President's Message
As winds of uncertainty blow through the fire service: We need to band together
As we continue through the whirlwind of economic uncertainty and the tough times all of our association members are facing, please remember that eventually we will get through this and normal will probably be a new normal. I have personally experienced the stresses of potential transfer, position elimination and the uncertainty of where I will be working and under what conditions. One thing that I have observed is firefighter versus firefighter negative comments and infighting. It is unfortunate that we are placed into a position where there is unfairness and uncertainty and in some cases administrators have used these economic times to inject their personal opinions of ones worth.
One thing is certain, we all work together on the fire ground, and we need to work in that same spirit when it comes time for resource re-deployment, reductions, change, and in some cases, elimination. We need to continue to fight for what is right and make concessions when it makes sense. I am a firm believer that the fire service needs to present reasonable options to management and provide realistic revenue generating ideas to offset deficits, and then the fire service needs to make those options known to the public through every means possible and not reduce levels of service.
Many members working today have taken 5 to 20 percent in pay reductions, and more, through reduction in overtime and pension based pay and benefits. We will eventually recoup what we have lost. What amazes me is some agencies lack of desire to offset deficits through different billing models to recoup some of our costs that we have not billed for in the past. It seems easier to cut than to "think outside of the box". The lack of thinking outside of the box and receiving input from the field needs to stop. CSFA has tools to assist our local associations to get the word out to the public of what is really going on. To me, it is totally unfair to our citizens, clients, and constituents that we do not truly communicate what response times of greater than four minutes mean.
Why do we not publicize our fire and EMS outcome results and have full transparency to the public of the negative effects on the public that reductions cause? The public needs to know about what a great bargain the fire service is with all seven of its services that we provide. The 2011 CSFA Conference in Sacramento will focus on what more we can do to get our political and service messages out, how to effectively communicate and how to gather better public support to not reduce essential emergency services. I trust you, or someone from your department will make plans to attend.
Stay safe, with the increased rain this past year, Cal Fire is predicting a severe fire season. We all need to be around to fight a good fight and keep our families first.
Kevin R. Nida, President
California State Firefighters' Association