With Labor Day coming and going, the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District said goodbye to Station 54 in Downtown Brentwood for the time being as they wait for the results of a benefit assessment later this fall.
In early August, the District made the decision to temporary close the station on September 1 because of a staffing shortage. The need to shutter a station comes as firefighters are leaving the financially strapped district for a guaranteed job at another fire district. ECCFPD is currently budgeted for 48-personnel, however, as of August 3 there were just 35-personnel—leaving 10 open positions to be filled.
The District will now operate on a 4-station model (Brentwood, Oakley, Discovery Bay and Knightsen).
The downtown Brentwood Station had been open in July and August with the District filling the shifts with overtime. In the month of August, the Station was opened only on days where three firefighters accepted overtime as they stopped requiring mandatory overtime.
The Chief did warn that if a Benefit Assessment fails later this fall, and the FEMA Grant runs out in November, Station 94 in Knightsen will also close.
Complicating matters is the fire district called for a special meeting on September 2 to discuss “Update on Fire Suppression Assessment Ballot Process and Discussion of Potential
Corrective Actions.”
Per Last Months Staff Report:
Station closure criteria:
The District has already gone through two rounds of station closures over the past four years. Prior to July, 2010, the District had eight fire stations. In July of 2010, the District consolidated response zones in the Discovery Bay and Byron area by closing Station 57 in Byron and Station 58 in Discovery Bay. This first round of station closures allowed the District to move personnel and establish three-person staffing in four of the six remaining stations. The call volume and
response times remained fairly consistent with suburban/rural criteria (as shown in both models/snapshots above).
In July 2012, after Measure S failed, the District closed three additional stations: Station 54 in downtown Brentwood, Station 94 in Knightsen and Station 95 in Bethel Island. These station closures resulted in layoffs of 15 full-time firefighters and the elimination of the paid on-call firefighter program. A three-station model was built with the remaining stations: Station 52 in Brentwood on Balfour Road, Station 59 in Discovery Bay on Bixler Road and Station 93 in Oakley on O’Hara Avenue. This three station model was able to provide the best coverage by using the ISO (Insurance Service Office) standards of having a fire station within 5 miles of most residents throughout the District. This model did increase the workload for personnel working out of the Brentwood and Oakley stations and the workload maintained fairly consistent in the Discovery Bay/Byron area as shown in the above model/snapshot above.
In August 2012 the District was awarded a federal SAFER Grant that provided funding to reopen two stations; in November 2012 Station 94 re-opened in Knightsen and in May 2013 Station 54 reopened in downtown Brentwood. The grant funding will end in November of this year.
Based on a review of call data during the subject time period, as the Fire Chief, I feel that this three station model, plus the District’s Cal Fire Amador contract, that was introduced in July 2012 provided the best possible coverage throughout the District. The workload for our firefighters was not consistent across the three stations during the time period when we operated under this model previously; however, the model did provide the lowest possible level of response time impacts throughout the District.
Staffing recommendations:
In light of diminished personnel, the Fire Chief plans a temporary closure of a single fire station effective September 1, 2014. To provide the best safety for our communities and firefighters, my plan is to temporarily close Station 54 in downtown Brentwood until we know the outcome of a potential fire suppression assessment being considered tonight. The four remaining stations surrounding Station 54 will pick up some of the call volume. The biggest impacts for coverage will be to Station 52 and Station 93. Additional personnel can be hired and trained, allowing Station 54 to reopen, if the assessment is adopted.
If the fire suppression assessment fails, the District will be required to close an additional station on December 1, 2014. Based on call data, staffing modeling and prior District experience, the District would close station 94 in Knightsen and return to the three station model introduced temporarily in July 2012. Operational changes to call responses and protocols will need to be implemented if we return to the three station model.
Editors Note –
For tonight’s special meeting, pay attention to the term “Corrective Actions” in the agenda which is code word for the Benefit Assessment being “cancelled” or “postponed” because once ballots are mailed out, nothing can really be changed.
Tonight’s Special Meeting:
ECCFPD
Tuesday September 2, 2014 – 6:30 P.M.
Meeting Location: 3231 Main Street, Oakley
6 comments
ECT normally I like what you write about the Fire District, but your reading into things and its pretty arrogant to say the Benefit Assessment Election will be cancelled or postponed when no info has been made available to anyone. Where do you come up with your info is what I want to know. Seems to me you are creating news instead of reporting it.
““Update on Fire Suppression Assessment Ballot Process and Discussion of Potential
Corrective Actions”
Ballots are out, they cannot change anything at this point. WTF!!!!!!
So, now they’ve spent all this time and money on this so called Benefit Assessment and are going to have to cancel it? I don’t see how they can postpone unless its a matter of parcels missed.
Political speak. They use it frequently so we don’t understand what they are saying. All politicians us it. Nice of Mike to point that out.
The problem is incorrect amounts on some of the ballots. Mine was in the $75 range when it should have been $110-$113 as previously outlined in the engineering report.
Would appear to be a data entry problem at some point in the submission to the printing and mailing vendor.
I know for a fact I’m not the only one with an incorrect amount on their ballot.
I can see no option but to cancel and reissue correct ballots. You cannot accept a vote on an amount different than you intend to assess.
Mine says $69. But that may be another error since there is a house on the property. I thought they were giving me a deal because of my support.That’s what you get for hiring a union affiliated consultant. Someone besides the landowners need to pay the fire district about 4 million when this entire cluster f is exposed. Everyone needs to check their info. If this goes through I’m only paying what is printed on my ballot. They should throw the whole thing out and start over at the expense on the error people. They should also shred all the unopened ballots while a neutral party watches. What a coincidence how the station closed. Nice try, the public is not that stupid. One more reason to merge with Con Fire.
Comments are closed.