What got us here won't get us where we want to go...

1403 was once one of the most powerful unions around, and together our membership achieved so much over the decades.  In recent years, we've lost some of what made us special - what set us apart - and what gave us our collective strength.  

It's time we find our voice again, we unify toward common goals, calm the rhetoric, get reorganized and move decidedly forward once again. With a little bit of work together, we can once again move the fire service in South Florida forward and reclaim our storied reputation for innovation.

Firefighting and EMS are but two of the many essential services we have long provided in South Florida.  We were also once the model department for the integration of specialties such as HazMat, Dive Rescue, Technical Rescue & others.  Our collective abilities to provide a multitude of services - and earn added compensation for the provision of these services - is being stripped away from us.  This must stop.

Innovation must return & our members must once again be at the forefront of fire service innovation. We must define MDFR's guiding principles - moving away from fiscal austerity at the cost of service and toward preparedness and robust and life-saving responsiveness.

Our membership, because so many of us are nearer to the beginning of our careers than its end, have become confused on the issue of COLA.  COLAs are meant to adjust for changes in inflation of your earnings.  It is meant to ensure one thing - that your earnings automatically adjust with changes in the prices you pay.  COLA has NOTHING to do with raises.  It just controls for inflation.  If you go back to the early 1980's, 1403 members received a 24% COLA over 3 years.  Why?  Because the cost of living went up.  Since 2010, the costs for a 1403 member to live in South Florida has risen more than 21%.  COLA hasn't kept pace, totaling just 8%.  If you feel like you can't live like you used to, its because your money doesn't go as far anymore.  Concurrently, as our members struggle to keep up, MDFR's discretionary budget has more than doubled! Fire Rescue District collected taxes increased from $260 million in 2012 to a projected $400 million this year, lifting the operating budget from $356 million to over $573 million in 2019-2020.

Cost of Living Adjustments should be automatically tied to the Consumer Pricing Index.  Raises are another subject and one that we need to have a serious conversation about considering MDFR's budgetary growth.

Minimum manning matters.  First and foremost, when our members respond to  incidents, our greatest resource is each other.  When we "ride short," we are asking our members to work harder for the same pay and risk extraordinary consequences due to inadequate manning in one of the largest metropolises in the country, and to serve some of the highest density populations in the United States.  NFPA 1710  suggests minimum manning of 5 or 6 members per apparatus in areas where high hazard buildings exist; so while 3-4 members per apparatus is traditionally acceptable for MDFR and is a workable model, reductions to 2-3 is inviting injuries, accidents or worse.

Reasons for riding short of minimum manning requirements need to be curtailed & eventually become a rarity.

Our members have long unwittingly been forced to live & work in intermittently deplorable conditions for 12-24 hours at a time.  Saturated & moldy indoor conditions, roof leaks, diesel exhaust inside stations and more have become sadly the accepted norm.  What once was thought to be merely a nuisance, was recently realized to pose serious health hazards to our members.  Last year, Billy worked with NIOSH to bridge the knowledge gap between where we were and where we should be.  Many improvements were started as a consequence of these efforts, but they have been hung & lost momentum since last year.  Dissension within the Union has caused many issues; many of which will be removed should you elect Billy as President.

Station environmental health issues will be highlighted, monitored and taken to whatever necessary endpoint to protect our members from exposure to the horrid consequences of sick buildings.

Our members are tragically becoming the national poster children for cancer in the fire service.  It is inexplicable - it's borderline criminal! - that more is not being done to solve this issue by whatever means necessary.  As one Battalion Chief summarized  recently...we changed everything about how we managed EMS and now incur tens of millions of dollars annually to protect, prevent and test for communicable diseases after realizing that just 29 firefighters had contracted Hepatitis, yet we can't find a couple million dollars annually to reduce the highest recorded cancer rates in our members - and particularly our female members?

Billy will ensure that MDFR introduces  a gear exchange program that protects our members (and their families) from carcinogens within 18 months.  We will also greatly expand partnerships with University of Miami, other large metropolitan departments and IAFF locals, the Firefighter Cancer Initiative and other relevant interests.

Accreditation through CFAI (those stickers on our trucks!), ratings through ISO, compliance with NFPA guidelines and Dade County's Scorecard come with requirements for service.  These standards enhance our reputation within our communities, hold us to a minimally acceptable response standard and give us a yard stick to which we can measure MDFR efforts.  Wherever insufficiencies are noted, we will work to raise and surpass what is minimally required.  A quick example - the national standard for response to 90% of life threatening calls last quarter is 8 minutes or less...did you know that MDFR's average has been steadily creeping upward and hit 11 minutes and 48 seconds recently?!  What's the solution?  You already know it - more units, more members, more service.  Our budget grew from $360 million in 2012 to a projected budget of $574 million.  Over $200 million MORE in annual revenue and a few new units - 3 of which are paid by other county entities (ie R39).

We will work toward the realization of the many benefits not yet realized by MDFR's embrace of standards.

If you've gotten to this point in the "Dept Issues" tab, thank you for reading!  Questions can be texted 24/7 (seriously).  Those that known Billy best on the job know that he sleeps less than anyone they know.  This covers some, but not all of the issues related to departmental operations.  To continue reading about viewpoints on issues, click on the "Union Issues" tab.

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