Four L.B. firefighters receive layoff notices

After more than two months of looming layoffs and heated exchanges between the firefighters’ union and the city, four career firefighters received word last week that they were being let go, but were offered an opportunity to stay employed if they applied for newly created paramedic positions — at significantly lower salaries.

In December, the city announced that five career firefighters would be laid off on Jan. 1, after a nearly $1 million federal grant — the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, or SAFER, program grant — that funded the positions came to an end.

Although the grant expired on Dec. 1, the city said that it had instituted a month’s grace period, keeping the jobs available through the end of 2014. However, the Long Beach Professional Firefighters Local 287, the union representing the city’s career firefighters, and the city reached an agreement that temporarily avoided the layoffs through Feb. 15 as the union tried to save the jobs.

The Feb. 13 separation notices given to firefighters Dave Yolinsky, John Innella, Greg Kavazanjian, and Brian Olson — firefighter Alex Sharpe had already resigned to become a Nassau County police officer — were based on seniority.

“We always had some hope,” said Yolinsky, 29. “We were making some major strides at the negotiating table, but it seemed that the entire time, the city had their minds made up — it’s very apparent that they want to cut the number of people working for the Fire Department.”

Officials maintain that the previous administration had not budgeted for the positions when they hired five firefighters in 2011 — who were laid off in 2012 but rehired that year when the city was awarded the SAFER grant — and that it would cost the city an estimated $660,000 per year to maintain those jobs.

Union officials claim they were told last year that the positions were included in the budget and not in jeopardy, though city officials insist union leaders were aware the grant would expire and that the funding was measured from the time it was issued, in December 2012.

City makes an offer

The layoffs come as the city moves forward with a recommendation by the International City/County Management Association’s Center for Public Safety Management — a Washington, D.C.-based firm the city hired last year to conduct a review of its emergency services in the wake of the Long Beach Medical Center’s closure — that could potentially replace more than half the city’s career firefighters with civilian paramedics at significantly lower salaries. The ICMA report said that the Fire Department could operate more efficiently, and that its EMS services and organizational structure are “outdated.”

The city is looking to hire paramedics at a starting salary of $41,600, but said it has yet to determine how many will be hired.

City Manager Jack Schnirman said that the city encouraged the four men to apply for the job, saying that they would continue to be employed as firefighters if offered the position and until they receive paramedic certification. Career firefighters are all trained in advanced life support, either as critical-care emergency medical technicians or paramedics. Yolinsky, the only certified paramedic of the four, was immediately offered the job.

Schnirman said they would be required to accept the starting salaries for paramedics if they agreed to the offer, however, but would still receive their separation pay as firefighters.

“All four have been offered potential paramedic positions, and one can shift into it immediately,” Schnirman said. “The city offered the others to pay for their training in full that would be required for them. They would get the paramedic salary, but they would also get their payout on top of that, and for some that’s over $100,000.”

Though the men have until Feb. 20 to accept the offer, Yolinsky said he declined, and, as of Friday, the other three had not applied.

“I could have taken a job that would have been a scab job at less than half my current pay,” Yolinsky said. “They’re basically offering me the job to replace myself. If anything, we consider it a huge slap in the face. We’re applying to some fire department jobs up in Westchester [County], but obviously I don’t know yet; I’m still adjusting and accepting what’s happening.”