03-28-09, Letter by Former Fire Chief Milford Fonza that the Glendale News-Press Refused to Publish Regarding Criticism of Bruce Philpott by Former Glendale Fire Chief Richard Hinz

Like former Fire Chief Hinz, I have made a career as a California firefighter. I served in the fire service for 33 years before retiring as a chief. I can assure your readers that Philpott would never place the public or safety personnel in jeopardy to merely balance a city budget as Hinz implies. Philpott would, however, set cost-effective and prudent staffing levels to cut waste and overtime in any city run department, especially during these harsh economic times.

Mr. Hinz served this community well during his career, but he has confused some of his purported facts. He claims that Glendale’s Class I standing would be lost if the staffing plan of three firefighters was adopted. There are Class I fire departments in Los Angeles County that staff routinely with three. There are also several all-volunteer fire departments in the country that have the Class I rating. Glendale’s Class rating would not be “imperiled” as Mr. Hinz claims.

Hinz states that staffing with three on engine companies “ultimately could imperil the public and endanger our firefighters”. I wonder if the residents of the unincorporated area of La Crescenta and the city of La Canada feel “imperiled” because their fire engines are staffed with three?

Chief Hinz might recall the paper published by the Los Angeles Area Fire Chiefs (1997) that said with respect to overtime, firefighters “earn disproportionately large incomes, and become financially addicted”. The LA Chiefs offered staffing partially with reserves as a way to control overtime. One has to wonder why the Glendale Police Department saves millions of dollars each year with its police reserves while the fire department has no comparable program.

I just returned from a national fire chiefs’ association conference in Memphis where fire chiefs from major cities discussed methods of maintaining effective service delivery during this declining economic environment. Cities such as Austin, Texas, have decided to reduce engine company staffing from 4 to 3. The city of Atlanta elected to close fire stations and layoff firefighters. The US Fire Administrator indicated that he is noticing a large increase in the number of departments that are using reserves or increasing their numbers in proportion to their paid staff. Philpott is advocating a reserve component to control overtime costs.

To further support his four-person staffing model, Hinz claims that the State Office of Emergency Services (OES) requires a minimum of four firefighters on engine companies when responding to mutual aid. This is not accurate. OES requires a minimum of three person engine companies on mutual aid responses to major brush fires. It’s a moot issue anyway because the city maintains its normal staffing levels when mutual aid is enacted by calling in off-duty firefighters who take the reserve engines.

Hinz says that Philpott is “running a false campaign” because he has abandoned his fire staffing issue. If that were the only issue facing Glendale, Philpott would not have run for city council. His primary reason is the fact that the city has been spending well beyond its means for many years now and has compiled a staggering debt of more than $331,000,000. The fire staffing model Philpott presented would save about $8 million per year. This saving would amount to a small amount of savings that are needed to restore a truly balanced budget in all Government Fund Accounts and not just the General Fund.

Glendale has a fine fire department, and Mr. Hinz knows that Philpott has neither said nor written otherwise. While he may question policy, Philpott does not question the professionalism and commitment of Glendale firefighters. Former chief Hinz knows better than to say that people who have a heart attack may somehow not be around to write about it if Philpott is elected. This type of fear mongering is nothing new. It’s just that it usually comes from the voice of the union that often times sends emotionally charged self-serving messages such as, “If you don’t elect our endorsed candidates, there will be burning babies in the streets”.

Milford Fonza

Glendora, CA