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Morale, Pay Issues Driving Firefighters to Neighboring Departments
Union president says firefighter-paramedic exodus putting a strain on an already overworked department, and more are on their way out

By Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer

COMPTON – In search of higher pay and opportunities to advance, at least five employees recently left the city’s embattled fire department, according to the firefighters union president and confirmed by the interim chief.

Local 2216 President Kalima Golden, the union’s former vice president, said he knows of at least four others who are in the process of securing positions with other departments, himself included. Three of those individuals rumored to be leaving are among a group of firefighters hired just a few months ago, he said.

Golden took the reins of the union when former President Vernon Creswell left in April to take a job with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

In addition to Creswell, a captain who had 14 years under his belt with the Compton Fire Department (CFD), firefighter-paramedics Nick Ewing, Nicole Olsen and Eric Lampkin and ambulance operator Michael Francis have secured positions with other area fire departments, Golden said.

Ewing, Olsen and Lampkin had all been with CFD for four years, and Francis had just been hired last year, Golden said. Ewing and Olsen took jobs with the Pasadena Fire Department and Lampkin and Francis went to the city of Los Angeles Fire Department.

Interim Chief Jon Thompson, who has headed the department since former Chief Rico Smith was promoted to the position of assistant city manager last year, said other fire departments are facing the same issue.

“The larger departments are swallowing up a lot of employees from the smaller departments,” Thompson said.

But Golden said it has more to do with low pay and CFD’s having gone nearly five years without a contract until one was finally inked in late December, which he says put a serious strain on morale.

“Most of the guys are leaving because of the pay and the (lack of) opportunity for advancement,” he said.

For instance, he said a fire captain’s salary with CFD starts at $6,500 a month. Captains with the county department make $10,200 a month.

“What it really boils down to is that the city does not offer any longevity (pay),” he said. “You have some guys who have been on the department for 30 years who are making less than some people who have been here only four or five years because there’s no type of longevity salary gap.”

Golden said the department recently promoted a number of employees to captain and engineer positions, employees whom he said are among the department’s younger members, meaning they could hold onto the positions for much longer than an employee who already has 20 or more years on the department and will soon be up for retirement. That means new hires or those who also wish to eventually promote to higher positions would likely not get the chance to do so for quite some time.

“All of those people (who are leaving) are young, and it’s because you have no chance for promotion,” Golden explained. They want to establish themselves in departments where there is opportunity for promotion, he said.

Additionally, he said the city has still not paid firefighters the retroactive educational and incentive pay they are due as per the new contract, which was signed over six months ago. Those firefighters who qualified for and earned the specialty pay are due between $5,000 and $15,000 per person, Golden estimated.

City Manager Charles Evans did not return a call for comment on the matter.

The city, Golden says, continues to come up with excuses for not paying. “This has been going on since December. They (recently) told us the second pay period of the month. That was last Thursday,” he said Tuesday, May 27. “And I just got a couple phone calls today” informing him that the payments would not be made during the next round of paychecks.
“Those are the things that make guys want to leave,” Golden said.

Firefighter Shon Halverson said the city owes him $9,000, and after the city’s move to spend $1 million on a police department study last month, he and a number of firefighters are more than a little irked.

“That’s money that’s sitting in the city’s bank account accruing interest,” he said, estimating that the city is making thousands of dollars in interest with the money that is owed to many members of the department.

Another hi-ranking department official who declined to go on record said that the city owes him roughly $18,000.

Paramedic Shortage
Four of the five CFD employees who left were certified paramedics. This has left the department in a somewhat precarious position, according to Golden. In addition to the four paramedics who left, three other certified paramedics are out on work-related injuries, which Golden said is hindering the department’s ability to provide adequate emergency services to the community.

Interim Chief Thompson said he does not believe the lack of paramedics is causing any problems because others are working overtime to fill vacant spots. Several members of the department are currently training for certification, and two of last week’s graduating recruits are paramedic-certified, he added.

But Golden said the community is at a disadvantage because the shortage is on top of the ongoing hospital crisis, the flames of which continue to be fanned by the August 2007 shuttering of emergency and trauma services at King-Harbor. Since then, local ambulances transporting patients to hospitals are often out of the city for hours at a time.

“There are some days we don’t have two paramedics on duty, and we have to fill it (the empty paramedic slot) with an EMT,” Golden said.

Each of the city’s ambulances is supposed to be manned with two paramedics, something that is a mandated by the county health department.

“The only time we are supposed to do that (substitute an EMT) is in an emergency situation. You’re supposed to contact the county and let them know, and you’re supposed to only do that for, I believe, no longer than 12 hours,” he said.

Capt. Ivan Verastegui, the department’s Emergency Medical Services coordinator, confirmed that this has happened but said that it has been done within the parameters of county requirements and that no rules have been broken in doing so.

Verastegui added that over the next several months, roughly nine members of the department are expected to earn paramedic certification.

But with the number of department personnel certified as paramedics currently down and captains and others having to work overtime to fill the open spots, Golden said the department has even had to shut down one of its paramedic units and have the ambulance operator ride on the engine when responding to a call, something that is not normal protocol.

One of the firefighter-paramedics out on leave for a work-related injury is Sultan Mohamed, who recently filed a lawsuit against the city and the department alleging widespread racial and religious discrimination and unfair labor practices in the form of civil service manipulations – qualified individuals being passed up for less-qualified individuals for promotions.

He believes more and more people are leaving the department because of poor management.

“Instead of putting people who are educated and qualified for a (an upper management) position, they give it away to people for political reasons, and we’re suffering the consequences of it,” Mohamed said.

“When the head of the department only has a high school degree – that’s a problem,” he said in reference to former Fire Chief and Asst. City Manager Smith, who does not have a college degree.

To Smith’s credit, he is currently earning his B.A. through a partnership the city established with National University.

The department for the last several years has been plagued by claims of infighting and unfair labor practices, and since Smith left his post as chief, a number of employees are working in interim positions above their own to fill vacant spots.