Barry Allen’s Comments in the 04-13-08 Vanguard Weekly News Regarding Deputy Fire Chief Steve Howard’s 04-07-08 Presentation to the Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council

Fire Department

Deputy Fire Chief Steve Howard spoke at the GHCC monthly meeting. His comments pretty well disparaged people from volunteering, “You only get what you pay for,” he said. For example: Montrose Search and Rescue and the thousands of volunteer firefighters that work throughout this great nation. He was unsure of the very successful Glendale Police Department volunteer programs. The City of Glendale Fire Department trains volunteers for the CERT program at a cost of $1000 each. Yet there are those who are older and can‟t move walls or because Arthritis prevented them from using fire extinguishers and Asthmatics can‟t handle smoke or dust. There is no screening program for CERT candidates. I ask, are these the volunteers of whom he spoke? In response to a question of how to cut costs, Howard indicated that it is up to the community to decide on how much „risk management‟ we want. Chief Howard was a bit more candid about how often there are only three instead of four people on an engine. When asked about grocery shopping with a fire truck, he indicated that they were probably on the way back from a run. 180 fire department personnel scoop up almost $26,000,000 in salaries including 16 hours of sleeping and leisure time per shift that doesn‟t include benefits. The public would like an answer to these unasked questions:

1. According to the presentation to the City Council at a special meeting it was stated that no firefighters are available in administration to staff a strike team. My count shows there are 15 firefighters available. Why share a false statement?

2. Why are the shifts 24 hours and we have to pay for 16 hours of sleep and leisure time?

3. The top paid firefighter was paid $250,000 last year. How much did that cost taxpayers for benefits such as health insurance, pension and other perks?

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4. Firefighters working a 40 hour shift get an 11-14% shift bonus for working a normal shift. What happens to that when they pull a 24-hour shift (most people get paid extra to work odd hours while these guys get paid extra to work a regular 9-5 workday, 5 days per week? Is that bonus to compensate for not sleeping)?

5. Based on the data showing 12,000 calls for medical services, mostly in the daytime (9-5) why isn‟t the staffing set up based on empirical data captured by the GFD?

6. Why are the top managers in the GFD firefighters instead of trained management? At the Tuesday Council meeting Dr. Espiritu questioned the use of grant money to the PD and FD. The PD knew how every penny was being spent and the FD indicated they would spend money on program development. CM Yousefian asked if that was software development. „No‟, was the answer. The real answer is P A Y R O L L

The Head of HR and Community services in the GFD, Bat Chief Don Wright supervises four staff and serves 232 employees and was paid $214,000 in 2007. Matt Doyle, City HR Director with responsibility for 2500 city workers was paid $153,000.

Deputy Chief Steve Howard is not willing to accept the responsibility or accountability for providing improper soils reports for 3600 N Verdugo Rd and instead wants to transfer blame to Vanguardians for coming to the aid of health stricken community members.

Following the City Council meeting, Chief Howard engaged Vanguardians Executive Director, Barry Allen, in a discussion about „scaring the people in Montrose‟ with health information. Howard insisted the soils report was not the culprit. In his diatribe he never once asked about the victims. The fact that his department accepted a soils report for an address of 1400 N Verdugo, a dairy, instead of a gas station at 3600 N Verdugo was unimportant according to Howard, who as a Deputy Fire Chief no longer gets overtime pay. Howard was unable to respond to the fact that the soil removal went to 40 feet while the tests were only to 18 feet. He also didn‟t respond to the issue that his staff suggested to one of the victims to „enjoy his life‟ rather than bring up acute illness. Before Chief Howard dumped on Barry Allen he should have checked with the affected community. Had he, he would have realized that they made 8 attempts to get the City to alleviate the dust issue (dust blowing from the excavation) for the 40 foot pit. Maybe it is time for the GFD to accept the fact that they, too, must be accountable and that the public is no longer watching in awe. The Glendale Professional Fire Department needs PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT now!