TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to report to the City Council on a plan to resolve gender equity problems in City Fire Stations prior to the City building new facilities in order to reduce the City's legal exposure for failure to provide suitable working conditions for male and female firefighters.
DISCUSSION
The City of Long Beach has been informed on numerous occasions over the past several years that several of the fire stations lack appropriate accommodations for male and female firefighters.
Several female firefighters just recently attended a Fifth District meeting at which the Mayor was present, during which they demonstrated that they were forced to use buckets and trash cans for their bathroom.
Additionally, I have personally toured these fire stations and found the accommodations are not appropriate for both sexes.
The Council has proposed a parcel tax to fund the building of new fire stations.
Obviously, these stations cannot be built in less than 5 years, thereby exposing the City to possible litigation and contractual grievances concerning inappropriate working conditions.
The following information from the United States Fire Administration's "The Changing Face of the Fire Service: A Handbook on Women in Firefighting" is most telling as to what the City needs to do and aptly points out that "A lawsuit costs a lot more than a locker room, and in the end, no one wins":
"A few fire departments assign women only to stations that 'have facilities for women.' This is not generally considered an acceptable long-term solution, particularly where there is an appreciable difference in the kind of work carried out at the different stations -a lighter or heavier call load, different types of apparatus, specialty teams-or where station assignments are on a seniority bid basis and the woman would otherwise be entitled to bid for the off-limits stations. The result can be an unworkable inflexibility for management, particularly if it prevents wo...
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