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Dear Brothers and Sisters, Thank you for your efforts in our 3% at 55 Proposition “H” win! An election cannot be won without a tremendous amount of help from you and our friends. Here are some of the notables….Mayor Brown was there from the start, and the Mayor never backed down when our opponents attempted to start a slur campaign. The Mayor was there for us. Supervisor Tom Ammiano carried our language for the ballot to the Board and our friends on the Board approved the language unanimously. Thank you. Our brothers and sisters at the POA, under the leadership of President Chris Cunnie, Vice President Gary Delagnes, and Treasurer Jack Minkel, were true leaders. We were blessed to have such excellent partners to work with; the POA is lucky to have a team as dedicated to their members as those guys are. Our working relationship with the POA was great. We had many similar interests; Chris Cunnie’s dad was |
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| the famed commander at Station 2, and his 2 brothers Jim (SR Bulldog) and Mike (Mr. Novato) are in Local 798. Jack Minkel’s dad and grandfather were firefighters, with Jack Sr. (Duke) a well respected driver at Station 7. Last, but certainly not least, Gary Delagnes, who was smart enough to marry the daughter of retired firefighter Gary Tisma. Mr. Tisma helps Gary out with his home improvement projects. Gary, as we all know, is all thumbs.
Our campaign strategist was the great Eric Jaye who was always there with brilliant ideas. Our own Dan Dunnigan did the field operations for 798 and the POA. Dan hit a grand slam on this ballot measure. We won with his help and he and his wife had a wonderful baby girl 2 days before the election. We think Dan named his daughter Prop. H. Our co-workers, the H-1s and 2532 (who are represented by Local 790) have each donated what all of us Union guys and gals put in for Prop “H” to win - $125.00; and one non-union firefighter gave a substantial amount. Although the list is endless, we can also especially thank the following who did a fabulous job – Wayne “Magnet Man” Stewart, Dan “The Sign Man” Boreen, Christine (The Flag) Williams, Bill “Big Leo” Hanavan, Joe “The Telephone” Mazeau, Scott “A.C.” Peoples, Mark “The Walker” Groshong, Jim (Leaky) Lee, Tony (Pinky Ring) Rivera, Karen (Traveler) Kerr, Karen (The Tort) Heald, the Asian Firefighters came up with signs in Cantonese and distributed them in Chinatown and the Richmond, Chief Mario Treviño, our Fire Commission, and our own Chaplain of the SFFD, Father John Green, for his prayers and good thoughts. Our Retirees, Tony Sacco and Tim O’Brien, helped with endorsements, and Hank Smith, Dan Bonnici and Jim Castro, also retired firemen, walked with us on election morning at 5am just to make sure we got a livable pension. Hank Raney a friend to all, was there, just like he was for 28 years in the Firehouse everyday to help out. Hank would always ask “what can I do for you to win?” Our office staff, Sally Casazza and Barbara Ashfield never stopped. Joe Driscoll was there on election morning and via phone for the previous year. Thanks Joe. Thank you to the Union men and women who paid for this victory with hard work, their own dough-rey-me, and a great attitude. Civil Service Rules regarding promotional procedures are up and coming. We as a Union have made an offer of 5 Scores. The Civil Service Negotiations Team is stuck on banding. My feeling is that banding is not fair to the individual firefighter. He/she is put in a band with other brothers and sisters who did not match his/her score on the test. That’s what a test is about – to evaluate your job knowledge and give you a score on a list according to how well you did. Sounds simple. Apparently it’s not, because we’ve been at these negotiations with no resolution for 2+ years. On December 4, 2002, the Civil Service Negotiations Team declared impasse and advised us of their intention to proceed to have the Commission adopt the sliding band. We are prepared to go to court to protect your interests. We’ll brief you on future developments. Thank you again members of Local 798 for all your work on Proposition “H” that led us to victory. May you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. All for One and One for All. |
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