Houston Fire Department optimistic about new leadership, union president says – Houston Public Media

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After the city of Houston announced Thomas Munoz as its new fire chief on Friday, the head of the firefighters’ union issued a statement, “fully supporting the change” and calling it “a sign of a renewed focus on excellence and a commitment to the safety and well-being of Houston’s firefighters and paramedics.”

Marty Lancton is the union’s president and joined Houston Matters on Monday. He said their goal is to move forward and solve the problems they face.

“This is a new era for the Houston Fire Department,” he said. “We’re down 500 firefighters and paramedics from 2016. That’s a problem. It means for listeners and the public, when you call 911, it’s going to take us longer and that can be directly attributed to the issues with the lack of a contract in the mayor’s previous administration.”

Lancton said the department now has “new hope” and is rebuilding the department. He added that Mayor John Whitmire is focused on public safety.

“I’ve known Tom (Munoz) for quite some time,” he said. “We’ve worked closely with him over the last few years in the emergency management field.”

Lancton says the fire department needs more firefighters and paramedics. The last class of cadets to graduate had just over 20 people.

“We used to see thousands of people lining up to apply, and what’s happened over the last eight years, you can see,” he said. “That’s what happens when you don’t take care of a world-class fire department.”

After years of arbitration and court battles, Whitmire announced that the department and the union had reached a settlement on firefighter contracts, which consisted of a $650 million deal that included lump sum payments and raises over the next five years. Lancton said the deal had nothing to do with the appointment of a new chief.

“The reality is, if you listen to what Whitmire said during the campaign, he made it very clear, without apology — and I did, too — that we are calling for a change in leadership under the Sylvester Turner administration,” he said. “So you had about 3,000 firefighters sign a no-confidence motion and it’s not about personal issues. It’s about the citizens. It’s about response times. And that’s one of the key things that people, until they need us, don’t really, completely understand.”

Thousands of current and former union members are expected to receive their cheques this week. Lancton said Whitmire is a down-to-earth person and they are grateful to be able to “take care of their families.”

“And so they can finally get what’s owed to them and maybe they can send their kids to college, they can fix up their house, they can get surgery that they couldn’t afford before,” he said. “They can do those things that take care of themselves and their family, because at the end of the day, our responsibility is to make sure that they’re taken care of.”