Hollister
– Bill Garringer, who has served six years as chief of the
Hollister Fire Department, will retire at the end of March – a move
he said is intended to protect the jobs of the department’s
firefighters.
Hollister – Bill Garringer, who has served six years as chief of the Hollister Fire Department, will retire at the end of March – a move he said is intended to protect the jobs of the department’s firefighters.
“(My departure) allows everyone to keep their rank and keep their job,” Garringer said. “I’m OK. It’s not like they’re pushing me out.”
In January, Hollister’s City Council approved budget cuts totaling $1.2 million per year, with $700,000 coming from the fire department. Most of the cost-cutting comes from departing staff members, but it was accomplished through leaving vacant or soon-to-be-vacant jobs open, rather than laying people off.
Garringer said that if he wasn’t leaving, the fire department would have to lay off one full-time firefighter and demote several others to lower-paid positions.
Garringer is paid $125,000 per year, but he said Fire Capt. Fred Cheshire has agreed to take on the chief’s duties while receiving “pretty much the same salary” he is now paid – about $100,000.
Cheshire will remain interim chief until the city has the money to pay a permanent replacement. That won’t happen until sometime after November, when the city may put another sales-tax initiative on the ballot.
City staff have estimated that without such an initiative, the city’s financial problems will continue for several years.
“Chief Garringer will be missed greatly by the department and the community,” Cheshire said. “He’s done a lot of work for us.”
The reduction of city services and staff follows November’s voter rejection of Measure R, a 1 percent sales tax hike that the City Council had hoped would alleviate Hollister’s budget woes.
The fire department has already implemented some cuts, Garringer said. The department’s secretary is now shared with the airport, working half-time at each, and the city fire marshal has left for another fire department. At the beginning of March, the department will stop manning its ladder company for one-third of the time, a move that some have called a serious blow to public safety.
When asked if he has any goals for his first few months in charge, Cheshire said, “I just want to continue on with a good level of service even with the cuts we’re faced with.”
During Garringer’s time as chief, he said, the fire department added a new station, replaced most of its equipment and implemented a structured system for on-the-job training.
Garringer has been a firefighter for 35 years, and he said he’s ready to retire. For one thing, that gives him more time to spend at his lakeside cabin in Northern California.
“I’m just going to do everything that I want to do,” Garringer said.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
