SPFD Fire Study criticized by public, several City Council members

May 11, 2016
Santa Paula News

A report on the future of fire services was criticized several days after its presentation to the City Council at a special meeting April 29.

The $50,000 study by Matrix Consulting was commissioned in January to analyze funding options for the fire department; Matrix according to consultant Robert Finn, who told the council he has a strong public safety background including as a fire chief, has produced more than 200 such studies.

First off Finn said he interviewed various city officials including the city manager, city clerk, finance and human resources directors among others to create “a profile of the organization.”

He noted “Career and reserve personnel work very well together and are very cost effective for the city,” providing “excellent response times specifically in the core of the city…Santa Paula is better than national standards.”

There are “clean lines of authority” and good financial controls in place among other positives.

“There’s great pride in the department, great pride of the city, be proud of them they bring a strong commitment to the city,” said Finn. 

The report studied revenue production, structural and finance restructuring and joining the Ventura County Fire Protection District, which provides fire services to most county cities.

False alarms are not common enough to be viewed as a revenue resource said Finn and big box stores expected to accompany residential growth would help funding as would a tax measure. Joining the VCFD system would be more costly than what the city now pays.

The current annual cost of staffing is about $1.75 million with 18 full time firefighters and 730 shifts filled by reserves. Replacing full-time firefighters with reserves — while retaining full-time captains and engineers — would save the city almost $484,000 annually.

One glitch already evident is the low number of reserves that could be called upon to work only a certain number of shifts before city paid benefits would kick in.

The city would save more than $840,000 by staffing one station with reserves only whose pay would be raised from the now-$50 a shift to $100 a shift.

About 46 active reserves would be needed to cover all the shifts to avoid city paid benefits.

A scenario using part-time firefighters was also addressed.

Finn noted that costs must include approximately $10,000 in turnouts and equipment for each firefighter, some of which is custom fitted and cannot be reused.

The SPFD operates two full-time stations for about $2.7 million but if it went to county services one would be closed and coverage offered by another VCFD station. Finn said there would be a savings of about $610,000 in that case left over from the $2.1 million the county would charge to operate the single station. 

Such a merger would require annexation by LAFCo and perhaps a voter approved tax swap. 

“What is the issue for the low number of reserves?” asked Mayor Martin Hernandez. 

“It’s happening across the county,” as said Finn, “people are working farther from home, there are two persons working in a household and there’s less private business — less butchers to lock up,” their stores and respond to a fire call. 

“It’s an ongoing national issue to maintain adequate reserves and then have good retention policies…”

To avoid city paid benefits reserve or part-time volunteers are limited to “24-hours, 36 or 48 hours is typically what you see in a month.”

 After more discussion public comment was opened:

SPFD Captain Dustin Lazenby said he had “concerns” about the report especially the high volume of reserves the SPFD has seen especially as the better ones are hired by other agencies.

And running one fire station solely with reserves “screams safety concerns to me…it comes down to rock, paper, scissors — who’s in charge” when no one has such experience. 

Since reserves are subject to ongoing training denying them same would be “robbing those reserves of their service and safety.”

Ventura City Fire he added was not considered in the report.

Lazenby cautioned the council to study the issues closely as it “seems to me a minimal savings for a huge loss of service” could result.

Businessman Steve Smead told the council to be cautious in their decision-making, as “One problem is if you give up control to the county you’ll never be able to get it back”

But he also wondered about SPFD activity: “I follow the fire trucks a lot,” to their calls and said the “vast majority” are unnecessary medical calls.

Former Mayor Mary Ann Krause said going with the county would risk future property tax revenue also. 

Kevin Byer said any future savings to the city should be applied to police services: “…we have a crime problem and not a house burning down problem…”

Fire Chief Rick Araiza told the council “I am very proud of the response times we have and the levels of service we have…”

Vice Mayor Jenny Crosswhite asked if the study had considered the $900,000 two-year SAFER grant that is funding five full-time firefighters, the loss of which would negate any savings. Crosswhite was told the grant funding had not been factored into the report. 

At the May 2 City Council meeting several council members as well as members of the public weighed in on the report.

Ventura County Professional Firefighters’ union representative Chris Mahon told the council “Really our take on it is that there are many important items missing from or mischaracterized in the study…”

Said Richard Rudman, “As a citizen I was looking forward to hearing the fire report but at this point the report to me was no help…maybe I was wrong in hanging high hopes on it. To say disappointed would be putting it mildly.”

Councilwoman Ginger Gherardi later said she was “disappointed” in the report, a comment agreed to by several other members of the council.





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