs of the Fire Department. The problem is that the city has a long history of making promises that they do not keep. An example of this was by opening another fire station and not hiring additional personnel to staff it. In this particular instance, Fire Administration told them that they needed 12 additional personnel to staff this station and provide for relief for scheduled time off. The City Manager allowed for the addition of 6 personnel in one fiscal year and then took them back the following year. At the time this occured Fire Administration told them that if this was done it would cost the City an additional $400,000 in overtime to staff this station. The City said OK, I will give you $200,000 to do it with. This was not a realistic possibility and when the end of the fiscal year came around they wanted to scream about the $400,000 in overtime that was spent. This is only one example of the lack of trust between the Firefighters and City Hall. In this case City Hall did not trust the Firefighters (or in this case Fire Administration) to look out for the best interests of the City by giving them accurate estimates of the cost from the start. City Hall on the other hand stated that they understood that the costs would be $400,000 from the beginning, underfunded it, and when the final figures came in, were critical of Fire Administration for not being within budget. Remember, this is only one example.
With regard to the Communications Center, the Fire Department knows that they currently operate with two dedicated dispatchers per shift with an additional one or two supervisors in the office during the weekdays to assist with peaks in call volume. Although difficult at times, it is still a manageable operation. These persons are dedicated solely to receiving and managing requests for fire and EMS services in the City. They also handle after-hours callout of other City departments (street, traffic, animal control, etc.). The Fire Chief has the authority to enter this office at any time during a disaster operation, review what is going on throughout the City and make any adjustments necessary to meet the current needs of the citizenry. This is because the Fire Chief has direct line authority over the Fire Communications center.
A consolidated communications center will be staffed with persons that will be responsible for all public safety dispatching (fire, police, EMS) without regard to being dedicated to any particular function. I am not going to address the problems encountered in a consolidated facility because I have previously mentioned them in an earlier post. If you have a serious problem with trust of City Administration, how can you reasonably be expected turn over a critical operation like Fire Communications to another City department? As you will no longer have direct line authority over this operation, you will no longer be able to enter this office to monitor what is happening throughout the City or make modifications for the current problems faced by the City. As far as policy changes that need to be made or disciplinary action that needs to be taken you can forget about that.
I do not know what community the previous poster comes from but I am glad that your communications center works for you. Please believe that the Beaumont Fire Department staff realizes and understands the potential problems that can occur in Beaumont. Their best interests are directed toward the citizens of this community, not toward any conflict simply to prevent change. I appreciate those opinions expressed by others but with the long standing history of mistrust, the Fire Department cannot readily give in to the proposed changes coming from City Hall without many reassurances.
Hire an outsider? Mess up the perfect system you have?
I work in the fire service in another town, but enjoy reading the Beaumont news on-line and upon seeing this debate wanted to forward some information.
The department I work for believed in promotion rather than bringing new folks in for many years, which kept the department running the same. A new city manager and the next chief came from another city. Yes, there was change . . . but we have to remember that another name for change is improvement.
None of us work for a perfect department. A leader with insight and experience from different areas may know how to improve things . . . as the old saying goes, "if we aren't improving we are falling behind".
As for dispatching . . . there are to many versions of dispatch centers to say what problems will be created. When my city moved fire dispatchers to a central location, the only difference was location. Inside the 'Com Center' the dispatchers continue to handle the duties they formerly did with no interuption in services. I have to admint, we didn't have certified fire fighters handling dispatching . . . we had certified fire dispatchers. As a certified firefighter I have to say, I am trained to do, not to speak on the telephone. A certified dispatcher can be a great assett to the team.
Lastly, we must remember that there is more than one way to serve our community . . . the most important is maintaining community harmony and trust.
This attempt at control is the driver behind consolidation of the communication centers. In theory, by placing all of your communications personnel in one location, there is better internal communication. The reality is with a large communication center, due to the number of personnel required to dispatch all of the emergency services and the volume of calls, there is actually a reduced opportunity for internal communications. This reduction in communication ulitimately leads to delays in meeting the requests for emergency services from the public.
Fire departments across the country will tell you that when they lose their dedicated dispatch personnel to a city or county wide communication center, they lose some of their efficiency. This is associated with the differences in demand for law enforcement and fire service response. Due to the higher call volume of police dispatches, these personnel tend to become more proficient at handling requests for police service than for fire and EMS. Training ultimately has a tendency to be directed more toward the law enforcement side and fire and EMS dispatcher training becomes further displaced.
The Port Arthur Fire Department personnel will tell you that their efficiency was impacted when they lost their dispatchers to a consolidated facility. It is difficult to get a rapid response from the dispatchers due to the call volume for law enforcement. When their requests are received by the dispatchers, they usually must answer a police call before the requested fire department action can be taken.
Once established, with the rapid growth of fire toward the flashover stage (usually 4 to 8 minutes), the loss of 30 seconds hear and there from interruptions for police services can result in the loss of life and property that did not have to occur.
The same holds true for EMS services. The "Chain of Survival" says that if you cannot get a first responder, ie. a fire unit, on the scene of a cardiac arrest within 4 minutes of occurence, for every minute lost, there is approximately a loss of 15% chance of survivability.
Dedicated Fire Dispatchers are a critical component of operation of fire departments. In the case of the City of Beaumont, there is no difference. For the City Manager of Beaumont to state that there will be an increase in quality of service is not correct. If he was truly interested in improving the efficiency of the communications system, he would listen to what the management personnel of the Beaumont Fire Department are telling him. They are telling him not to move forward with this consolidation as it is going to impact the service provided to the citizens of Beaumont. He is not listening because his goal is control of the Fire Department.
In my opinion the ideal candidate for Fire Chief would be a member from inside the Beaumont Fire Department. The right candidate for the job can oftentimes mediate some of the differences between the Firefighters Union and City Hall. An insider understands the existing and potential problems better than anyone from outside the City of Beaumont. On the other hand if you wanted to continue the controversy and maintain to push in an effort to gain control over the department, then you would bring someone in from the outside.
The City of Beaumont attempted this at one time about 20 years ago by hiring a police chief from outside the department. This individual turned the Beaumont Police Department upside down and created controversy that still has some residual impact today. The City Manager, Assistant City Manager, and Police Chief that were at the forefront of this controversy are no longer employed by the City. I like to believe that the Police Department and the City Administration learned some hard lessons about bringing in outsiders when the organization has qualified individuals within the ranks.
You can rest assured that I feel confident in saying that the current Mayor, City Manager, and possibly some of the City Council have an agenda, with regard to the Fire Department, that cannot be publicized due to the controversy that would result. While I believe that the majority of the citizens of Beaumont suport both the Fire Department and Council, if the true agenda were to be released, the individuals responsible for developing and initiating it would rapidly fall from grace with the citizens.
Although there are those that accuse the members of the Fire Department of being greedy and attempting to strong arm the City of Beaumont, the Firefighters know the real impact to their efficiency that would result if City Administration obtained control. They have no consideration for the safety of the Firefighters or citizens, their only concern is control of the Fire Department so that they can run it in a manner that they see fit. Please keep in mind that these individuals are not firefighters and have no idea what they are doing.
Sounds like a good reason to me. Why would you want to bring in a new person with all of this conflict going on between the Firefighters and City Council? So either logic prevails or you are implying that Hayes has some kind of hidden agenda.
Kudos to Audwin Samuel for walking out yesterday.
Mayor Goodson is trying to be "nice guy" but at some point he is going to have to be a leader in this situation.
I saw in the Enterprise article on Micky Bertrand's retirement that Kyle Hayes wants to hire an interim chief from outside the fire department. His logic was that he wanted to wait until some of the conflict between the City and Firefighters was resolved. I would think that this action is going to create more controversy and makes absolutely no sense to me. Does anyone know the real reason?
