Contract Talks With Firefighters Stall on 2 Issues : Labor: Union official cites merit pay and promotions as trouble spots. County says only that negotiations are continuing.

Contract negotiations between Ventura County firefighters and county personnel officials have bogged down over issues of merit pay and promotions, a firefighters’ union official said Tuesday.

The 378-member Ventura County Professional Firefighters Assn. has been working without a contract since July 2, but it is nowhere near reaching an agreement with the county, said union President Kenneth Maffei.

“The county doesn’t seem to be willing to make any type of concessions on their original proposal,” Maffei said. “We’ve offered to structure some type of a compromise on many of the issues, and they don’t seem to want to compromise at all.”

Edward L. McLean, the county’s assistant personnel director, said negotiations are continuing. But he declined to discuss details of the talks.

“It’s our policy as long as bargaining’s going on not to comment on what’s going on in it,” McLean said. “We are in negotiations with Fire. There have been meetings, and there is at least another meeting scheduled.”

Maffei said the union will not budge on the county’s demand that firefighters give up periodic 5% merit raises--even though the raises were deferred last year for more than half of all county employees in a budget-trimming move by the Board of Supervisors.

The firefighters were the only county employees who refused to accept the raise deferment at that time, McLean said.

The raises are usually given to new employees who successfully complete their first six months on the job, and every year to certain newer employees until they reach the top of their salary range, McLean explained.

“We told them we’ll take a 5% cut if all the county managers take a 5% cut,” Maffei said.

The two parties also disagree on a grievance policy: The union is clinging to a procedure the county wants to abolish, whereby the union can file a grievance on behalf of a group of employees, Maffei said. The firefighters’ union and the county also disagree about policies governing promotions and transfers of firefighters within the department, Maffei said.

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Transfers and promotions now are carried out based on proficiency exams, but the county wants the ability to transfer and promote firefighters at will, Maffei said.

But while the union has offered to give the county the freedom to make such transfers, the firefighters also want the county to drop its demand that candidates for such moves continue to take the exams, Maffei said.

“They want the ability to promote who they want to promote regardless of test scores,” Maffei said. “We made them the offer to promote whoever they want to, and said, ‘Let’s not go through the charade of giving an exam.’ ”

The union and the county are “at loggerheads” on this issue, he said.

“They’ve presented us with a proposal that is just totally out of the question . . . the unfettered right to transfer personnel station to station,” Maffei said. “We call it ‘freeway therapy’--you anger the chief and they’ll transfer you to the farthest station from your home.”

Maffei conceded that the county wants the freedom to make such transfers so it can put more skilled firefighters where they are needed.

He added: “We don’t have a problem if one person’s better than another. But let’s establish a criteria to determine who’s better.”

The county also wants the ability to temporarily replace sick or vacationing captains with less experienced firefighters, and to let some stations operate with crews of only three people per fire engine instead of two if someone calls in sick, Maffei said.

“It’s safe to say we weren’t willing to compromise on that issue,” he said. “We’ve asked them to explain why.”

But so far, negotiations have not touched on that issue, nor on the potentially thorny question of overtime, Maffei said.

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A county audit last year and a citizens review panel this year harshly criticized the department for letting firefighters collect overtime and sick pay in the same pay period.

County Fire Chief James E. Sewell said he and other department managers are working on a strategic plan to steer the department’s personnel, equipment and facilities issues for the next 10 to 20 years. He expects to hand the completed plan to the Board of Supervisors by Jan. 1, he said.

But Sewell declined to comment on the contract talks, saying only, “I don’t want to talk about specific issues, because I don’t want that to interfere with negotiations. I want to get the contract settled.”

County and union negotiators are to meet again Sept. 21, Maffei said.