Mayor Jeff Duclos released a statement accusing the police and firefighters’ associations of using “scare tactics” when they criticized the city last week for seeking to reduce employee health and retirement benefits.
“Public safety is, and will continue to be, the number one priority for the City Council,” Duclos said. “This council has never and will never compromise the safety of our community.”
Police and firefighter association leaders have said the 27 percent reduction in compensation the city wants would cripple the departments, which might necessitate the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department taking over.
“The City Council is committed to continuing to have local police and fire departments,” Duclos said. “The agreement it reaches with its associations will ensure the future of local police and fire services. It is regrettable that the associations’ leaders are resorting to scare tactics and attempting to politicize the negotiations with the untruthful claims that the city’s bargaining position is seeking to dismantle the police and fire departments. This misrepresentation must be addressed.”
Duclos, who read the statement at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, accused the police and fire associations of “using the media as a forum for bargaining” when they issued a statement of their own last week.
“Our goal is to inform the citizens of what’s going on,” said POA President Jaime Ramirez. “We’re not negotiating in public. We’re informing the citizens of what’s going on between the city and ourselves and what the possibilities are.”
Both the police and fire associations have sent a mailer with their position to residents. Association leaders said that the two tier retirement system put into place last year as part of budget reductions has decreased the quality of applicants at both departments. Further cuts would have a crippling effect, they said.
City leaders maintain they must get unfunded pension liabilities under control amid sky-rocketing retiree costs. Last year, an L.A. County civil grand jury said Hermosa Beach had $14 million in unfunded pension liabilities.
Duclos said association leaders are “mistaken to suggest that staffing changes in the Fire Department changed Hermosa Beach’s ability to respond to emergencies or increased its reliance on neighboring cities to assist with emergencies.”
Echoing a statement made last week by Fire Chief David Lantzer, Duclos said, “The City of Hermosa Beach and its neighboring cities have worked together for a number of years under a mutual aid agreement that ensures quick responses to all medical emergencies in the Beach Cities.”
Hermosa Beach Firefighter’s Association President Aaron Marks said the department’s staff is short 20 percent, with just five firefighter-paramedics on shift per day.
“This has an undeniable effect on our ability to appropriately respond to a basic house fire and we are unable to respond to multiple incidents at any one time, causing us to rely on the availability of our ‘auto-aid’ partners,” Marks said in an email. “Essentially, the City chooses to understaff the fire department based on the availability and the staffing of our auto-aid partners.”
Duclos said the City Council pledges to provide the necessary funding to protect public safety, preserve residents’ quality of life and safeguard the city’s resources.
“Collective bargaining is challenging in the economic climate in which all cities are operating, and it is understandable that employee associations would resist change,” Duclos said.
