Federal grant funds 12 new firefighter positions at Calif. fire department

By Juliette Funes
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune

WEST COVINA, Calif. — A $3 million federal grant will allow the West Covina Fire Department next month to restaff 12 firefighter positions and reinstate a fire engine that was eliminated last year because of budget constraints.

At the same time, the grant will also allow West Covina to address rising pension costs by bringing in new hires under a second tier 3 percent at 55 retirement formula, an arrangement that the West Covina Firefighters' Association agreed to.

The City Council in a special meeting on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve the new staffing model agreement, with four fighterfighter/paramedic positions expected to be filled by Sept. 6 and eight firefighters coming into the department in October.

"I think this was a good working relationship between the city and the Firefighters' Association," Finance Director Tom Bachman said. "We both had some goals that we wanted to achieve and I think we were successful in doing that, and in turn bring back some upgraded staffing levels."

The $3 million FEMA Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant, a two-year grant that Fire Chief Paul Segalla applied for last year, will help the department cope with some of the casualties it has suffered because of the city's budget deficit.

The department's budget in 2010 was trimmed by $2.1 million, resulting in the loss of nine positions and elimination of a fire engine from Station 4 at 1815 S. Azusa Ave.

The overall savings was projected to be $1.95 million.

"The biggest and most visible thing is that there's not a fire engine in the Station 4 district," Segalla said, adding that the other four stations still have water pumping-capable engines. "There's not a water truck that can pump water in that district, so what we did was shifted our resources and put our ladder truck there."

The department's overall staffing level has also decreased in the past two years from 78 to 66, Segalla said.

"We're fortunate we didn't have to lay anyone off, but we did have to eliminate those positions," he said.

The city will now be guaranteed the 12 grant-funded positions for two years, with a third year to be funded by the city unless the financial hardship is too much to bear, City Manager Andrew Pasmant said.

The grant also gave the Association the opportunity to bring pension reform to the table, spokesman Cory Cisneros.

"That's a hot topic within the community and up and down the state and that's one reason why we wanted to do that," he said.

The new hire formula will allow a firefighter to retire at age 55 and receive 3 percent of their salary for every year they have worked. Current employees are under the 3 percent at 50 formula.

"It's a benefit to the city, a benefit to the tax payer and since it's such a hotbed item, we wanted to get on board with it with the new hires and institute change," Cisneros said. "We hope we can continue with this pension reform above and beyond the grant."

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