Alright, let’s talk about how a piece of plastic on a stick can cause such a headache. A few nights ago, a viewer named Greg reached out with a totally fair question: he’d been seeing these Manny Perez campaign signs all over the Valley that proudly proclaim "Firefighters Support Manny." But here’s the rub—it doesn’t say which firefighters. Is it the local city crew? A national group?
We did our homework and reached out to the Supervisor’s office, but we didn't hear back by airtime on Wednesday. Fast forward to Thursday, and we finally got the confirmation: it’s Cal Fire Local 2881, the group representing about 1,300 firefighters in Riverside County. Case closed, right? Wrong.
Apparently, our question struck a nerve. The union sent a letter to the newsroom—not even to us directly, mind you—basically accusing us of undermining the voices of their members and questioning the "genuineness" of their support.
Let me be super clear here: we aren't calling anyone's integrity into question. We didn't even know it was Cal Fire 2881 at first! Our whole point is that when a sign just says "Firefighters," it implies all firefighters. It’s an ambiguous way to brand an endorsement. If you’ve got the support of 1,300 dedicated professionals, why not just put their name on the sign? We even did a mock-up on the show to prove it’s not that hard to fit "Cal Fire 2881" on there.
If we want to fix the lack of trust in local politics, the answer is always transparency. Vague signs lead to questions, and questions shouldn't lead to defensive letters. We’re just looking for clarity for the voters. If the sign had been specific from the jump, we’d have spent the segment talking about something else entirely!
By: NBC Palm Springs
March 27, 2026
