VIDEO: The Kern County Administrative office and the Kern County Firefighter's Association have not been able to settle on a two-year contract after the two sides failed to agree on how to cut overtime spending.
The Firefighters Association voted against the county's offer last night, an offer that would have cut overtime spending by the department by $3.4 million.
Megan Person, director of Countywide Communications for Kern County says that negotiations for this agreement has been in the works since 2017.
“The changes that we are looking for would bring us more in alignment with what the federal requirements are, where we would only calculate overtime based on actual hours work,” said Person.
David Nelson, president of Kern County Firefighters Association says that the reason why they are unable to agree to these terms is because of the financial impact this would have on the firefighters.