Past Washington Paramedics, Firefighters Vent Frustrations

May 18—MOSES LAKE—Past Moses Lake city firefighter/paramedics shared frustrations with morale, respect and safety in letters written to the EMS Task Force. Two of the four letters were dated March 9 and 12 of this year. City Manager Joe Gavinski was fired March 24.

The former employees were asked why they left the department, explained Troy Hesse, of the city firefighters union. The question originally came up during a city council retreat when employee turnover in another city department was discussed.

Some turnover issues in that department included the newer generation of employees changing jobs infrequently and moving around a lot, Hesse said.

"As firefighters, we didn't think that was necessarily true of the people who had left (the fire department)," Hesse said.

He mentioned frustrations regarding respect or the evaluation of the department's services from city leaders.

The four letters were obtained by the Columbia Basin Herald through the state's Open Public Records Act. The writers' names were withheld to maintain their privacy.

One former firefighter/paramedic said the start of the ambulance service in Moses Lake "was an exciting time in the beginning."

"The city (Joe Gavinski) was in a contract dispute with the fire union. When a decision was to be made by the arbitrator, Joe sent a final proposal and a threat that there will be layoffs if we turned it down. We settled because the new paramedics that were just hired three months earlier didn't want to lose their job. This was the first of several threats made over the years during contract negotiations," he wrote in part.

The same employee wrote of concerns about having personnel provide out-of-town transports and then using off-duty personnel to come into work.

"This is a great way to burn your people out," the employee wrote. Then on the next trip no one comes in to back fill and now you're short staffed. Being short staffed now brings up safety issues to fire fighting or EMS call to the citizens. It was all about the money. People tend not to worry about safety when it's about the money."

A second former employee wrote most training attempts were interrupted with out-of-town transports.

"There were many days when we had six transports or more," he wrote. "When these occurred it pulled our staffing away from the city and taxpayers. The lack of focus on our community during these times was very worrisome for the line guys. Our complaints about the transports were much more than not wanting to take a trip out of town, but for the pure consideration of our community," the former employee wrote in part.

A third former employee also mentioned concerns about out-of-town transports and using two firefighters a day for that purpose. A total of seven firefighters are staffed per day.

"I could not work for the city when they value their profits over safety and refuse to have the vision or grow with current industry standards," he said.

In a separate April 6 email obtained by the Herald, a medic's mother-in-law asked Councilmember David Curnel about the status of her son-in-law's promotion. She also asked about her son-in-law's use of sick leave to care for his wife and newborn. She wrote she had never seen a city or employer that doesn't allow their employees to use sick leave for that purpose.

"We are aware of the situation," Curnel replied. "It will be dealt with in an appropriate manner. Mr. Gavinski is no longer city manager as of today."

Copyright 2015 - Columbia Basin Herald, Moses Lake, Wash.