San Bernardino County Fire’s union has put undisclosed sums of money into the campaign opposing the city’s proposed half-cent sales tax for public safety, the Daily Press has learned.
The contribution by Professional Firefighters Union, Local 935 — confirmed recently by the organization’s president and by the taxpayer group leading the anti-effort — forges a potentially awkward dynamic moving forward since the union represents one of two reported agency benefactors of the November ballot measure.
It also serves as a reminder, as a vote looms, that the politicized battleground now tied to the city’s fire services is unlikely to resolve when the election does. In response to the union’s challenge, a bewildered Mayor Pro Tem Jim Cox admitted: “Nobody expected this.”