A conflict over the Sonoma County Fire District’s role in hosting toy bins for the Windsor Kiwanis Club’s annual food and toy drive that left one club member to picket a fire station in Windsor was resolved last month, with the all parties ready to put the emphasis back on working together to get gifts to local kids.
According to Windsor Kiwanis Club President Sherry Rubin, Kiwanis, in conjunction with other local service organizations and Windsor firefighters, had put donation bins for its community toy drive outside Windsor’s two fire stations each year since the 1990s. In years past, the Windsor-specific drive has served up to 600 kids and their families, allowing community members in Windsor to support their neighbors in need with food and gifts that are kept within the town.
But in 2019, the Windsor Fire Department, its employees and two stations were consolidated into the Sonoma County Fire District (SCFD) alongside six other fire stations from Calistoga to Guerneville and in the Santa Rosa area. While proponents of the consolidation say it will allow greater coordination and ultimately provide enhanced service to the communities it serves, others have been wary of losing local control over their fire departments.
In addition to the fire departments consolidating into SCFD, a public agency governed by a board of directors, the Windsor firefighters union was also consolidated into the larger Sonoma County Professional Firefighters union, which is an affiliate of Local 1401 and represents firefighters working for SCFD.
Rubin said the controversy surrounding the annual toy bins began in late November when club members got word that the consolidated union had chosen to support the Santa Rosa Firefighters Local 1401 “Toys for Kids” toy drive, two weeks before the Kiwanis toy drive was set to begin.
Kiwanis club members were worried that Windsor community members hoping to donate gifts locally through Kiwanis would end up unknowingly donating to the wrong drive. Unlike the Kiwanis toy drive, the donations collected at Windsor firehouses for the Toys for Kids toy drive will not necessarily stay in Windsor, but be distributed countywide.
“The Windsor community has been doing this since we started it. They know they can go to the (fire stations) and donate and their toys will stay in Windsor,” Rubin said. “It was such a blow to have them say, ‘No, we’re not going to do it this year.”
Rubin said the Kiwanis members were outraged, and as some members penned letters to the editors of local news outlets including SoCoNews, one long-time participant in the toy drive went to a Windsor station to protest.
After getting word of the picketer, Mike Stornetta, vice president of the Sonoma County Professional Firefighters union, got in contact with Rubin and both parties said the issue was able to be resolved, that is to say, Kiwanis toy drive bins are outside SCFD’s Windsor fire stations alongside Toys for Kids bins.
Toys can be dropped off at both Windsor fire stations for the Community Toy Drive until Dec. 18, when toys, food and hygiene products will be distributed to families in need at Cali Calmécac Language Academy from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. More information about the Kiwanis Club toy drive can be found here.
Stornetta told SoCoNews that the conflict was the result of a “communication break down that has since been fixed” and that some of the Kiwanis Club members hadn’t been “fully in the loop.”
“I think they have some misinformation,” Stornetta said. According to him, the union that includes Windsor firefighters serves over 200,000 people across Sonoma County and into Napa County. He said the union’s decision didn’t mean the Community Toy Drive couldn’t have put their bins at fire stations in Windsor, only that the labor organization itself was partnering with participating in a different toy drive.
Stornetta, in his role as vice president of the union, wanted to clarify that SCFD and the union were separate entities, with different governing bodies — a sentiment echoed by Cyndi Foreman, SCFD division chief and fire marshal.
Foreman told SoCoNews this week that the controversy had been between the union and the Kiwanis Club, and had nothing to do with the fire district itself.
She said the SCFD board of directors made no decisions regarding the Kiwanis Club, emphasizing, “The decisions on what kinds of service efforts the fire district supports is not up to the union — it’s up to the district board of directors.”
“From a district perspective, we work hand-in-hand with service organizations. They are a vital tool in the community to provide to those in need. Once this surfaced, we made it very clear we will support the Windsor Kiwanis Club’s toy drive as a district,” Foreman said.
She said when she and other district leadership learned of the conflict, they were able to step in and help rectify the situation.
“By that afternoon, we had toy barrels back at the fire station. Hopefully we’ve got this train back on the tracks. The goal is that kids in the community get their toys and that we support our hardworking service groups,” Foreman said.
While Foreman expressed an eagerness to separate the fire district from the labor union for the sake of clarity, distancing the district from any actions the union may have taken, she was also eager to commend Sonoma County Professional Firefighters for the work they do in the community.
“Our union has a great focus on serving the needs of the community. We’re very proud of our labor group for the efforts they put out,” Foreman said.
Although the toy bins are back, Rubin is less than thrilled with the way things transpired. The annual toy drive is, for many Kiwanis Club members, an emotional issue.
“I’m not happy with them. I just think they bended because of the picketer and the letters. They don’t want bad press. I don’t blame them,” Rubin said. She said when Stornetta had initially called her, he was concerned over “how it would look,” and threatened to ban the Kiwanis Club from partnering with the union for future events — claims Stornetta denied.
To Rubin, the difficulty her organization faced in partnering with SCFD speaks to the problem with consolidation.
“It’s unfortunate that when they merged they kind of forgot about individual communities. I was told they’re having the same problems in west county too. For the community to see the firemen supporting their community speaks loudly for them,” Rubin said. “They didn’t think this through.”
Stornetta said that while tensions had briefly gotten high, the controversy was actually the symptom of having a strong community with dedicated service organizations.
“You can think about this as an item that could be construed as negative, but I really think when you look at this from a broader angle that this is a very positive problem to have,” Stornetta said. “We have all these nonprofits that are working as hard as they possibly can. Everyone is trying to be the champion.”
