East Contra Costa Fire Protection District Chief Hugh Henderson reported Tuesday that fire stations may have to shutter prior to the expiration date of the FEMA Grant as firefighters are leaving for jobs elsewhere.
Henderson’s report about a potential station closure was not an agenda item, however, it was provided in his report to the Board as a follow up to the May meeting where at that point they were down to 43 staffing positions.
The preliminary budget for 2014-15 is expected to be in the neighborhood of $12.3 million by December 1, 2014 which includes two station closures and just 30 fire suppression personnel.
As of Tuesday, the District is budgeted for 48-personnel; however the staffing level is down to 40 fire personnel.
According to Chief Henderson, staff is currently aware of four additional employees in medical and background clearances with other agencies—this would drop staffing levels to 36 which means a station would have to close because the staffing does not support a five station model.
Henderson explained that with four more personnel leaving for other agencies, station closures will be necessary prior to the SAFER Grants expiration. In response, the District has set up an Ad-Hoc Committee to review call volume and workload to stations in our community.
Henderson plans to bring back a “Station Closure Plan” to a future Board meeting.
“Again from our discussions last month we talked about knowing the workload would change and at some point knowing we couldn’t cover with overtime, as a reminder we can only submit for full-time employees doing the job as part of the SAFER Grant so as we lose people, we are losing that revenue,” explained Henderson.
Henderson explained that while they are down staffing, they are continuing to cover our current staffing of five stations with overtime. When the District loses another position, they are going to have to look at closing stations early.
“It’s a hard situation as we get into this. We are losing personnel, however, with the uncertainty and the SAFER Grant coming to an end we can only expect our employees to look to take care of themselves and their families and find employment by outside agencies,” said Henderson. “My expectation is that by July we will be pretty close to this 9-number and have to make some tough decisions on Station closures around the first of August.”
Henderson also shared the District has 1-person out on medical leave (until Oct./Nov) and another on military leave (until July).
If the District is forced to close a station in the summer, it would leave the District with four-stations entering the height of fire season with another station set to close in December where going forward the District would be forced to cover 250-square miles with just three stations.
Editors Note:
The District will likley be looking at closing either Station 54 (Downtown Brentwood) or Station 94 (Knightsen). According to the May 5 Staff Report, in calendar year 2013, Station 54 ran 1,336 calls for service while Station 94 ran 176 calls for service.
It should be noted that 96% of the Districts budget comes from Property Taxes and over a 5-year period, the District has lost 24% of its funding due to reduced property values. The District estimates that FY 2014-15 property tax revenues will increase 5% which amounts to an additional $430,000.
10 comments
Hope the Board keeps Knightsen open because that will mean so very long response times to Bethel Island. Why is Discovery Bay closing not under consideration?
Hey ECT when will you admit the fire board has failed the District? These guys are tax hungry and are not doing their jobs to find real solutions
The Board has done what they had to do to keep 5-stations open. That is a success considering the alternative. What the Board has had to deal with is the equivalent of a 2-10 off-suit versus pocket Aces for all the money—chances of winning are slim to none.
What I believe the Board has failed at is educating the public, other than that, not much they can do at this time. It’s also a brand new board.
Mike B.
What gets me is they are not even discussing real cost savings which is pension reform and utilizing volunteers to assist with costs. I want to know how come its always the public who suffers from irresponsible spending by government? Now I am hearing of another tax as the solution?
I have no problem with firefighters leaving for other jobs for more pay because people in the private sector do it all the time, but why not implement lower pay. Firefighters need jobs and they will take it. If they end up being hired and leaving, hire someone else to replace them. It’s already a training ground from what I’ve read here so why not pay like it?
I do not mean to offend firefighters, but if the finances are a problem, hard financial decisions need to occur. Finances should dictate pay because if costs outweigh revenue, it’s a disaster for everyone.
How can a guy using a nick like “Captain Obvious” not see the obvious facts?
Pension reform has already taken place. So have wage concessions. Just like the fact that pension costs didn’t get large overnight, neither does the payoff of reform.
Instead of repeating a talking point you read somewhere, put some context and numbers to it.
As for your line about “how come the public always…” you have have not paid one thin dime over and above your basic property taxes for fire services. Not one. So get off that tired BS.
When private sector business suffer 40% revenue losses and are unable to recover, then eventually close locations. This Department experienced just that during the height of the property value tanking. They are still down 25% from 2008 on revenue, but costs that are out of their control haven’t stopped climbing during that period.
Those are facts that even “Captain Obvious” should be able to see.
You are not going to pay professional fire fighters 12 bucks an hour and have anything resembling adequate service or decent employee retention. In the pursuit of saving a nickel today, you lost sight of the money losing concept of high turnover. It’s true for both the private and public sector. Seeking it out with a pay scale that encourages that turnover it is about as damn ridiculous as it gets.
The fire fighters have made the sacrifices here for years. The contract negotiation facts and results bear this out. The public, meanwhile, has been content to become ignorant and lazy to the point of being unwilling to learn the facts. They would rather repeat BS talking points served up by taxpayer groups promoting political agendas over public safety.
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Karma’s a bitch and you’re about to meet her face to face, Buddy.
@ Captain Clueless,
Pension reform doesn’t yield immediate savings. It takes years and decades. According to the California State constitution and the Internal Revenue Service pension reform cannot be regressive. Only new hires can be hired under a new pension system.
The public is suffering because they were never paying for adequate services in the first place. You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip. There was no irresponsible spending by the government. There has been a lack of revenue due to declining home values and decreased property tax revenue. Voters are unwilling to tax themselves for the real cost of adequate fire protection. That equation is what has the public suffering.
It’s nice to know that the FD employees have your blessing to seek employment where they are compensated fairly and have a secure future where they can provide for their families.
Firefighters need jobs and now we see first hand what drives them to leave for a better employment. We have now lost the top tier and they have taken years of institutional knowledge and experience with them. It’s good to know that you are ok with a marginalized department of first responders. Just remember, these are the very same people that protect your home, your life and those of your loved ones.
You didn’t mean to offend firefighters? Eh?? Come again?? I guess that wasn’t very obvious. I guess I missed the non offensive part between your criticism of the job, criticism of the individuals, the suggestion of cutting their retirements and farming out their means of employment to volunteers.
You are obviously something, but obviously not a captain.
This boat has sailed. Everyone is jumping ship. Pension payments increase by 40% so cut services and risk lives. Maybe start over with a different union that has a more realistic pension. Attack the problem at the problem.
Another day, another episode of Clueless Chuck.
If ECCFPD was being funded at even the same levels as ConFire we are not watching stations being closed or service being cut. In fact, we’d be at 7 stations or better. But because they get only 6.5 cents on the property tax dollar, here’s the result.
Do you know why the pension line item has increased, Chuck? Or does your simpleton logic preclude you from learning the facts?
I’ll give you a hint, it’s not because pension benefits were increased. Because the exact opposite took place.
But let’s see how long you want to lie to the readers.
As noted to your buddy below, you are not going to further cut pay to fire fighters to the equivalent of 12 bucks an hour. The sooner you start discussing the full set of facts and not just the ones that suit your agenda, the sooner we can get on a path to a solution. This District was never funded properly in the first place.
People working for nothing for you is not a solution. Neither is the idea of fire fighters working without retirement plans or benefits.
Only in selfish America do people like you weigh in on blogs and suggest that the lowest paid department in the Bay Area should be taking more hits to compensation.
Once you can put your big boy pants on and start discussing the revenue problem with an ounce of integrity, then we can start on the path to solving the problem.
Until then, don’t let your stove go unattended. Might not end well.
So what you are saying Erin is that the Supervisors knew the ECCFPD was started with underfunding and allowed to dive deeper into debt. Why would the Supervisors dump the fire district on east county knowing it was underfunded ? The Supervisors should have merged and corrected the problem before washing their hands of it. Now the union has spoke and recommends a con fire take over. This is the only true solution The supervisors need to make right the mess they made. The sooner the better.
@ Chuck
I said nothing of the sort.
Either you haven’t been in east county very long or you haven’t paid attention to what has transpired with our small fire department.
When the department formed as a paid department the county supervisors ran it by default until it could be converted into a district fire department (there are two kinds of fire districts, dependent and independent). During that time and under county control, the department had more fire stations and manpower and money in reserves.
Local leaders within the cities of Brentwood and Oakley complained, demanding the department be handed over for local control. The held belief was that a fire tax would have a better chance of passing locally rather than coming from Martinez. This went on for several years until the board of supervisors and lafco sanctioned it. From what I have learned, the district was handed over with millions in financial reserves, conditions and recommendations going forward. The new fire directors were supposed to immediately convert to an independent special district with an elected board and seek out their own revenue. To date and after many years, neither has occurred. From my viewpoint local control has failed the people, the firefighters and themselves in both regards.
Where you seem to be confused Chuck is that the department (and con fire) are not county fire departments. Con fire is short for consolidated fire, not county fire. The board of supervisors directs it by default, just like they did with east county fire, which is why neither is funded out of the general fund.
I’m not sure I have heard anyone on the fire board officially talk of a consolidation. I don’t think the firemen’s union has any say on that.
All of this is verifiable through public records, from lafco and the county.
In the meanwhile you should stop perpetuating rumors.
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