Overtime cause for Santa Paula
firefighters’ lawsuit against city
March 18, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
With three full-time firefighters still out of work due to injuries they suffered in November when they responded to a chemical explosion and other staffing shortages the city is being sued by the union for not allowing overtime to backfill vacant shifts.
Jacob Kalinski of the Los Angeles-based Silver Hadden Silver & Levine filed a lawsuit against the city and several administrators on behalf of the Ventura County Professional Firefighters Association —which represents Santa Paula’s full-time fire personnel — in Ventura County Superior Court.
Santa Paula City Attorney John Cotti said the city was not served with the lawsuit until Friday, March 13.
“We are working on the response and we are evaluating the lawsuit,” the latter required before Cotti said he would be able to comment on the action.
The March 5 filling accuses the city of breach of contract for not using full-time fire captains, engineers and firefighters to backfill openings but rather relying on reserve firefighters hired temporarily that do not receive benefits.
The lawsuit — filed against City Manager Jaime Fontes, Human Resources Manager Lorena Alvarez and Fire Chief Rick Araiza — stemmed from a grievance filed last year centered on the city’s stated practice to use reserve firefighters instead of full-time fire for temporary openings.
That practice said Kalinski goes against the city’s employee contract with the firefighters represented by VCPFA; although the MOU was supposed to end December 31 the firefighters and city had reached an impasse in negotiations and all former terms and conditions remain in effect.
Not only is the SPFD supposed to temporarily fill open positions with full-time firefighters but also only fill positions with those already acting in the capacity of the opening, such as a captain covering for a captain, an engineer filling in for an engineer and a full-time firefighter filling in for a full-time firefighter.
The city does regularly use one reserve per shift to create a four-man engine company.
The filing notes that Alvarez had sent a memo to Araiza and Asst. Chief Dustin Lazenby September 30, 2014 noting that staff shortages would be covered by reserves to minimize overtime costs per “past practice” and at the same time started backfilling full-time vacancies.
The next month VCPFA filed a grievance with the city, which was denied and appealed to Fontes, who in December upheld the decision of his staff denying the grievance.
In between, on November 18, was the explosion at Santa Clara Waste Water where three firefighters were injured; they remain off duty and are undergoing treatment for respiratory problems caused by exposure to never determined toxins.
The following month Fontes, said Kalinski, “Validated his own order,” to deny the grievance and the lawsuit was filed to void his decision as well as to end the practice of using reserves for backfilling.
Using professional firefighters matched position-to-position to cover vacancies “was a bargaining agreement the city has to abide by,” but more importantly said Kalinski, is community safety. By backfilling open positions with reserves, “The city is doing a disservice to the citizens of Santa Paula … ”
