CITY COUNCIL – Firefighters from Manhattan Beach and their supporters storm City Hall
by Mark McDermott Firefighters from the Manhattan Beach Fire Department and residents who support them in their standoff with the City Council flooded the City Council chambers Tuesday night, wearing bright red T-shirts emblazoned with “Keep Our MBFD Local,“ and pleading with the council to alter its stance in labor negotiations. More than 200 people filled the council chambers, overflowing outside into City Hall. Firefighter Rudy Meija, the Manhattan Beach Fire Association president, was the delegation’s first to speak. He said the City’s hard-line tactics seem destined to drive MBFD to L.A. County control, like other nearby fire departments. “We love this community and have tried to keep the level of service you deserve for so long, but we are losing the fight,” Meija said. “Council has turned their backs on us, so now we are here bringing awareness to the community and asking you to save your fire department. This is your fire department, and there’s a cancer in the fire department, the same cancer that happened in Gardena, Inglewood, Hawthorne, and Hermosa Beach. They lost their fire departments.” Meija, as well as most of the dozen, or so firefighters who followed him at the…
Read this story on easyreadernews.com