SJ Firefighter Union Makes New Safety Claim

The San Jose firefighters union claims that city officials were  not upfront with the public about the impact of a reduction in resources  caused by budget cuts.
   
 The union played an audio recording at a news conference in San  Jose Tuesday in which Geoff Cady, a fire department deputy director,  discusses a meeting he had with San Jose City Manager Debra Figone and city  spokesman Tom Manheim.
   
 The recording is of Cady addressing an audience at an educational  conference for police, fire and medical dispatch held in April in Orlando,  Florida.
     
Cady discusses fire spread confinement, stating that when fire  extends beyond the room of origin, there is likely an eight- to 10-fold  increase in loss of life and property. He says that he relayed this  information to Figone and Manheim.
     
"And the city's public information officer was sitting there and  he gasped," Cady said. "And he said, 'well, the public will never accept  that, and this is, you can't, you can't say that.'"
     
At another point during the hour-long speech, Cady states that a  modeling software used by the fire department predicts a three percent  reduction in performance, with the response time objective of eight minutes  at 80 percent of the time dropping to 78 percent, which is below the city's  adopted standard. He said that this would result in some districts  experiencing a 20-point reduction in performance.
   
 "This is a fairly significant reduction in performance in some of  these districts," he said. "And as you can well imagine the council members  that are responsible for those districts are having some serious heartache  over this."
     
Robert Sapien, a 10-year veteran of the fire department, said that  although stations 33 and 30 are most vulnerable, on a busy day any station  could be vulnerable from a reduction in resources.
     
"In effect, the public trust has been violated," he said. "These  are real life and death decisions and need to be shared with the public."
     
Last week the San Jose firefighters union overwhelmingly rejected  a proposal by the city that would have allowed 49 recently laid-off  firefighters to be rehired, calling the offer unfair.
     
More than 600 firefighters participated in the vote and about 88  percent voted against the city's proposal, which asks for an 8.9 percent cut  in total compensation that would amount to a 14 percent pay cut.
     
After the vote, San Jose Firefighters Local 230 Vice President  Jeff Welch said in a statement that Reed and the City Council are  "misspending millions" and prioritizing spending on "high-priced consultants  and a new fleet of cars" over public safety.
     
The city has said it was forced to lay off the firefighters after  negotiations between the city and union stalled and a proposal put forward by  the union failed to achieve the city's cost-cutting goals.
     
Local 230 President Randy Sekany said the layoffs, elimination of  five fire companies and closure of one station have depleted the department's  firefighting capacity.