Bill would expand firefighter training
Local assemblymen look to boost opportunities for women, minorities, veterans
In an effort to encourage members of underserved communities to pursue careers as firefighters, Assemblyman Heath Flora has introduced a bill that would create a pre-apprenticeship program that will target women, minorities and veterans as firefighters.
The proposed legislation is co-authored by Assemblyman Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove.
“Firefighting is not only an exciting and noble career, it’s also a goodpaying job,” said Flora, R-Ripon. “This program will provide an opportunity for members of underserved communities to break through into the middle-class workforce.”
If passed, the bill would require the Division of Apprenticeship Standards, in collaboration with the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee (CAL-JAC), to develop a statewide firefighter pre-apprenticeship program designed to recruit candidates from underrepresented groups.
The program would be required to meet specified objectives and CAL-JAC would be required to deliver the pilot classes established by the pre-apprenticeship program using existing training centers and models. With passage of the bill, CAL-JAC would also have to provide the program model to fire protection agencies, and would authorize a fire protection agency to then use that model and related resources to establish a local pre-apprenticeship program for recruiting candidates from underrepresented groups.
The bill would appropriate $300,000 from the general fund to the division to establish the program and would require the division to use those funds for specified purposes.
According to Cooper, the purpose of the bill is to recruit more minorities, women and veterans as firefighters. He added that the public safety sector is currently having a hard time recruiting people.
“Law enforcement and firefighting are having a lot of retirement because they are at the tail end of the Baby Boomers. They are struggling to keep up with hiring new folks so this apprenticeship program will hopefully fill that pipeline and keep
that group of folks coming into it,” Cooper said, pointing out that most firefighters who are hired have to put themselves through academy, which can be difficult considering that they may have other financial responsibilities.
Lodi Fire Chief Larry Rooney is also enthused about the proposed bill.
“I think that you need your department to mirror your community. It’s very important and by doing that it’s creating diversity, so yeah, I would be all for that,” Rooney said when asked his thoughts on the bill.
Rooney said it’s harder to recruit those from underserved communities into being firefighters because they haven’t been exposed to the opportunities.
“Not everybody sees themself as a firefighter and I think that’s kind of two-fold. Sometimes they don’t see people like them being firefighters and also they don’t think that they have the same opportunities we have,” Rooney said.
The Lodi Fire Department currently employs 46 firefighters. One is AfricanAmerican and a few are Latino.
Rooney is looking forward to recruiting some of the qualified applicants that this bill would produce.
“We are always looking to have our department mirror the community that we are, but most importantly we want to hire the best people,” he said. “I just think in all public safety the key is getting into all the neighborhoods and the schools at an early age and letting everybody know that they have an opportunity of becoming a police officer or firefighter at a very early age.”