We are sending you this E-mail as you have requested to be notified concerning ValleyVote
See our Website and all the Updates are archived on our site.
This is a reminder that the Valley VOTE Board meeting is Monday Night, July l7th at Galpin Ford, in the Explorer Showroom Conference Room on the Second Floor. The public session for the public and media begins at 7:30pm. We look forward to seeing you there.
By Jordan Smith, Staff Writer
Struggling against a severe shortage of firefighters and paramedics that has forced daily closures of engine companies, Los Angeles fire officials blamed Mayor Richard Riordan and the City Council on Wednesday for cutting their budget in favor of hiring police. A budget shortfall in 1993 and Riordan's pledge to beef up Los Angeles police led the department to freeze hiring and eliminate a pool of reserve paramedics and firefighters, requiring overtime and rolling closures.
"Voters wanted more cops on the street, so that's where the money went," said David Fleming, president of the Board of Fire Commissioners. "We've got a lot of make-up to do and it'll probably take five years to fill in."
A Daily News story Wednesday outlined how shortages have forced the rolling closure of engine companies, paramedic units and fire stations, leaving parts of the city with less coverage. According to fire officials, the budget includes enough money for 51 new paramedics, but last week officials told the Daily News at least 150 were needed.
Paramedics and union officials said the public is at risk, although fire officials denied that. "This is not going to affect public safety. It is internal," said Daryl Arbuthnott, department community liaison officer.
Arbuthnott said vacancies will be filled and services expanded within the next two to three years. The goal, he said, is to staff all vehicles with at least one paramedic. "I'm not saying we wouldn't want more people," he said. "But we can't even fill the 51 vacancies we have; why would we ask for more?"
Gaps in staffing can be made up through overtime, Arbuthnott said. "We can fill these positions with assigned hire," he said. "Overtime is nothing. It is not a big deal. We can do an 80- to 100-hour workweek standing on our heads."
Last year, firefighters and paramedics worked $77 million in overtime -- one-quarter of the entire budget -- with some working 120 hours a week, officials said. Paramedics don't work continuously; their shifts include time between calls to eat and sleep.
Fleming said the department has suffered during budget deliberations because people don't realize it also handles emergency medical calls. "We've got to really start talking about the work we do: We are a medical emergency services department 'slash' fire department," he said.
Nearly 80 percent of the Fire Department's yearly emergency calls are for medical services.
Riordan spokesman Manuel Valencia said the mayor has been working to solve staffing problems and has included more money for the Fire Department over the past two years. "There is money for 270 recruits this year and we have some of the biggest classes we have had in six years," Valencia said. "But we also have confidence that no area of the city is being left unprotected."
Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, chairwoman of the council's Public Safety Committee, said the department has relied too long on overtime. "You use overtime to cut some of your overall costs in hiring new people and the workers like to earn some extra money. But you reach a point where you're stretched too thin," she said.
Councilwoman Laura Chick, former public safety chairwoman, said the rolling shortages of staffing at fire stations was inevitable. "I have argued for years that when we talk about a public safety program, we can't be talking only about the LAPD," Chick said. "What I'm afraid has happened is that we took from the LAFD to give to the Police Department and our fire service has declined."
The main problem with filling paramedic vacancies, officials agreed, is a 1992 rule that requires paramedics to also train as firefighters. It takes nearly two years for a paramedic to train and start working, officials said.
Ken Buzzell, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles, said filling the 51 vacancies would not alleviate the strain on the system. "They are being misleading. They have 51 vacancies on ambulances right now," he said. "But 150 is what they need to keep the machine working as it is and to reduce some of this overtime."
In fact, said Buzzell, if the department wanted to bring its resident-to-paramedic ratio down to the national average of 4,000-to-one, they would need to hire an additional 350 paramedics. Currently the LAFD's resident-to-paramedic ratio is 8,000-to-one.
By Jordan Smith, Staff Writer
Shortages of Los Angeles city firefighters and paramedics have become so bad the department daily closes fire stations across the city, the Daily News learned Tuesday.
Fire officials initially denied the closings have become routine and widespread. But on Tuesday, they acknowledged that the rolling closures are required almost daily in an effort to ensure fire and emergency medical coverage for all areas of the city. Paramedics and critics said the closures endanger lives and property.
"If we had a fire or a multicasualty incident and had that many companies out of service in the Valley, we'd be in trouble," said Ken Buzzell, president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City. "It is like musical chairs. If you move the chairs around enough, it looks like you have more chairs."
According to documents obtained by the Daily News, on Christmas day 1999, for example, the city's only two hazardous materials units and the only urban search-and-rescue team were closed. In addition, nine of the 35 San Fernando Valley engine companies were shut down, about a quarter of the Valley's fire-fighting resources, according to the Fire Department memorandum outlining daily closures.
Paramedics said the rolling closures are particularly severe in the Valley because of larger distances between fire stations and because the Valley has only about 30 paramedic units when fully staffed. [that's 1 paramedic per 30,000 for the valley when 1 per 4000 is a national average - that's only 13%. For the entire city including the valley its 1 per 8000]
But fire spokesman Capt. Steve Ruda said the closures are done in such a way that no section of the city is without coverage and public safety is preserved. Yet Ruda acknowledged that the department should have more paramedics and firefighters to do the job effectively. "Because of the balancing of manpower, you will have a resource there," Ruda said. "It's an administrative nightmare, and one day it'll be nice to have the resources to place. But right now, without those resources, we have to work a balance."
Because the department is short so many positions, closures have now become routine, fire officials said, with the biggest staffing shortages falling on weekends and holidays.
Last week, Capt. Bill Wells, a planning official, said the department's directive is to always keep all "resources up and running and in service." He said certain resources would be closed for training, but the department "routinely has all ambulances and engines staffed."
But fire officials said Tuesday that closures are routine. They said, however, that this alone does not put public safety at risk. Yet Dr. Brian Johnston, an emergency room physician, said the closures of stations increase response times when saving lives could jeopardize lives. "Two minutes can make a huge difference," said Johnston, board chairman of the Los Angeles County Medical Association. "You know I think they are trying to say it is unimportant, but it is. And it is within our power to fix it."
The closures depend on daily staffing levels and how many people the department can get to work overtime. Last year the department spent $77 million in overtime wages to keep the squad staffed -- nearly one-quarter of the department's $320 million budget.
The Los Angeles Fire Department has at least 117 vacancies for firefighters, which accounts for 12 percent of the force, and 150 paramedic vacancies, which accounts for nearly 25 percent of staffing. For this fiscal year, the department's budget includes enough money for only 80 more paramedics.
"It's a domino, everything is effected by these vacancies. At some point you get enough (mad) and overworked paramedics and you can see how the whole system is spinning around the drain," said Rob Linnell, president of the Los Angeles Paramedics Association.
Although the public may believe all fire stations always are staffed, that is not the case, which Buzzell said is misleading. "We're suffering from such staffing shortages that if we have two incidents at one time we'll be hard pressed to deal with them."
The shutting down of stations is coordinated with central dispatch, said Deputy Chief Dave Thompson, head of the Bureau of Emergency Services, to ensure that there are not huge gaps across the city that would make it more difficult for firefighters or paramedics to respond to calls.
"We make the (closure) determinations based on coverage with dispatch coordinators, so we can make sure that they city is still covered," he said. Additionally, Thompson said, there are daily closures due to ongoing staff trainings.
But critics said shutting down stations because of staffing shortages is a significant risk to public safety. "These closures go above and beyond staff trainings. The rigs are there, but there's nobody to staff them," Buzzell said.
In the 1998-1999 fiscal year, the last for which numbers are available, the department responded to a total of 305,936 emergency incidents. Of those calls, 241,217 were for emergency medical services, or 79 percent of emergency incidents that year. The remaining 64,719 were fire calls, or 21 percent of emergency incidents.
By Jordan Smith, Staff Writer
A critical shortage of Los Angeles fire paramedics has forced some to work 100-hour weeks, jeopardizing public safety, health experts and paramedics said Friday.
Fire department officials acknowledged Los Angeles has significantly fewer paramedics than needed for a city its size, but insisted shortages and overtime have not placed citizens at risk.
"Compared to other major cities, we do fall way short. The priorities of the city have to fall back to the Fire Department," said fire spokesman Capt. Steve Ruda. "The point we want to make is that the community should not be alarmed. "When you dial 911 you expect our response to be rapid and it is: We will be there," he said
Paramedics and critics question, however, whether paramedics can be relied upon to be alert after working so much overtime. "The fact that we have to do so much overtime to keep resources filled is really unsafe," said Robert Linnell, president of the Los Angeles Paramedic Association and a 26-year LAFD paramedic.
"And the department has no way to measure fatigue. There are no rules about not working and because there are so many vacancies the department looks the other way," he said. No one -- including fire and union officials and paramedics -- could identify an instance when someone was harmed as a result of a paramedic who was fatigued.
"There have been gross errors," said a paramedic, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. "How much of that goes on out there? Who knows, but it could cost someone a life, a family and a career."
Ruda said paramedics are not allowed to work if they are fatigued, but critics contend that does happen.
Health care experts said public safety is at risk. "When people actually doing the job are complaining of fatigue and saying this is a risk, those in charge need to be paying attention," said Dr. Brian Johnston, an emergency room physician at White Memorial Hospital and chairman of the board of the Los Angeles County Medical Association.
For the past few years the department has been unable to recruit enough paramedics because of budget constraints and now is scrambling to fill positions. The department is short 150 paramedics, or 25 percent of the department’s goal.
Hampering that effort, nearly one-third of the department’s 447 paramedics now are ready to retire, which means the department could be facing an additional 149 vacancies, Linnell said.
As compared with other cities, Los Angeles has too few paramedics for its population of about 3.8 million. The ratio of paramedics to residents is 8,000-to-1, twice the national average.
In contrast, Dallas, with a population of 1 million, has 400 paramedics, or one for every 2,500 residents.
Paramedics are supposed to work at least three 24-hour shifts, with a 24-hour break in between each shift. Because of the lack of staff, paramedics are asked to work four more "voluntary" 24-hour shifts each month for a total of 96 extra hours, Ruda said. Sometimes they are asked to work even more, and the department will allow paramedics to work up to 120 hours -- or five days -- in a row, Ruda said.
"It’s tough to be asked to do this, but this job we’ve taken is answering a great call and sometimes there is great suffering," he said. "Hopefully there will be some relief soon."
There are no laws regulating how many hours a paramedic may work. "That is determined by the hiring agencies," said Nancy Steiner, head of paramedic licensing for the California State Emergency Medical Services Authority, the agency that determines curriculum for paramedic schools and handles paramedic licensing.
But neither Johnston nor Linnell think that regulation is the way to solve the excessive work schedules paramedics face. Instead, Johnston said, the answer is simple. "I don’t think regulation is the answer," he said. "Hiring more paramedics is."
By Jordan Smith, Staff Writer
A shortage of 150 Los Angeles fire paramedics and 117 firefighters has jeopardized public safety and cost $77 million in overtime, officials said Wednesday.
Critics blame the shortage on Mayor Richard Riordan's 1992 campaign pledge to beef up the Los Angeles Police Department, which they said came at the expense of the city's Fire Department.
"We were basically told that we were not to hire anybody," said Capt. Bill Wells of the LAFD's planning department.
As a result, paramedics work an average of 80- to 100-hour weeks, which Wells said is dangerous. "They are constantly asked to work more and more overtime. It causes fatigue and makes them less sharp," Wells said. "They just wouldn't have to do it if we could fill the vacancies."
Critics said the practice is unnecessary. "It may be cheaper to work overtime than to hire new employees, but they've taken that to an absurd level," said Ken Buzzell, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City. "This system is virtually circling the drain. The system is going to collapse and people will be in trouble. I don't see doctors making many house calls."
"They work so much overtime, they get fatigued," he said. "In our business you get fatigued, you make mistakes and it costs people their lives." The shortage of paramedics accounts for 25 percent of acceptable staffing, and the number of firefighters is off by 12 percent, officials said.
The department's expenditure of overtime money has increased significantly each year since 1996 -- at least a $4 million increase a year -- up to the $77 million in 1999-2000, nearly one-quarter of the Fire Department's entire $320 million budget.
This year's budget carries $4 million for recruiting and training -- which could cover as many as 270 new positions. But critics said it will be hard to close the gaps in staffing, partially because of the time it takes to train for the jobs. "A few years of shortages takes more time to catch up," Wells said.
Basic firefighter training takes nine weeks, including 100 hours of basic emergency medical training. Paramedic training, which includes more than 1,000 hours of medical instruction, takes at least an additional 10 months to complete.
It has been difficult to find enough recruits because training takes so much extra time and the current shortages -- which officials expect will continue for the next few years -- require overtime hours. "Overtime has always been a part of the job, but not this much a part," Wells said.
Riordan's budget director, Steve Rubin, said the situation was more complicated than just taking money from firefighters and giving it to police. "There were just a number of inefficiencies in the departments," Rubin said. "The bottom line is there are vacancies, but we are aggressively trying to fill them."
He acknowledged that in the past six years less money was devoted to the Fire Department, but said the bigger obstacle to recruiting was a need for diversity. The department redesigned its recruiting and training operations beginning in 1996, which made it difficult to keep recruiting.
The Southern California American Civil Liberties Union sued the Fire Department over hiring practices in 1995. A study in 1994 found that the department was 96.7 percent male, 61.6 percent white, 22.9 percent Latino, 11.1 percent African-American and 4.1 percent Asian-American. "They had to revamp that whole process for gender and diversity issues to deal with," said Rubin. "That's when it became most cost- effective to use overtime; while they were revamping the program."
Council members are alarmed by the shortage. In 1992, the environment was one where citizens were more concerned with being mugged than with being burned, said Glenn Barr, spokesman for Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, chairwoman of the council's Public Safety Committee.
"Clearly there was a collective decision that the preponderance of the public safety eggs needed to go into LAPD's basket," he said. "It's been recognized that the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction."