HUNTINGTON BEACH : Arbitration With Firefighters Delayed

Two arbitration hearings that had been scheduled this week between the city and its firefighters have been postponed at the request of union leaders.

Hearings with state arbitrator Louis Zigman had been planned for today and Tuesday but were called off because the union’s attorney has a scheduling conflict, said Curt Campbell, president of the Huntington Beach Firefighters Assn. The negotiations have been rescheduled for Sept. 7.

Campbell acknowledged that he had been hoping for a later date for the hearing to give the union more time to plead its case directly to City Council members, who have final word on contract settlements. Campbell said he hopes that a recent lobbying campaign in which firefighters have spoken at council meetings will persuade council members to intervene before the arbitration process runs its full course, which could take several more months.

“We don’t believe the council has heard our side of the story,” Campbell said Friday, noting that the union’s formal arguments are passed onto council members through city negotiators, as required under bargaining procedures.

A formal impasse in the year-old negotiations was declared last month, “so we would like now to speak to council members directly,” Campbell said. “We think we’re pretty close (to an agreement with the city), and we think if the council really knows where we are, it will make a difference.”

Union leaders have requested that they be allowed to make a formal presentation stating their case during the open session of the Aug. 19 council meeting, Campbell said. City administrators have not yet decided whether to grant that request.

In the meantime, both sides are preparing official arguments to present to Zigman. In an unusual move, city and union officials each will submit information and arguments for their case to the arbitrator before the hearing.

Following the hearing, Zigman has 30 days in which to submit his recommendation for settlement to the city’s personnel commission. Commission members will consider his report, then make their own recommendation to the City Council, probably sometime in late fall, officials said.

The union’s 144 members--including firefighters, captains, paramedics, dispatchers and fire engineers--have been working without a contract since last October. Union leaders have not threatened a strike to resolve the issue.

The city is offering union members a 19.5% increase over three years--the same raise approved this year for all other city employees--with additional bonuses for firefighters and fire engineers, who city officials agree are particularly underpaid.

Union leaders, who argue that their members are unfairly paid in comparison with other county firefighting agencies, are calling for a pay package that is 4% higher than the city’s offer. Firefighters in Huntington Beach, the county’s third largest city, now earn between $31,000 and $40,080 per year.