Firefighters: City has forsaken us

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

GALLUP — Members of the Gallup firefighters’ union held a news conference late Thursday afternoon to express their displeasure with Gallup’s mayor and city manager.

About two dozen members of Gallup Firefighters Association Local 4296 gathered at the Northside Fire Station and expressed the hope that citizens of Gallup will support their requests for slight pay increases — and let city officials literally hear that support — by driving past City Hall next week and honking their horns.

“Let the mayor and city manager know that you support your firefighters,” said Thomas Silva, president of the local union. Oct. 5-11 is National Fire Prevention Week, Silva said, but in Gallup it should be viewed as Firefighters Appreciation Week.

Low wages — and a perceived lack of appreciation by city officials — was at the heart of the firefighters’ complaints. Union members pointed out that Gallup’s starting pay for entry level firefighters is just $8.24 an hour. One firefighter in attendance pointed out that’s less than $1 over minimum wage, and Silva said that’s also just 23 cents an hour more than the pay rate 10 years ago.

“Gallup is clearly at the bottom,” Silva said, referring to a chart comparing entry level wages for firefighters around the state. According to the chart, the cities of Hobbs and Los Alamos were at the top of the pay scale with wages of $13.44 and $13.43.

Veteran firefighters don’t fare any better, members said. Domnick Riffle, vice president of the local union, said he has worked for 16 years and only makes $12 per hour. Silva said most Gallup firefighters have second and third jobs to support their families.

Firefighters also claimed Mayor Harry Mendoza and City Manager Gerry Herrera have been unresponsive to the union’s concerns. Mendoza offered support to union members while he was campaigning for mayor, Silva said, and promised to renegotiate the firefighters’ contract when elected. When that didn’t happen, Silva said, he talked to Mendoza. The mayor’s response, Silva said, was union members didn’t put their arms around him and endorse Mendoza.

Once Herrera was appointed city manager, Silva said, Mendoza passed the issue onto him. Although Herrera expressed initial support for the firefighters’ situation, Silva said, nothing has been done. Silva said union officials pursued a series of meetings with Herrera, beginning in August 2007, and each time Herrera promised to “crunch the numbers” with city official Judi Starkovich and get back with the firefighters.

According to Silva, during their last meeting in September, Herrera said the city was too busy dealing with the Gallup Police Department’s wages to deal with the firefighters. “They carry a gun and they get shot at,” Silva reported Herrera as saying.

“This didn’t sit well with me,” Silva said. “The city manager hasn’t educated himself on what the Gallup Fire Department does on a daily basis,” he added. Silva said firefighters are not trying to discredit police efforts to improve their pay. However, he said, in addition to risking their lives responding to fires, firefighters respond to calls along with the police, citing calls involving train and trailer-tractor hazardous materials spills, auto accidents, violent situations, and suicides.

According to the firefighters, their primary requests to the city focus on the pay incentives that are offered for advanced training certification and the payment for local firefighter instruction. Currently, union members said, the city will only pay a trained firefighter for two incentives at 40 cents an hour each. So if a firefighter has been trained and qualifies for four incentives, he only gets paid for two. In addition, local instructors save the city money by training in-house, but the instructors and their students devote many off-duty hours on training without extra pay.

Once local firefighters do receive advanced training, Silva said, many of them leave Gallup for higher paying positions elsewhere. Commenting on a recent news story that reported the Gallup Fire Department was at 90 percent staffing, Silva said over one-third of the firefighters were still on probationary status and two-thirds had less than five years experience. That left the department “very young” and lacking in experience, he said.

Silva said he believes Gallup citizens want trained and experienced firefighters responding to emergency calls, rather than individuals who were just looking for a job. He encouraged citizens to express their views to city officials prior to the firefighters’ contract becoming open for negotiations in June 2009.

The city manager was contacted for comment after the union’s news conference concluded. “We’ve been trying to accommodate them and others standing in line,” Herrera said, but he admitted priority has been given to the Gallup Police because their contract comes up in February.
The issue of losing trained recruits is also a serious problem for the police department, Herrera explained, with the city spending upward of $44,000 to train a new police officer combined with some cadets leaving for other law enforcement agencies even before serving with the Gallup Police Department.

As for Gallup firefighters, the current wage level was set by the previous administration, Herrera said, and current city officials aren’t dismissing the firefighters’ concerns.
— Reporter Kevin Killough contributed to this report.