CDF / CAL Fire Riverside County Volunteer Firefighters

Currently, the state bills the County of Riverside an administrative charge at the rate of 9.68 percent of the contract. Over the last six years, state administrative charges have increased from a low of $5.5 million in fiscal year 2002-2003 to a high of $12.5 million in fiscal year 2007-2008. For fiscal year 2009-2010 the administrative charges will increase to 11 percent. Fiscal Year State Administrative Increase ($) Increase (%) Administrative Charges ($) Charges (%) 07/08 12,474,646 2,378,673 23.56 10.65 06/07 10,095,973 1,957,257 9.92 24.05 05/06 8,138,716 959,736 13.32 9.10 04/05 7,181,980 888,393 14.12 9.50 03/04 705,769 6,293,686 12.63 10.18 02/03 5,587,818 11.13 ----- -----

For many years CDF employed standard staffing of a three-person crew consisting of an engineer with two firefighters, or a captain, an engineer, and a firefighter. Some county stations still use this standard; however, many stations have now implemented municipal staffing. Municipal staffing consists of a captain, engineer, and firefighter on duty at all times. The firefighter often times is also a paramedic. Note: captains, engineers and paramedics command a higher rate of pay. During a former fire chief's appointment, a judge ruled that employees may not be moved from their assigned station without going to arbitration. For example, if a paramedic engineer calls in sick, is in training, or on vacation, the position must still be filled. If another paramedic engineer is unable to be found, a firefighter paramedic may be assigned to the station to fill that position; however, this still leaves the need for an engineer. When this happens, there are now four employees assigned to a normal three-person shift. Above and beyond the mere addition of an extra member, frequently the replacements are on paid overtime. If a firefighter paramedic and an engineer who are both on overtime replace an engineer paramedic, the additional cost can be considerable. It has been reported that occasionally, there are even two captains and two engineers on an engine at the same time. This is not an anomaly, but happens to some degree every day at quite a substantial impact to the budget.

It has become a practice at some fire stations that CDF firefighters will hold back a second engine and call in paid staff on overtime instead of utilizing readily available volunteer firefighters. This intentional delay could possibly jeopardize the safety of the community if an emergency situation arises.

In May of 2004, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors implemented Policy C-33, mandatory background checks, for all new county employees as well as the volunteer firefighters; however, background checks are neither mandatory nor a requirement for CAL FIRE applicants. (See Attachment 1).

The word "volunteer" is defined as a person who enters any service of his/her own choice and serves without pay. However, volunteer firefighters can apply for compensation when they work a fire lasting over one hour and/or when they are requested to cover a fire station behind an incident to which CDF has responded.

The Riverside County Fire Chief estimates the cost of new county purchased personal protective equipment provided to career and volunteer firefighters is approximately $2,525. Investigation revealed that approximately 60 percent of newly hired volunteer firefighters were not issued new personal protective equipment. Frequently, the personal protective equipment actually received exhibited extensive wear and in some cases defective.

There appears to be a lack of inventory control to track unreturned county owned/purchased personal protective equipment. Investigation revealed that some or many CDF Firefighters have illegitimately acquired this personal protective equipment (turnouts) that were issued to former volunteer firefighters and left at the fire station. Pursuant to a Union Local 2881 website column "HUGE STEP FORWARD", amnesty is being offered to holders of these "silent second set of turnouts". (See Attachment 2)

For the past several years there has been an ongoing campaign by many CDF Local 2881 Board Members to convince the career firefighters that volunteer firefighters are not as well trained, and are plotting to replace them.* Much of this information has been posted on the CDF official web page that is linked to the Riverside County Fire Department website. This type of propaganda has lent itself to the creation of hostile work environments at some stations (See Attachments 3-6). As an example of the effectiveness of the campaign, when a CDF Captain at a county fire station was asked his opinion of the volunteer firefighters, he immediately became agitated and aggressive and emphatically stated that the volunteers "Suck" and should all be replaced by paid CDF firefighters.

It is common practice in many volunteer fire companies that volunteer firefighter auxiliaries, through fundraising ventures, raise money to purchase their own firefighting equipment. In some cases, volunteer firefighters discovered that this equipment was tampered with and/or had literally disappeared.

In April 2009, the Riverside County Fire Chief attempted to place a "hiring freeze" on volunteer firefighters to supposedly reduce costs to the Riverside County budget. However, pursuant to the Cooperative Reimbursement Agreement, the Riverside County Fire Chief "...directs and controls coordination with community volunteer fire organizations in order to integrate volunteer efforts with those of full-time personnel." California Health and Safety Code Section 14831 authorize the board of supervisors to regulate the formation and continued existence of volunteer fire companies. *Volunteer firefighters have a minimum of 15 weeks required training at the Volunteer Firefighters Academy. CDF/CAL FIRE and volunteer firefighter instructors conduct the Volunteer Firefighter Academy.