San Benito County supervisors are expected to decide between a fire service contract from the city of Hollister and Calfire in April, after a year of meetings to discuss community fire service needs.
They are requesting formal proposals from both agencies, with further discussion to take place at the April 2 supervisors meeting.
“All of last year, the board of supervisors considered how to improve public safety and fire, in particular, turned into quite a political football,” said Supervisor Anthony Botelho. “It was hard to handle, anyway.”
Supervisors considered a consolidation of county fire services with Hollister last year rather than staying with Calfire, which has historically provided fire service in the county, but ended up voting to stay with Calfire for an additional year to allow more time for discussion. After the vote, supervisors created a fire committee, which includes Supervisors Botelho and Jerry Muenzer, along with representatives from the fire agencies, Hollister and San Juan.
Calfire and Hollister submitted informal proposals to the full board March 19, with members of the fire committee asking supervisors to approve a request for proposals to allow formal proposals to come forward. The agencies were expected to submit formal proposals this week.
The informal proposal from Hollister estimated an annual cost of $1.1 million to provide fire service to the county. Calfire estimated the cost for county fire service would be $1.2 million, though the state offered two models that would increase the cost by $100,000 to 200,000. Interim County Administrative Assistance Ray Espinosa said the two informal proposals were not easily comparable so county officials are expecting the formal proposals to be a more side-by-side comparison of cost and services.
“Supervisor Muenzer and myself had some real solid discussions with the two cities,” Botelho said. “What we have is a proposal for a possibility of fire consolidation with the city of Hollister and also Calfire to improve the level of service.”
Supervisors Margie Barrios and Robert Rivas shared some of their questions and concerns at the meeting in hopes the agencies would address those issues in the formal proposal.
“If I have questions please understand it is a big decision for me and it has been on the table before,” Barrios said. “I didn’t have as many questions for (Calfire) because we’ve been with them for 50 years – they are a proven product.”
Hollister Mayor Ignacio Velazquez and Hollister Fire Captain Michael O’Connor spoke and talked about their idea to increase fire service while saving money to the local jurisdictions.
“What we are really presenting is a whole new scheme of making our services work,” Velazquez said. “We want to add two more fire stations – full-time fire stations to provide services to the west side of the county and the north side of the county.”
Velazquez said the department will largely add volunteer trainees to the roster rather than hiring full-time firefighters. Representatives of Hollister fire and San Juan’s volunteer fire department stressed that the volunteer firefighters would have the same level of training as career firefighters.
Velazquez said unlike the system in San Juan now where volunteer firefighters responded to calls when they are available, the new system would have volunteers staying at the fire station during their shift so that an engine is immediately ready to go out to calls.
Rivas said he was concerned about the number of volunteer or reserve firefighters who would be required to make the plan work.
“Career staff doesn’t change – 98 percent of new staffing is reserve and it raises an important question,” he said. “We need to know about reserves – what are attrition rates?”
He said while he himself was a volunteer firefighter, there were 25 reserve firefighters but only nine of those volunteers were active.
Barrios said she was also concerned about being locked out of negotiations with the fire union on salary and benefits.
“We may not have the ability to decide on your raises,” she said. “Contractual agreements going forward could mean additional dollars coming out of the county. Those agreements go through the city and could add substantial cost that we are not prepared for.”
Velazquez said they can include a cap that would limit the amount the county is required to pay despite increases in the cost during the life of the contract.
“The best part of this whole plan is that we are using volunteer trainees to help fill spots in our agencies,” Velazquez said. “We will have these trainees train to the level of a firefighter – we want to train them in a career so they can become professional firefighters. If San Jose wants more, they can take them from here and we can train the next batch.”
San Juan Councilman Andy Moore said there is money in the budget to fund a fire station in that city, while O’Connor said the figures submitted to the county in the informal proposal did not include the cost of a fourth fire station in the north part of the county.
O’Connor said they have three potential sites in mind, but were waiting to see if their formal proposal is approved before moving forward with negotiations. He said if the city of Hollister proposal is selected, additional staff would initially be housed at Fire Station No. 1 until an additional fire station is available.
Rivas said when the supervisors receive the proposals back, he will be looking for a contract that offers a cost-savings to the county, an increase in fire protection and services, and a proposal that is sustainable over the long term.
