Firefighters, manager remain at odds over name

Stacia Glenn,
Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO - A proposed agreement intended to close a widening rift between firefighters and their managers fell through this week, all but ensuring the battle over a name will be fought in court.

The San Bernardino City Professional Fire Managers, which is not recognized by the city as a group, endorsed a different 4th Ward City Council candidate than the union, touching off animosity and confusion in a political season already brimming with both.

Arguing that the similarity in the name to the San Bernardino City Professional Firefighters confuses the public, the union filed an emergency injunction to stop the managers from using the name.

A civil judge turned it down.

But this week, a fire captain acting as a go-between for the two groups led them to the brink of an agreement, which the fire managers eventually refused to sign.

The union's agreement would have required the fire managers to stop using their name and pull any endorsements under that name, meaning that incumbent Fred Shorett would no longer be able to use the fire managers name on his Web site and mailers.

It also asked the fire managers to notify the media that they were giving up the name, though union attorney Corey Glave said they were willing to drop that from the agreement.

"The other things they wanted to throw in to make this is a political thing, we're not willing to do," said Mark Edwards, an attorney representing Battalion Chief Denis Moon, who is president of the fire managers group. "It's further proof that what all this is is they don't want a representative of different members of the firefighting community to take a position that's counter to theirs."

Glave disagreed, insisting that the issue is the similarity in names. He said the union is not opposed to the fire managers issuing endorsements under a different name.

"This case is not political and it will go on long after the election passes," he said.

Glave expects to send out deposition notices within two weeks as part of the pending lawsuit.