We applaud the City Council for creating a 12-member task force
that will look into financing options for Hollister’s fire
protection.
We applaud the City Council for creating a 12-member task force that will look into financing options for Hollister’s fire protection.
Hollister is facing a $4 million budget shortfall in the coming fiscal year, even after approving plans to lay off 36 city employees. With that kind of shortfall, the city must comb through its finances and reevaluate the way it does business. That means taking a look at some distasteful possibilities.
One possibility, put on the table by Mayor Tony Bruscia on Monday, is to study whether the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection can provide fire protection to Hollister for less money than the local department. He was quick to say Hollister’s firefighters would have to be hired by CDF to preserve their jobs if such a deal ever were to happen.
His idea, of course, was hugely unpopular with Fire Chief Bill Garringer and the local branch of the International Association of Firefighters. The majority of the Council also balked at the idea. Council members are willing to have the task force look at creating a county-wide fire district and a possible sales tax to support fire service for the November ballot. Transferring service to the state, however, is too drastic at this point, they said.
Garringer, who is being laid off in July, also raised valid objections to going to CDF. A 1997 study showed that using CDF to provide local fire protection, at that time, would cost $50,000 more than the local department, he said. The department’s budget is $3.3 million this year. The chief also worried that the priorities of a state-wide agency would not always be local protection. CDF might send firefighters to large fires elsewhere in California, leaving the bare minimum staffing in Hollister, he said.
“You’re entering into an agreement with the state. You’re gonna get what the state feels like giving you,” Garringer said.
The loss of local sovereignty is a valid concern. A contract with CDF could include a minimum staffing clause. Still, the value of local control must be taken into account with any such cost analysis. But there must be a cost analysis.
We aren’t advocating going to CDF. We hope it won’t come to that. But, how do we know what our options are without honestly assessing them? How can the city make the right financial decisions without all the information?
Examining every financial option will be crucial to balancing the city’s budget. Study a sales tax. Study a county-wide fire district. Study the CDF option.
It takes guts to stand up and say an institution as popular as a local fire department might have to be eliminated. Bruscia acknowledged it could be “political suicide.” But we can’t afford any sacred cows.
Forming the task force is an encouraging sign that the Council is serious about fixing the city budget. Now, let the task force form an unbiased, thorough and accurate analysis of all our options.
To respond to this editorial or comment on this issue, please send or bring letters to Editor, Hollister Free Lance, 350 Sixth St., Hollister, Calif. 95023 or fax to 637-4104 or e-mail [email protected]
