OUTSIDE THE COMFORT ZONE
CEO
GREG DEVEREAUX
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Thanks to a team effort–the San Bernardino County Board of
Supervisors, county firefighters, fire administration and my
office all working together–County Fire is a much more stable
organization and a better place for firefighters today than it
was six years ago.
Prior to serving as the chief executive
officer for San Bernardino County, Greg
Devereaux worked in city government,
including as city manager for both
Fontana and Ontario. In his time
with the county, he has worked with
the county Board of Supervisors to
establish and implement a countywide vision statement, in addition to
numerous other initiatives aimed at
making county governance stable
and accountable. He is a member of
several academic institutional advisory
boards, and in 2014 received the
Southern California Association of
Governments President’s Award for
Public Service Leader of the Year.
When the board brought me into county government in
early 2010, County Fire and the people who work in the
agency were facing several difficult issues. There was a
disconnect between fire management and the firefighters,
which included a feeling by firefighters that management had
not honored commitments it had made; in fact, there were
bad feelings between the county and many, if not all, other
county labor organizations. Also, we were in the throes of the
Great Recession, which resulted in unfortunate but necessary
service reductions.
Not only were the region, state and nation enduring a
recession, but the county budget was in dire straits. The
county was operating under an $80 million deficit, and was
facing a shortfall of that same amount for the fiscal year that
was about to begin. Further, a five-year forecast revealed
hundreds of millions of dollars in compounding deficits
ahead.
The economic realities of the time made it clear that County
Fire’s funding model was unsustainable and resulted in
uneven levels of service.
As one of my first orders of business six years ago, the
Board of Supervisors instructed me to work on repairing the
county’s relationship with our labor organizations. I developed
an early rapport with the firefighter’s union because you
clearly understood that the county’s first priorities had to be
weathering the recession, putting the fiscal house back in
order and creating a sustainable funding model for County
Fire. Without these things, immediate pay raises wouldn’t
matter in the long run.
I asked firefighters if they would be willing to establish a
standard of cooperation. We reached an agreement that
involved sacrifices. It was the first productive, common sense
agreement the cou nty had reached in years, and it served
as the model for agreements with all other county labor
organizations. I have not forgotten the leadership displayed,
and sacrifices made by, the county’s firefighters.
What I said then still applies. When we can afford to do more,
we will honor that sacrifice, and we will pay what we can. We
have given what we could afford in the last two contracts, and
we will do more in the future.
I have never said that our employees make too much money.
Quite the opposite is true. My long-standing philosophy has
been that if you want the best people, and if you want to
retain them, you have to compensate them at the top of the
market. What I have said is that, unfortunately, we have not
had the money to pay employees as much as they should be
paid and still maintain the service levels the public needs
and deserves–the level necessary to grow our economy so
that we can afford to pay more in the future.
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FIREWIRE • Winter 2016
Beyond that, the Board of Supervisors and I are also
committed to changing how the district is viewed in terms
of its relationship to, and place within, the rest of the county
government organization.
County Fire has to survive on the revenues it takes in, with
some supplemental funding from the general fund to address
particular needs. Despite the county’s financial condition, the
Board of Supervisors and I were concerned about the extreme
impacts on service being created by the drop in County Fire
revenue. We talked about looking at County Fire as a “county
fire department” rather than a separate entity. The board has
embraced this new paradigm, and has given $10 million of
general fund money to support the department and maintain
levels of service.
When it came time to hire a new chief, the board and I
wanted someone who was committed to creating the kind
of atmosphere that existed in Ontario when I served as city
manager there, where the city administration, department
management and union all worked together for the benefit of
the department. Further, we wanted a chief who would work
with the board and me to look for ways to create new revenue
sources that would provide more long-term revenue stability
for County Fire.
We found such a chief in Mark Hartwig. Those important
relationships are now much better, and we have explored
several ideas that would bring in additional revenue, such as
air ambulance service, ground transportation and requiring
jurisdictions that want County Fire service to annex to the
district instead of simply contracting with us.
Annexation is really starting to show benefits. As you know,
we annexed Crest Forest Fire, LAFCO recently approved the
annexation of the City of San Bernardino’s fire department,
and we are currently in the LAFCO process with Hesperia,
Twentynine Palms and Needles. Based on what we have
heard from other jurisdictions, I am convinced that if we
are able to complete these annexations, there will be more
cities that will follow in 2017 in the High Desert. Given the
significant increases occurring in PERS costs, there are
several more that will follow after that, perhaps even in the
Valley and potentially the West End.
Another testament to this new era of cooperation is the new
multi-year contract between the county and our firefighters.
That agreement was negotiated in record time and will result
in increased compensation for our firefighters in each of the
next few years.
All of the efforts and actions to ensure sustainability have
grown out of the new, close working relationship between the
Board of Supervisors, my office, the chief, fire management,
and firefighters. I look forward to continuing this relationship
and getting to the point where the district is more financially
sound, and even more competitive in the compensation we
provide.
ESCALATING THREAT
By John Chamberlin
It’s not a far stretch to think
that what is happening today is due
to the continuing deterioration of the
moral fabric of the country, and to our
continually changing laws that reduce punishments
for crimes, thus making them more acceptable
to commit. Coupling this with the never-ending
stream of active imaginations from those who wish
to do harm to others, it is extremely difficult to not
only predict, but to plan for the future.
Considering recent attacks and victimizations of fire service
personnel, you will see a very clear trend not only locally
but nationwide. Over the past several years, San Bernardino
County Fire personnel have been physically assaulted by
patients and bystanders. Personally, while still a captain I had
a small caliber handgun pulled on me by a disoriented person
in Joshua Tree. Our personnel are continually threatened both
physically and verbally by those we strive to serve.
Over the last few decades there has been a paradigm shift away
from the belief that fire and EMS personnel are fully separated
from our law enforcement counterparts. No longer are we
“hands off” from the public, victims, assailants or bystanders.
gear our personnel were recently assigned. This was no small
undertaking and required over 18 months of coordinated
effort to achieve.
Working with Division Chief Jon McLinn and Battalion Chief
Ron Walls, we started recruiting a team. We felt Local 935
had to be the “go-to” group. We collectively need buy-in from
935 members to wear the gear, but also to enter the separate
zones and integrate into the system with law enforcement to
make the system work.
Firefighter/Paramedic Spencer Brumbaugh was selected as
a project lead. He spent countless hours meeting with me and
designing the active response equipment that we have today.
Captain Dan Wooters helped develop a list of reputable 935
members who showed a passion and commitment for largescale training, such as during our Firefighter Survivability and
Rapid Intervention Crew rollout. Ultimately, we believe our
firefighters have been afforded state of the art protection, at
no small expense—as it should be.
Now let’s talk about where we are and where we are going.
Starting in 2010, I became interested in developing a
tactical medi cine program. This was not to be undertaken
lightly. Knowing that our personnel would be placed in harm’s
way by engaging tactically was trying at best and completely
unacceptable at worst. Yet we have always had a core group
within the department that wanted to do more.
The proposals and discussions were met with resistance
because many believe that “SWAT” medic responsibilities are
outside our mission. Eventually, I was referred to one of our
local partners, Rancho Cucamonga Fire District, which has
been working with an “active shooter” response protocol for
over 15 years—following the tragic shootings at Columbine
High School in Colorado. At the time, only Rancho and
Alexandria, Va., had such protocols. I was able to speak with
both their cadres to better understand the philosophy behind
their actions and roles. This led to the development of our
current policy.
By now, our firefighters have received the initial rollout of the
equipment and EMS-related training. This was just the first
phase of what I envision as a Tactical Medicine deployment.
The initial operations directive was fairly specific for several
reasons. First, we want everyone to become familiar with
the gear. Secondly, we felt it important that given certain
key indicators, we should develop muscle memory and
heightened situational awareness to our surroundings.
Training has already been developed in the form of an
additional operations directive and hands-on course. This
will be rolled out over the course of the next year, probably
starting in the later part of March 2016. It will be a work in
progress, and there will be trials and errors. I will not get into
specific tactical movements or models as this would be to
open our playbook to people outside who possibly could use
it against us. Attend the training—more than once if you can.
By researching various funding sources, none of which were
readily available to us, I was able to at least ballpark the
initial figures for purchasing appropriate equipment and
training. A presentation was made and support was given “in
concept” by both Local 935 and County Fire management
to move forward with development of a long-range plan and
purchase of necessary materials.
As you may know, during the San Bernardino terrorist event
of December 2 multiple improvised explosive devices were
planted as secondary traps meant to wound law enforcement,
fire and EMS responders. This tactic is designed to create
additional chaos and delay the response, ultimately resulting
in a greater loss of life.
Fire Chief Mark Hartwig partnered with San Bernardino
County Sheriff John McMahon and staff on the Department of
Homeland Security grants processes, ultimately securing the
funding that allowed us to purchase the ballistic protective
Every engine, squad and truck will be trained to the same
level. Our ambulance personnel will be afforded ballistic
protection as well in the coming months. Keep in mind that
the ambulance operator (AO) program did not exist at the
time of inception of our active shooter program. We have not
forgotten them.
We have multiple personnel attending advanced level tactical
medicine courses for train-the-trainer purposes, but also for
developing the program into what I envision will eventually
will be a full-blown support of a SWAT medic program. This
vision has the support of Deputy Chief of Operations Jim
Johnstone.
Our response procedures are also being evaluated. I will be
working from the CONFIRE side, and with our cooperators to
develop standard response criteria. We want to be proactive
in our measures and responses based on the information we
are receiving at the time.
Potential high target hazards will be developed and overlaid
on geographic locations, triggering an upgraded response
for any reported activity that will meet the response criteria.
A regional response plan needs to be developed and
coordinated as the next grant cycle captures the remaining
area departments that may not already have ballistic
protection available. As they procure the materials, we need
to be able to integrate seamlessly.
In addition, we are working aggressively with Arrowhead
Regional Medical Center to develop a forward operating
team deployable from a trauma center to assist in reducing
mortality on scene. This is still in conceptual form, but would
potentially allow for some of our paramedics to operate in
advanced skills in airway management and thoracic care
outside of the current limitations of their state and local
scopes.
Finally, the continued deployment of our personnel via
the County Fire and Sheriff Air Rescue program is a key
component of this endeavor. Our partnership with the SBSD,
Local 935 and their continued working relationship with the
San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors is paramount
in securing long term vision and safety to not only our
personnel, but the public at large.
In closing, several people have asked me what “escalating
threat” means. I would like for you all to take a moment
to evaluate that as a person and a crew. If you walk into a
known or unknown situation that already has a heightened
sense of stress, tension, stand off appearance, or anything
else that would seem out of the normal course of treatment
or response, then take a few seconds for a “tactical pause”
and look around to evaluate your needs. There is no harm
and we will never fault you for erring on the side of caution
for you or your personnel.
San Bernardino County Fire and the San Bernardino County
Professional Firefighters would like to thank the City of
Fontana for its support of this program. Thirty sets of ballistic
gear were purchased by the city and they have continued to
support this program since its inception.
Division 5 Chief John Chamberlin has been with County Fire
for 16 years. Besides his obvious passion for this project, his
leadership has been instrumental in negotiating annexations
with the water district in 29 Palms and the fire district in
Needles. John is qualified as a type 3 incident commander,
operations section chief and a type 2 safety officer. He is also
an avid recr eational shooter.
Winter 2016 • FIREWIRE
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