The Peoria City Council voted 8-3 Tuesday to approve eliminating 22 firefighter and 16 police positions as part of a move to close a $6 million budget hole. The cuts don’t mean 22 firefighters will be laid off, said 1st District Councilwoman Denise Moore. Rather, she said, vacancies that were currently open would not be filled within the departments.
- PUB DATE: 11/14/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Peoria Journal Star

When Scott realized that his lakeside home in the wooded hills of Butte County was surrounded by fire, he knew he had only one way out: the water. He, his wife and their two young adult sons, along with two dogs and a cat, plunged into the chilly Concow Reservoir 20 miles east of Chico last Thursday as flames singed the giant tule reeds on shore behind them.
- PUB DATE: 11/14/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle

Hillsborough County firefighters just agreed to a new three-year contract, and part of that deal also calls for new random drug testing. For years, Hillsborough firefighters knew when it was coming. Every six months, there was a round of hundreds of drug tests that a small handful would likely prepare for by laying off drugs or alcohol long enough to pass the test.
- PUB DATE: 11/14/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTSP-TV 10 News

Mayor Sylvester Turner’s administration is moving forward with plans for hundreds of layoffs following last week’s voter approval of Prop B despite questions about whether jobs could be saved through renewed negotiations with the city’s firefighters union. The pay parity referendum, which passed decisively after a bitter campaign that pitted Turner and the city’s police union against Houston firefighters, adds an estimated $100 million a year to the $500 million annual budget of the Houston Fire Department to bring firefighter salaries in line with those paid to police of corresponding rank and seniority.
- PUB DATE: 11/14/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

Fairfield City Council rejected a fact finder’s recommendation on proposed wage increases for two years of the firefighter union’s three-year contract. The fact finder suggested the city pay members of the International Association of Firefighters Local 4010 a 2.5 percent increase in 2018 (retroactive to April 1) and 2019.
- PUB DATE: 11/14/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hamilton Journal-News