Jim Ek Fire Captain Candidate for San Miguel Fire Board Oct. 25, 2014 I am sharing some of my responses to an East County Magazine questionnaire. My position as a candidate has been misrepresented by an opponent and the CAL-Fire Firefighters Union. I hope that sharing this question-answer format helps to clarify why I am running for the San Miguel Fire Board. Please study the issues carefully before making your vote. Our neighborhoods deserve the best quality fire/EMS service possible for your hard earned tax dollars. What are your qualifications/bio highlights? As a San Diego native, my wife and I have called East County our home for over 30 years. We have raised three daughters and just recently became grandparents. I have enjoyed a 31 year career as a firefighter, engineer and a captain with the Lemon Grove Fire Department. In that time I have developed leadership skills as a training captain and safety equipment officer, and have sat on many department committees through the years. I’ve dedicated my career to providing the best public safety service to the citizens of my city as well as the surrounding jurisdictions we serve. This includes not only keeping my skills sharp, but making sure the firefighters on my engine are competent in all facets of the dynamic fire and EMS world. With my three decades of fire service experience, I have first hand knowledge of what comprises quality fire and EMS service. With experience, fresh perspective and dedication to the cause, I know I can bring about the positive change on the San Miguel Fire District Board needed to better serve the community. Why are you running? My opponents have falsely stated that I am running for the sole purpose of securing salary raises and increased benefits for San Miguel firefighters. This could not be further from the truth, was never stated and is in no way my motivation. Yes, I am supported by San Miguel firefighters because they know first hand the decrease in the quality of fire service to the neighborhood that I call home. In the past two years, I have observed a decline in the fire and EMS service delivered to the citizens of the San Miguel Fire District. I work in a neighboring fire department and have had many opportunities to experience this as an automatic aid responser. I understand that San Miguel Fire District, like all districts and cities in the county, experienced difficult financial times during the recession. I feel that the board allowed spending to stay the same or even increase, while revenues were declining. San Miguel Fire District is the only district in the county that was forced to contract out for service. Some examples of their unnecessary spending include one million dollars of district funds as well as $650,000 of grant funds spent on a new training facility that is now just a large unusable concrete slab. Furthermore, this facility would require an additional 2.5 million dollars to complete for usage. There was also a poorly managed maintenance facility that has cost the district funds to correct. Wasteful spending also included benefits to the board members. They enjoyed full medical and dental insurance for themselves and their families. Some took cash in lieu of insurance from their full time employer because of this benefit. This benefit cost the district over $100,000 annually. Each board member also received an annual wellness physical costing $1000 per member. These are a few of the benefits the board members enjoyed in addition to the $175 - $195 stipend received for attending a meeting. The board kept a Public Information Officer on staff while other like-sized departments utilized chief officers to fill that position. At that time, San Miguel had one of the highest, if not the highest paid Fire Chief in the county. These were just a few of the areas that the San Miguel Fire Board chose to spend our tax dollars while on while cutting core fire and EMS services during recessionary times. In the years leading up to the contract in 2013, the firefighters, those on the front lines that actually provide the service to the district, took a 22% decrease in pay and benefits. In addition, since becoming CalFire employees, firefighters are required to work 28% more to earn the same salary they were earning before the contract (from a 56 hour to a 72 hour work week). Now you can see why so many valuable, experienced firefighters have fled the district since the contract. If elected, I will work to improve service by bringing focus back to the basic fundamentals that build a strong fire department. These include hiring quality firefighter/paramedics, providing comprehensive training to those individuals, keeping our firefighters in this district for their whole career, and building strong leaders within our ranks to take the department into the future. After all, firefighters on the engines responding to all 911 calls is the primary focus of a local fire department. What do you view as the biggest issue(s) facing the district and how do you propose to address them? Lack of local control, a comprehensive training program, and firefighter retention, as well as over worked firefighters, are just a few issues that need attention. CalFire is a fine organization, but I feel their main mission and expertise is in the wild land or rural firefighting area, not in the urban setting. In San Diego County, CalFire lacks the personnel to effectively staff engine and truck companies and adequately respond to the wide variety of emergencies within the San Miguel District. I don’t place blame on the current firefighters for the shortcomings we are experiencing as a community, as they are operating within the policies and guidelines of the CalFire system. If elected I would like to work with CalFire to address and rectify the issues I’ve talked about here. If those changes aren’t able to be made, we may need to look at other options for fire and EMS service for the San Miguel citizens. Of course, this would be dictated by the financial stability of the district. How has the new agreement with CalFire worked so far? Are there things you would like to change?If there are, what would these be? I don’t feel that the contract has benefited the citizens of the district. We have lost our local control. We no longer hire our own firefighters. The testing and promotional practices are not in line with other departments in the county. This is all now handled by the state of CA. Firefighters who are not experienced in the urban setting, not familiar with the district and not trained on our equipment, are working on our San Miguel apparatus. Firefighter/paramedics from outside the county, who lack the San Diego EMS protocol certification, are brought here to fill in for the shortage of firefighter/paramedics. This shortage is the result of the exodus of 7 San Miguel firefighter/paramedics to other departments in the county shortly after the contract went in to effect. Seven more firefighter/paramedics could be leaving within the next few months, further depleting the number of qualified personnel to fill those openings. Because of this deficit, firefighters are “forced back” to work excessive additional shifts. This leads to firefighters being on duty up to 6 or 7 straight 24 hour shifts. This creates stressed, overworked crews that can result in injuries, accidents, unsafe practices and lack of proper decision making, due to fatigue. Also, our 24 hour Battalion Chief coverage is not the same as prior to the contract. Battalion Chiefs are allowed to respond from home at night(even if they live in North County) instead of from a station located in the center of the district. This was not acceptable protocol before the contract. San Miguel no longer participates in joint training with neighboring agencies. Prior to the contract, San Miguel was an active member of Heartland Fire Training Authority. San Miguel still pays $79,000 a year to be a member, but it has rarely been utilized by engine companies in the past two years. These are just a few of the things that I would like to see rectified. Since suppression personnel are state employees, can personnel be transferred from the district to any other unit in the state? What are you views on this? It is my understanding that firefighters can put in for transfers. In fact, one San Miguel Captain transferred up to the Sierra Mountain area. Because of this option, we have lost some of our best firefighters, engineers, and captains. In conversation with many of the former San Miguel personnel that have transferred to other areas, the main impetus seemed to be avoiding “force backs”. Overall, transfers and loss of vital, talented personnel have resulted in less area familiarization in those that serve our local district. This impacts the effectiveness and speed of our emergency response service. Given that Fire Fighters have left for other departments, such as Chula Vista in 2013, how is the department replacing this personnel, and is the department replacing personnel? First of all, you cannot easily replace the experienced firefighter/paramedics that left the department. The 7 firefighter/paramedics that we lost were the future leaders of the San Miguel Fire District. Some had up to 12 years of service with San Miguel. Like I stated earlier, San Miguel could be losing 4 more of our best firefighters to neighboring agencies soon.This will lead to more “force backs.” San Miguel never experienced this issue prior to the contract. San Miguel was a sought after department for employment by firefighters throughout Southern California. Prior to the contract, San Miguel had only lost 3 firefighters to other departments in the last 25 years. All 3 moved to departments out of the state to be closer to family. Sadly for the citizens of this district, this is no longer the case. I’ve been told by a CalFire Chief that the state just can’t hire enough qualified firefighter/paramedics to fill the openings in San Miguel. Are your CERT, explorer and reserve programs working as they should? If not, what steps would you take to improve them? The Explorer and CERT programs are still in place. The Explorer Program is still run by a San Miguel Captain. I would like to see the firefighters more involved with the CERT program and in the community as a whole. We have lost community involvement. Firefighters transferring in and out of the district have no ownership or ties to the district. Sadly, the San Miguel Reserve Program was one of the casualties of the CalFire contract. The San Miguel Reserve Program was one of the best in San Diego County. There were always many more qualified applicants than positions available in the program. Many of the full time San Miguel firefighters started in the reserve program, gaining valuable training and experience. Again, this was another sought after, successful program run by San Miguel that has since been eliminated with the contract. Local control is a hot issue in the East County. What are your views on local control of the department? And would you consider leaving the contract with CalFire once the term of it concludes. Local control in very important to operating a quality, multi-faceted, highly trained, and motivated fire department. We are at the mercy of a large state run agency. If some of the local control issues like hiring, promoting, “force backs,” and training cannot be remedied, then leaving the contract is an option that may need to be considered. Who are your major endorsements? “The Citizens of San Miguel“ and retired East County Fire Chiefs, Jon Torchia and Tim Laff. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at [email protected]. Thank you for your time and support.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 05:03:33 +0000
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