Local 1889 of the International Association of Fire Fighters has endorsed P.J. Polizzi in the April 7 election for a seat on the Mehlville Fire Protection District Board of Directors.

Local 1889 President Nick Fahs told the Call that union members voted last week to endorse Polizzi, a retired accountant who is seeking to unseat board Treasurer Bonnie Stegman, a registered nurse educator at St. Anthony’s Medical Center and adjunct instructor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Central Methodist University.

Stegman and board Chairman Aaron Hilmer were elected in April 2005. In the months leading up to the 2005 election, Hilmer and Stegman campaigned as reform candidates looking to eliminate fiscal waste and roll back a 33-cent tax-rate increase approved in November 2004.

In June 2005, Local 1889 filed a lawsuit that sought to prohibit the three-member board from implementing a disability-benefit contract with Standard Insurance and eliminating current disability benefits from the district’s pension plan. After a nearly two-year legal battle in which the board’s action was upheld at the circuit-court level and the apellate-court level, the Missouri Supreme Court declined to hear the lawsuit.

In March 2006, the union filed a lawsuit just days after the board voted on March 16, 2006, to adopt an amendment and two resolutions changing the fire district’s pension plan from a defined-benefit plan to a defined-contribution plan. After a nearly three-year legal battle in which the board’s action was upheld at the circuit-court level and the apellate-court level, the board and Local 1889 settled the dispute over the changes to the pension plan last December.

At meetings March 4 and March 5, union members voted to endorse Polizzi, according to Fahs, who was elected Local 1889 president in December.

“It’s not an easy thing to do to endorse someone against a sitting board member,” he said. “I’ve known Mrs. Stegman a long time. I worked with her when I worked at Berkeley 20 years ago. It’s not easy to do.”

In making their endorsement, Fahs said union members believe that Polizzi, if elected, would ask questions that they say aren’t being asked by current board members, including Stegman. Of particular concern to Local 1889 members, Fahs said, is their belief that Mehlville is turning into a training ground.

“Our fire department is turning into a training ground for St. Louis County … It is the first and foremost issue we have. There’s nothing in the foreseeable future that’s going to change this,” he said.

Since taking office nearly four years ago, Hilmer and Stegman have focused on hiring only firefighter/paramedics to improve service to district residents.

But Fahs said the decision to hire paramedics who must attend the Greater St. Louis County Fire Academy to earn their firefighter certification has placed a financial burden on district taxpayers — unlike other districts that will hire only employees who already have both paramedic and firefighter certification.

Furthermore, after paramedics attain that firefighter certification, the new hires are lured to other departments that provide a better working environment.

“At Mehlville, you have to be a paramedic and willing to go to the Fire Academy. Right now, we have seven people in the Fire Academy … It’s an environment issue here. The reason we cannot get firefighter/paramedics to apply is the environment of the Mehlville Fire District …,” Fahs said, adding that roughly 20 percent of those new hires have left the district since 2004.

“People used to retire from the Mehlville Fire District. That’s all they did was retire. Now once you go to the academy, you are lured away. Because when you go there with a paramedic license and they know you’re going to graduate in 12 weeks, now you can work anywhere in St. Louis County,” he said. “So what happens is those people are lured to different departments that don’t have our issues. So the problem is that’s not changing. We have seven people in the academy … That trend’s not going to break of people leaving because they’re very sought after.

“So we have good people that come here, but we cannot get them to stay. And I’m not saying the people we hired in the past aren’t good because they are and we have good people here, but we shouldn’t have to fight to get people to stay here. And when we talked about endorsing Mr. Polizzi, this is not a financial issue. This is not something that he needs money to fix. We just have to be willing to — we have to create an environment where people want to come to work …”

Asked how the union’s endorsement would affect its relationship with the Board of Directors if Stegman is re-elected, he said, “Great question. I have thought about it and I think the key is the type of election …”

Fahs said Polizzi told him “he will not say anything derogatory about Mrs. Stegman. I will not — I will question some decisions that they’ve made, but as far as her as a person, she’s a mother. She has a husband and she has a family and gosh knows, I would never want to do anything to disgrace her because she wouldn’t do that to me. I believe I know that much about her.

“She’s never said a bad word about me and I’m not going to say a bad word about her. So if she wins, I would tell her congratulations.

“But on the flip side, we are going to participate in a campaign — it’s not the Mehlville firefighters versus her — but I want her to know it’s not that I’m going to attack her as a person …”

In 2007, Local 1889 endorsed write-in candidate Dennis Skelton, who was defeated by current board Secretary Ed Ryan.