Sorrento Fire<\/a> and a looming budget vote.<\/p>\nThe San Diego City Firefighters Union, IAFF Local 145, showed up in a wave of red at Monday\u2019s City Council meeting, making its plea for better pay.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not even asking to be at the top. Just please make us competitive,\u201d said Mark Morrison, a fire captain and vice president of IAFF Local 145.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of the members of council have helped us with prior contract negotiations, but we are now descending back into the status quo, where we are at the bottom again, and we just had to essentially say enough is enough,\u201d Morrison said.<\/p>\n
Holding a sign to illustrate the more than $20,000 gap between starting wages in Los Angeles and here at home, union leadership highlighted how difficult it has been to recruit and retain staff, especially in-demand firefighter-paramedics.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf L.A. increases by 3% every year, we would have to increase by 6% every year to catch them in 10 years. It is daunting, but why shouldn\u2019t we set that goal?\u201d Councilmember Raul Campillo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re probably out there right now actually saving us in Sorrento Valley,\u201d Councilmember Marni von Wilpert said.<\/p>\n
The timing of the presentation, as crews actively battled a fire, underscored the importance of investing in public safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that we have members on the front lines preventing damage to life and property, all while simultaneously we are in council chambers advocating on their behalf, on everyone\u2019s behalf,\u201d Morrison said.<\/p>\n
Council members took in the information, wrestling with how to accomplish an increase in pay during ongoing contract negotiations. Separately, a City Council budget vote is expected Tuesday that includes cutting three fire positions and impacts to the bomb squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody is struggling right now because our city, unfortunately, did not pass the sales tax increase,\u201d Von Wilpert said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that we actually have to show we\u2019re working toward, and that\u2019s something I am very challenged with in the city. As you are all expressing today, I think we share the same frustrations, which is that we don\u2019t have a strategy right now of how we\u2019re going to get there,\u201d said Council President Pro Tem Kent Lee.<\/p>\n
As contract negotiations continue, only time will tell.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when we will find out if there\u2019s been any kind of a tone shift, whether or not they want to truly address these issues that have plagued us for the better part of 30 years,\u201d Morrison said.<\/p>\n
Contract negotiations have a July 1 deadline. Usually, they would have been completed by now. Firefighters share some concern, but they are staying hopeful to see where they land with the city.<\/p>\n
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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO (FOX 5\/KUSI) \u2014\u00a0Many city worker unions make annual presentations to the San Diego City Council to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1610,4041,144087,74,13134,144088,76,75,16983],"class_list":["post-352868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-city-council","tag-contract-negotiations","tag-mark-morrison","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-city-council","tag-san-diego-city-firefighters-union","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sorrento-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}