Dispute between MBFD and the City Manager has residents asking questions.
Wasteful spending? Contracting to LA County? Mediation?
Dear Subscribers,
A few years ago, the conversation about contracting our MB Fire Department to LA County circulated in the community, and a clear message was sent to City Council that residents wanted to keep the MBFD local.
After experiencing the consequences of recent decisions made by LA County, namely the targeting of Bruce’s Beach by County Supervisor Janice Hahn, and the office of County DA George Gascon rejecting the City’s request to have our own City Prosecutor, it’s no surprise residents are greatly concerned about placing our life-saving fire and paramedic services under the authority of LA County.
We recently published a couple of letters about the dispute between the MBFD and their superior, City Manager Bruce Moe, and linked a statement by City Council which defends city management. Subsequently, many questions were raised.
If the dispute does not go to mediation for a resolution, how does City Council see this conflict end? Can the City Council liaisons to the Fire Department, Suzanne Hadley and Hildy Stern, bring Bruce Moe to accept the firefighter's offer of mediation? Could an unresolved dispute lead to the dissolution of local control over MBFD? If firefighters want to work less overtime, which would save taxpayer money, why hasn’t that been resolved? Is the cost of pensions a problem? Why 6 Fire Chiefs in 5 years?
Causing more resident concern for the future of local emergency services is the eroding communications between our city leaders and our firefighter/paramedics. In statements posted on the city website, City Council has publically accused MBFD of spreading misinformation about city management. The FD responded that City Council has been misinformed by city management as to the number of problems caused by poor management decisions.
Knowing this is a hot topic for our residents, we will continue to publish letters and information provided by MBFD and continue to link the statements by City Council posted on the MB City website for your review.
And as we did with Measure A, we will give residents a voice by publishing your letters, with permission of course. Send your letters and comments to: MBStrong2021@gmail.com. Names and other personal information are kept confidential unless the resident states otherwise.
~MBStrong
Dear MB Residents,
My name is Jim Muth. I retired from the Manhattan Beach Fire Department in December of 2019.
During my 34 years in the fire service, I had the honor to serve the Manhattan Beach Fire Department (MBFD) for over 24 years. Throughout my career with the MBFD, I served as a Firefighter/Paramedic, Fire Engineer/Paramedic, Captain/Paramedic, and served as Fire Marshal for two different terms.
The purpose of my letter is to inform you, Manhattan residents, of my concern about the cuts the City is proposing to your MB firefighters. After reviewing the City’s proposed changes, it is my opinion this would reduce the emergency services that the fire department currently provides to the citizens of Manhattan Beach.
Prior to coming to Manhattan Beach, I worked for the Alhambra Fire Department for 4 years and the Central Pierce Fire and Rescue outside of Seattle Washington for 6 years.
I chose the MBFD because they had a reputation for providing a very high level of customer service, invested in FD training, the pay and benefits were within the top third of the surrounding departments, and they saw the value in making it mandatory for all firefighters to be trained as paramedics.
It is for these reasons that the MBFD has been considered a destination fire department that attracted me and other career firefighters.
Working for a small fire department, I had the opportunities to do things that other firefighters would never be asked to do in their careers.
In my opinion, this increased the pride within the organization as we were asked to take on additional responsibilities, programs, and projects that other departments had full-time staff for, such as; Paramedic Coordinators, Training Officers, building new fire stations, purchasing/designing new fire apparatus, arson investigators, and water rescue specialists to name a few.
Without each firefighter stepping up to do additional duties and responsibilities (without additional compensation) the MBFD would not be a sustainable fire department. The MB firefighters are happy to do them because it brings them a sense of pride, meaning, and purpose in their profession.
Ultimately, this increases the service we provide to our community while reducing the costs that other departments need to accomplish the same tasks.
I still keep in contact with the many friends I have made throughout my career within the MBFD. I was saddened to hear that the relationship with the City Manager, City Council, and HR director has continued to worsen since my retirement.
Just this week one of the firefighters shared with me the City’s last best and final offer with regards to contract negotiations. I read the proposal from an unbiased retired point of view. Honestly, I was shocked! The concessions that the City is looking to impose on its firefighters are unprecedented.
They are not industry-standard, they don’t align with past practice, they don’t make good business sense, and they are far outside of the marketplace when compared to other surrounding cities.
Who is providing this information to the City Council? Why would City Council impose such changes to the fire department that would inevitably decrease customer service, reduce emergency service delivery, and negatively impact the mental health and wellness of your firefighters by reducing their earned leave time by almost 50%?
Why don’t the City’s leaders do a comparison analysis of our fire department with surrounding cities?
I can honestly say, without a doubt, that I would not have come to the MBFD with the proposed changes the City currently wants to make to its firefighters.
In my opinion, this will lead to an immediate recruitment and retention issue because it would put the MBFD so far behind the marketplace compared to other fire departments throughout the area.
While I was still working with the MBFD, the City completed its own internal study of the fire department. The study showed that the MBFD has fewer firefighters per resident than any fire department in the area (.26 firefighters per 1,000 residents) compared to the El Segundo FD of (1.16 firefighters per 1,000 residents).
Your firefighters are a great group of individuals that are proud to serve this community. They need support, a sense of stability, and a path to promotion from within the organization.
Since my retirement, the MBFD members have worked tirelessly throughout COVID and the global pandemic. They have been working without a contract, they have worked without the support of the City Manager, and they have worked with a rotating door of Fire Chiefs.
They have had six Fire Chiefs over the past five years. How can any organization create stability and leadership without a consistent leader at the top?
About the same time that I retired, the City negotiated a deal with the three Battalion Chiefs that are independent of the MB firefighters. The City offered them a 2% retroactive pay raise in exchange for cutting the total compensation of future Battalion Chiefs by 15%.
They took the deal, which now makes it a $1200 a month pay cut for an internal Fire Captain to promote to the position of Battalion Chief. Why would anyone promote into a position with more responsibility to make less?
After the agreement was made, all three Battalion Chiefs left the organization. This created 3 more vacancies that the firefighters were asked to fill using overtime.
I announced my retirement one year in advance. When I notified the City, which included the Fire Chief and the Human Resources department, the City Manager and HR Director should have filled the vacancy immediately to reduce costs.
Instead, it took the City 21 months to fill the vacancy, leading to over $300,000 in overtime costs that firefighters were forced to work, and now the City blames the firefighters for making too much money.
Firefighters only get paid overtime after 56 hours of regular work. If the City did its job and filled vacancies in a timely manner, this would reduce overtime dramatically and address the wasteful spending that the firefighters have been trying to explain for years.
In closing, it appears to me that the City Manager, Bruce Moe, has turned his back on his firefighters and continues to provide misleading information to the City Council.
The City walked away from the negotiating table, turned down mediation, and is looking to impose major changes that will affect service delivery to the citizens of Manhattan Beach.
These actions seem to be punitive.
Our fire department staffing is aligned with other fire departments within our area, yet the City continues to not hire staff in a timely manner, which creates additional hours, shifts, and overtime our firefighters are responsible to work.
The MBFD has been mismanaged for over five years.
Please support your Manhattan Beach Firefighters. Let’s continue to strive to make this fire department a sustainable and desirable place to work.
Respectfully submitted,
Jim Muth, Retired MBFD
What say you Manhattan Beach?
To learn more from the firefighters, watch the video by clicking here.
To read the Statement by City Council, click here.
Email us your letters and comments: MBStrong2021@gmail.com.
Information about running for public office in the November 8, 2022 election:
Residents who desire to serve our city in an elected position can contact the MB City Clerk’s office at mbvote@manhattanbeach.gov for more information.
OR call (310) 802-5056 Monday-Thursday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Friday 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
The dates to complete the forms are from July 18, 2022, to August 12, 2022.
Information can be found on the MB city website [HERE].
About MBStrong…
We are MB residents bringing common sense, not politics, to the conversation.
