Calexico firefighters express their concerns about their lowest base pay in Imperial Valley

City Council is working with the Calexico Fire Dept. to give them a fair pay.

CALEXICO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - The Calexico Fire Department is worried about their staffing and retention rate due to their low base pay.

During a city council meeting on March 16th, the Calexico Firefighters Association presented a powerpoint displaying their workload compared to the El Centro and Brawley Fire Dept.

Firefighter Josh Paddock compared their amount of calls to the El Centro Fire Dept. in 2021.

"The comparisons I want to bring up is 5,300 calls in their city compared to our 5,100. We do pretty much the same call volume. We do run on half the budget as them for our fire department to complete pretty much the same demand that's required," said Paddock.

Calexico's Fire Dept. Engineer, Oscar Pesqueira, says it's not fair.

"It's not very attractive when we are the busiest if not the busiest department in this county and probably even beyond at the wages we are. We cannot hold," Pesqueira said.

Pesqueira said when he applied in the 90's for a position at the Calexico Fire Dept., he was running against 200 applicants for two positions. But this year, there were six positions available and only 12 people have applied for a position.

He said two firefighters just left to go to different departments and that's a big loss for them.

"One of them had 17 years and another one 15 years. That is experience that left the city. Meaning the city, the department, the citizens," Pesqueira said.

Calexico's Mayor Javier Moreno says he appreciates the fire department for their hard work and being patient.

Moreno says the city council and staff are working with city administration to diligently approach these concerns the firefighters have to solve the long standing issues pertaining to compensation and staffing.

"I can assure you that based off conversations we had, we have a progressive approach which they are in agreement. They are very happy with what we are proposing back and forth," said Mayor Moreno.

Moreno's main goal is making sure they do have enough firefighters.

"Obviously staff is the number one thing because they are low on staff. We have to make sure those numbers are just for the city," said Moreno.

Mayor Moreno couldn't expand on the proposal because of confidential issues.