The firefighter who sued the city of Beverly Hills over its forced COVID-19 vaccine mandate has turned to construction side work to survive while waiting for the fire department to follow through on its intent to terminate him.
“I'm testing at other fire departments to see if I can land a job somewhere else,” Josh Sattley said. “Ultimately, my wife and I knew this was going to happen and we've had faith the whole time in God that he would provide because we're doing the right thing.”
Last year, the county issued an order requiring that all county healthcare workers, which include first responders, receive the COVID-19 vaccine unless they filed for a medical or religious exemption. Sattley claims he submitted a religious exemption.
“I got an email on September 14 saying that I no longer meet the job description because I failed to get a religious exemption," he said. "In the same breath, they denied my religious exemption and yet they're claiming I failed to get one."
In addition to his religious beliefs, Sattley is refusing to get the shot because he sees it as an experimental treatment.
“I had a strong feeling not to take it,” he said. “There are 81 guys in my department and we had four people off with COVID then it went to eight and nine within a matter of days. It doubled and more than 80% of the guys who were out sick were vaccinated.”
The Sattleys have a mortgage on their home to pay and four sons who are 14, 12, 9 and 7 years old to support.
“My wife, Brittany, and I had a small savings account,” Sattley told the Southern California Record. “We've also tried to square away some of our finances by selling a few things and talking to the bank. Those kinds of things.”
Although it was humbling for Sattley to accept outside financial help, family members and co-workers have been generous.
"We had donations come from a posting that Firefighters 4 Freedom did about me, which was a blessing, and also a lot of my co-workers have been very gracious and kind,” he said. “They Venmo me $75 to $100 a piece out of every paycheck they receive.”
Sattley worked as a firefighter in Beverly Hills for 11 years and received notice about the department's intent to terminate him on Oct. 1
"We have a lot of protections as firefighters," he added. "Under state law, we have a property right over our job. They can't just fire us. We also have the firefighter bill of rights. So, they have to follow those procedures, which they haven't done. You’re not allowed to be on leave without pay for more than 5 or 10 days. So, they violated it on multiple fronts. Not to mention our contract but they just totally ignore everything."
On Jan. 22, Sattley is scheduled to tell his story in Santa Monica at LEXIT, a group made up of Latinos who are facilitating the exit of Hispanics from the Democratic party much like Candace Owens' BLEXIT organization, which encourages African Americans to leave the Democratic party.
"I've had the honor and opportunity to speak at a ton of events from October until now and it's just been an incredible journey," he said. "People want to hear my story. Some say it's inspiring but I'm just a regular guy who is sharing his story because I don't want this to happen to anybody else."
This weekend, he says he will be in attendance at Clay Clark's Reawaken America Tour in Phoenix along with Firefighters 4 Freedom.