CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / GOVERNOR : 3 Firefighter Organizations Endorse Wilson

Gov. Pete Wilson helped kick off California Fire Prevention Week at the Burbank Fire Training Center on Wednesday, thanking firefighters for their hard work and pledging to crack down on “sick thugs” with new anti-arson laws.

Then, stepping out of the training center and onto the lawn, Wilson the governor became Wilson the candidate. At a second media event--attended by sign-waving supporters of state Treasurer Kathleen Brown--Wilson accepted endorsements from three firefighting organizations representing about 28,000 management, rank-and-file and rescue personnel.

“Have we been through hard times? Did the state of California lose a third of its revenues, just like a family losing overnight a third of its income? We did,” Wilson said. “But what we have done is make sure that the priority is education at the state level, public safety at the local level.”

Responding to a placard carried by a firefighter who supports Brown--”Where Was Your Support Before Firestorm ‘93?”--Wilson said, “Proposition 172 was before firestorm ’93. . . . My support didn’t come lately. (Firefighters) have had it for a very long time and they’ve had it in a material way.”

Proposition 172, passed in the 1992 election, allowed counties to collect a half-cent sales tax for local law enforcement and firefighting programs. The idea was to compensate counties for some of the property tax money that Wilson had reallocated to pay for state school funding.

Wilson’s words were immediately challenged by the pro-Brown firefighters, who called Wilson a fair-weather friend. According to this group, the three organizations that endorsed Wilson--the California State Firefighters Assn., the Fire Districts Assn. of California and the California Fire Chiefs Assn.--represented mainly the interests of management, not the rank and file.

“We’re not fire chiefs. We’re regular people who do the work,” said John Tennant, vice president of the California Professional Firefighters, a 20,000-member group that has endorsed Brown. “Gov. Wilson is no friend of firefighters. . . . We (have) had to fight to keep him from decimating the fire service. He’s not always been successful. But it’s not because of his goodwill for the people like us who do the work.”

Lew Stone, president of the Burbank Fire Fighters Local 778, noted that “if you’re a college student, you can join” the pro-Wilson California State Firefighters Assn. “So can anybody who wants to become a firefighter someday, (or) who just likes the fire service. So when they stand up here and say, ‘We represent the firefighters,’ that is false.”

Gary Giacomo, a California State Firefighters spokesman, confirmed that students and other non-firefighters can join the 28,000-member group, but said the associate members number only about 500. Thirty-five percent of the membership is made up of volunteer and retired firefighters, he said. He could not provide a breakdown of management and rank-and-file members.