Union blasts firefighter layoffs

Long Beach firefighters — and surfers — Bryan Jones, left, and Brian Olson, are among those protesting planned layoffs on Jan. 1.

Long Beach Professional Firefighters/Facebook

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, left, visited Long Beach two years ago to announce a federal grant that allowed the city to rehire five firefighters. Among them was Michael Seemann, center, with his wife and daughter after a press conference in 2012.

Long Beach Professional Firefighters/Facebook

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The head of the union representing the city’s career firefighters criticized the coming layoffs of five members, saying that he received reassurances from the city that the positions were safe — at least through the end of the current fiscal year.

Last week, the city informed the union that it will lay off five firefighters on Jan. 1, after a two-year, $910,530 federal grant that enabled the department to rehire members two years ago came to an end this month.

But Billy Piazza, president of the Long Beach Professional Firefighters Local 287, said that the union had asked the city about the status of the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response program grant, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and allowed the Fire Department to rehire five firefighters who were laid off in July 2012. The city claimed that the previous administration had not budgeted for those positions.

The $84.6 million budget approved in May for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, includes 30 positions in the Fire Department, with a total of $3.2 million in salaries, not including overtime.

With the city touting its third consecutive balanced budget with a slight tax reduction, along with salary increases for management employees and contractual raises for the Civil Service Employees Association and the Long Beach Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, Piazza and other union members said they believed that the positions were safe.

“We continually asked, 'What’s the deal with the grants?'” Piazza said. “We were told that the guys are in the budget. If there is a balanced budget … there has to be another area where you’re getting other revenue once that grant runs out. I’ve been told this is not a budget issue it’s an administrative issue, but when they tell me there is no revenue, then it clearly is a budget issue; the budget is not balanced. If there are 30 guys in the budget, why are they still in there?”

Some speculated that the layoffs are a move by the city to gain more concessions from the union, which has been without a contract for four years.