/ APRIL , 2022 /

Firefighters Feuding

The La Pine Firefighters Union voted unanimously to serve a letter of no confidence to Fire Chief Michael Supkis

By Jack Harvel

Courtesy of the La Pine Rural Fire District

Top: La Pine Rural Fire District staff pose for a photo in front of two fire engines. Below: La Pine Fire Chief Mike Supkis assumed his role in 2010 after serving as a fire chief in Alaska.

The La Pine Firefighters Union submitted a letter on April 1 to its board of directors, but it wasn’t a joke. All 22 members of the union approved of a no-confidence letter to La Pine Fire Chief Michael Supkis, indicating they do not support the chief and will advocate for a replacement.

The La Pine Rural Fire District Board of Directors appointed Supkis to the position in 2010. President of the La Pine Firefighter’s Union Kevin Leehmann said there have been issues since he started, but it came to a head this year after seven firefighters left during drawn out negotiations to renew the district’s collective bargaining agreement. One of the people who left was a captain, one of the more senior positions in the district.

“They told the chief in June that they were going to seek employment elsewhere, unless they could start working on ratifying the contract and working with us. He didn’t, and so they made good on it, and they left in November,” Leehmann said. “Three of them were union board members: president, secretary and vice president. They had gotten so fed up with dealing with the fire chief and the fight over the agreement that they decided to leave.”

The district has been short staffed since, and remaining firefighters had to work overtime to keep the district running. The extra hours could originally be traded for some time off later, but once the district added more staff Supkis stopped allowing staff to use the comped time.

“Beginning in December, we were very short handed. So, we’re allowed to trade some of that overtime for time off, and a lot of guys have done that throughout December; they’re working an extra 24 hours, so they will trade that for time off called compensation time,” Leehmann said. “Now that we’ve hired some more people back on, essentially the chief has turned around and is not allowing people to use it like it says in our contract.”

The letter includes eight bullet points describing specific grievances that arose between firefighters and the fire chief. It questions his qualifications, claims he violated current labor practices, that he lacks leadership and communication skills, that fighting a lawsuit from St. Charles Medical Center over directly billing clinics for ambulance services was misguided, that failing to update radio systems creates undue safety concerns and that Supkis engages in temper tantrums and threats against union members. “The guy puts his head down, he only hears what he wants to. We have two current ULPs filed—unfair labor practices—and around eight grievances and he says he’s not going to work with us to resolve some of this stuff and our contract still hasn’t been agreed upon and it caused seven members to leave,” Leehmann said.

Leehmann said La Pine firefighters are paid less than several other fire districts in Central Oregon, and many of the district’s employees commute from outside La Pine.

“Until we get better with our management and start being more progressive, it’s going to be used as a stepping stone,” Leehmann said. “I don’t want to emphasize the money, but every time we go to renew our CBA, or keep up with the cost of living — everybody knows how expensive it is to live in Central Oregon — every time we try to renew the chief has taken it clear out to the end to where we’ve gone to mediation and arbitration on almost every contract.”

Leehmann said the union presented the letter to Supkis on March 28 and gave him a chance to respond before sending it to the board of directors on April 1. Supkis never responded to the letter, nor did he respond to a request for comment from the Source before this article went to print. The board meets on the second Thursday of the month and its next public meeting is April 14. Leehmann said he’s hopeful that the unanimous agreement of union members is enough to sway board members, who ultimately wield the authority to replace the chief. “If at the next board meeting we don’t receive anything from the board, we’re probably going to start trying to bring the public in on discussions. We have a chief that is going to keep the district from prospering and the public needs to know,” Leehmann said.

“The guy puts his head down, he only hears what he wants to. We have two current ULPs filed, unfair labor practices, and around eight grievances and he says he's not going to work with us to resolve some of this stuff and our contract still hasn't been agreed upon and it caused seven members to leave.”

Noticias en Español El edificio de la comisaría de Warm Spring, enraizado en un pasado colonial, encontrará nueva vida como vivero de empresas

Por Jack Harvel / Traducido por/Translated by Jéssica Sánchez-Millar

El 4 de abril, el edificio de la comisaría de Warm Springs se desplazó a una nueva ubicación sobre la calle Wasco Drive, a la vista de la carretera 26 por Buckinham Power y Coaster Dolly, una enorme plataforma móvil controlada por control remoto que sostenía una estructura de dos pisos.

El gobierno federal construyó la comisaría en 1896 para distribuir granos, harina, semillas y herramientas para miembros de las tribus. Tan solo 41 años antes de la construcción de la comisaría, el superintendente de asuntos indígenas del territorio de Oregon, Joel Palmer, negoció tratados con las tribus de Warm Springs y Wasco que cedieron 10 millones de acres en tierra indígena y establecieron la reserva. Hoy en día, el edificio está tomando un nuevo rumbo. “No estamos seguros cuántos años sirvió como comisaria distribuidora de artículos,” dijo Chris Watson, director ejecutivo del Grupo de Acción Comunitaria de Warm Springs (WSCAT por sus siglas en inglés). “Hasta cierto punto, el uso del edificio cambio. Sabemos que alrededor de los años 50s a los 90s, el edificio fue utilizado como oficina para el departamento de recursos naturales de las tribus. Hoy en día el departamento de recursos naturales consta con más de 200 empleados y obviamente ya no caben en la comisaría”.

El edificio ha estado vacante desde 1998. La comisaría servirá como un centro comercial local.

WSCAT planea incluir una planta baja con espacios comerciales que incluyen Painted Pony, una cafetería que por el momento está ubicada al lado del casino Indian Head, una tienda de regalos con artesanías locales y dos espacios disponibles los cuales se pueden solicitar. El segundo piso está planeado para ser un espacio compartido de trabajo para diferentes comercios locales.

“Ese espacio es para los pequeños negocios locales que no cuentan con un espacio o incluso con un escritorio para llevar a cabo sus actividades comerciales. Les proporcionaremos computadoras, escritorios, un centro de medios de comunicación, información, todo lo que necesitan para que siga funcionando su negocio,” dijo Starla Green, gerente general del proyecto comisario.

Se espera que el espacio compartido y las unidades comerciales estén listas para la primavera que viene, con más renovaciones en camino. Ubicar el edificio a la vista de la carretera pretende atraer a algunos de los más de 8,000 carros que transitan a diario a lo largo de la carretera 27.

“En los próximos años pondremos un pabellón al aire libre, carritos de comida y también un par de locales de comida tradicional. Y años después una cocina comercial para la gente que hace salmón ahumado y jalea de bayas y diferentes tipos de comida con valor agregado para que tengan un lugar donde puedan hacerlo,” dijo Watson.

WSCAT ya aloja el programa de aceleración de pequeñas empresas tanto en Painted Pony Café como en el carrito de comida Twisted Teepee.

Por ahora, con solo 12 negocios de venta al por menor en la reserva, la gente tiene que manejar 15 minutos hacia el sur para hacer muchas de las compras. Watson dice que a pesar de las fuertes tendencias empresariales de la comunidad que forman parte de la red comercial informal, alrededor de $9 por cada $10 gastados en negocios de venta al por menor salen de la reserva,. “Le llamamos la economía del árbol de sombra; son las personas que no tienen licencia de venta, pero se venden entre sí y esa es una parte importante de la economía de la reserva,” dijo Watson. Desafortunadamente, la gente tiene que ir a Madras para hacer las compras. Y esperamos con este proyecto, al menos, empezar a cambiar eso.”

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