City imposes contract cuts on Fresno firefighters

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The new contract is not what Fresno City Firefighters wanted. In fact, on Wednesday they voted to reject the latest proposal.

Firefighter Christian Palmer told the city council the contract negotiations have been unfair, because Mayor Ashley Swearengin already made up her mind to cut their benefits.

"The mayor's budget is assuming 1.8, 1.6 million dollars in concessions from fire. How is that negotiating in good faith when we've already decided we're going to give... you are going to take 1.6 , 1.8 million dollars from us."

The administration has claimed the concessions from firefighters are needed to heal the budget. But Firefighters maintain the city has misspent money and made big budget mistakes. Council Member Lee Brand agreed, but said, it's not this administrations fault.

Brand explained, "They are true, in the past the city has made some bad financial decisions but you know you can't blame us for decisions that were made in 2002 or 1995."

To that Council member Sal Quintero responded, "You heard a comment earlier that you can't blame us for the poor decisions, but we can't blame you for getting in the hole either."

Quintero, and council member Blong Xiong were the only votes against imposing a contract on the firefighters. Council President Steve Brandau was for it but said he believed the council's action could be a fresh start.

Steve Brandau explained, "This vote is to kind of break that logjam and then that whole process can be started again."

The council action was a blow to the union, but firefighter's representative, Pete Flores said he's willing to keep talking.

Flores said, "I believe it's a close enough contract to go back to the table it's not something we are willing to walk away from just yet."

By imposing or forcing the terms of the city's offer on firefighters it means they have to pay more for health insurance and retirement, to the tune of close to $300.00 a month each

Mayor Ashley Swearengin says the cuts are needed to balance the city budget. But the cuts amount to less than $900 thousand a year.

Or about $73 thousand a month.