City manager proposes hiring six firefighters

At the Oct. 10 Hollister City Council study session, City Manager Bill Avera and Hollister Fire Chief Bob Martin Del Campo reported on the fire department’s staffing levels and capabilities. After council discussion and comments from the public, Avera said he would bring back a recommendation to the council at its Oct. 17 meeting to approve the hiring of six full-time firefighters along with a supplemental appropriation, which would bring the department up to a total of 36 permanent firefighters.

As the meeting began, Avera said he wanted to explain how the city got to where it is regarding the number of permanent firefighters, and to clear the air about recent comments concerning the SAFER grant that had funded 12 reserve firefighters, who were released Oct. 7. Avera explained how the city received its first SAFER grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) two-and-a-half years ago, which enabled the city to hire the 12 reserve firefighters. The grant expired in April. Then, the city applied to FEMA for a one-time extension — essentially a second grant. To keep the 12 reserves on the job until Sept. 30 while awaiting word from FEMA, the city provided funding of $166,000.

Avera also wanted to respond to a claim made by Congressional Candidate Jimmy Panetta—which he walked back the next day—during the Oct. 6 “Use Your Voice” election forum. Panetta said that evening that the city did not receive the SAFER grant because the paperwork was not completed in sufficient detail. Avera responded that the city routinely hires a grant writer who has successfully secured three out of four grants sought, including a FEMA grant that funded a water tender.

“He prepared not only the original grant, but also the extension,” Avera said of the grant writer. “It would not be in his best interest to not provide the information or not submit a completed application on time.”

Avera went on to explain that even though the 12 firefighters had to be released when the SAFER grant was not awarded on Oct. 3, there was still a a possibility that it may yet be awarded to the city.

“As of today, we still have not received a notice that we weren’t awarded (the grant),” he said, “so, I just wanted to make sure you folks know that the SAFER program has not denied our application at this point.”

During his report, Del Campo said that for a city of 37,000 people, and if the fire department had 36 firefighters, the desired ratio of one firefighter per 1,000 people would be met. Thirty-six firefighters would be sustainable, he said, and would allow the city to meet its contracted obligations to provide services to the county and San Juan Bautista, with limited overtime.

Del Campo went over the current fire department budget that funds 34 full-time firefighters in Hollister. Two additional firefighters are currently being funded by the Panoche Valley Solar Project.

“The budget will be $6.3 million and salaries will be $2.9 million,” he said, explaining that overtime would amount to $325,000, based on 5 percent or less of the budget.”

Councilman Raymond Friend asked when the contract was signed to support the county. Mayor Ignacio Velazquez told him it was at the end of 2012. Friend went on to ask if the staffing level and budget Del Campo had just explained included the county’s contribution. Del Campo said it did and Friend wondered why Stations 3 (the new station to be located on Fairview Road) or 4 (in San Juan Bautista) had not been included in his presentation. Del Campo responded that he did not do so in case the contract changed. He said, though, that the staffing would be kept at levels currently dictated by the contract. Friend said that if four firefighters were essentially being kept out of the city, the one firefighter per 1,000 people would change. Del Campo concurred and said it would, instead, be 36 firefighters to a population of 58,000, covering 1,400 square miles.

“To reach the staffing level you want, does that mean we will have to renegotiate the contract?” Friend asked.

Del Campo responded, “That would be the responsibility of my city fathers and mothers to deal with. My recommendation would be to increase staffing to meet that staffing level of 58,000. So if you have 58,000 people in this community, over 50 firefighters would suffice.”

Friend asked him if the chief had shown the presentation to county supervisors, which Del Campo said he had not. Then Friend questioned how six firefighters for the city and two for South County could drop projected overtime to $700,000.

“I don’t understand how losing 12 and gaining back six you drop your overtime,” he said.

“By maintaining the contract and being able to satisfy the requirement of service there’s still going to be expected overtime,” he said. “It is below effective measures for the community, but will suffice, with the expectation of an increase in overtime. I can’t forecast what that overtime might be, but it’s not going to be the $325,000 that was allocated at the beginning of the fiscal year. It’s going to increase significantly, but it’s not going to be the $1.4 million that it was.”

Friend also said that he felt the levels of service were possibly more than other jurisdictions were covering. He wondered if it were possible to renegotiate the contract so 85 percent of the department’s calls are medical responses. He questioned the logic of automatically sending a fire engine with three people on every medical call and said perhaps the contract with the ambulance service should also be renegotiated, which he said might spread the budget further.

Del Campo said he would be glad to consider anything, as long as it falls within the guidelines of Title 22 (the state law that determines emergency responses). He said once 911 is involved, emergency responders automatically have certain responses they must adhere to in order to “stop the clock” to stabilize a person and prevent brain death. He explained that because the fire stations are located within the city and that there are only two ambulances at a time, according to the contract, in the county, the fire department gets the majority of the calls.

Friend continued to pose questions regarding changing the contract with the county. Avera interjected that he had three goals: He wanted to assure that the city remained obligated to its contracts and that renegotiation is not something he wanted to do, asserting that it wouldn’t be right for him to say things have changed—even though they had—and that the city is obligated to fulfill the contract. He also said he wanted to keep the community and the firefighters as safe as possible. And he wanted to be able to pay for the services now and in the future. He clarified that the county has the contract with the ambulance service, not the city.

Councilwoman Mickie Luna asked the chief, regarding his presentation, if someone called in ill or wanted to trade shifts would both have the same qualifications. Del Campo said they would. She also asked what percentage of the overtime is for the code enforcement person. Del Campo told her it was zero. Avera explained that code enforcement officers are exempt employees, therefore they do not qualify for overtime pay. She asked if the new code enforcement officer who will be hired soon will be bilingual. He said two of the three being considered were bilingual.

When Councilman Karson Klauer questioned the dollar amount for overtime, based on 7 percent of the overall budget, he came up with $425,000, rather than the $325,000 previously mentioned. He said he would prefer to see the larger number now as well as next year because, “we really don’t know how this works in terms of the actual numbers of running the department. Last year, we were just guessing and that seems to be what we’ve been doing the last three or four years. If we could get realistic numbers moving forward, that would be helpful.”

The chief responded that he would be able to “generate real numbers…or be close.”

Tim Burns, who is running for Victor Gomez’ council seat, said he was concerned about the direction the city was headed and that had not heard any comments about how response times would be affected by all the new development in the city, or how fire insurance rates will be affected, or if homeowner’s insurance rates would increase as a result in a lack of service.

“I have not heard how the budget is going to be directly affected by this proposal or how the funds will be allocated,” he said. “I have not heard much of anything other than this is as well as we can do. I have not heard anything about what the firefighters’ perspective on this is.”

Burns said he disagreed with the mayor’s stand on using reserves and that while they played a certain role, they were not full-time firefighters and he did not want his safety compromised as a result of the fire department continuing to be a training department.

“They can augment the fire department, but they should not be used to replace current, full-time employees simply because it’s convenient to the city, the county, or San Juan Bautista,” Burns said. “I think there’s a lot more work that needs to be addressed and I’m really frustrated with this council because you’ve had two-and-a-half years. It’s incredible that you would take the grant and not find an alternative source for funding.”

The mayor said he wanted to address Burns’ comments in order to bring clarity to him and the audience. He referred to 2012, when the city had 22 firefighters. He said the council and community discussed how to strengthen the fire department, which resulted in 28 more firefighters plus reserves being hired. He said the intent of the reserves is to back up the full-time firefighters, and receive training. He emphasized that reserves will never be used to fight fires.

“This costs today, $500,000,” Velazquez said. “The cost without the partnership with the county is another $1.5 million. You ask how come we haven’t done anything. It’s very clear. We’ve been busy paying down debt that was incurred over the years: $10 million at 7-and-a-half percent, which is $750,000 in interest alone. The city was going broke. We’ve done a great job as a council paying down debt, so we can get ready to start fixing our roads, do infrastructure improvements, and all of the other quality-of-life improvements we need to do in this community. That’s what we’ve been doing.”

The mayor said the council wants to keep a strong fire department, which includes partnerships throughout the community.

“If I have an accident on Highway 156, I want to make sure our fire department gets there as quickly as possible,” he said. “That’s why the partnership is important.”

Burns came back with, “How’s that working for us now? This happened on your watch and you need to fix it.”

Hollister resident Marty Richman said he agreed with Klauer in that the $325,000 in overtime was not realistic.

“We’ve already blown off $173,000 in overtime in the first quarter and that’s a problem,” he said. “There’s no chance in the world we’re making $325,000. It’s disconcerting to hear the chief say, ‘I can give you a real number.’ I thought we were getting real numbers, but I knew they weren’t real numbers as soon as I saw $325,000.”

Richman said he agreed with Burns that the city has had two-and-a-half years to think about the situation and it made a mistake in counting on the SAFER grant because it is won only 12 percent of the time and 88 percent of the communities that apply for it don’t get it.

“No one can build staffing around an idea that you’re going to get another SAFER grant,” he said. “If you get it, you’re lucky. You should enjoy it and make the best of it. We should have saved $1 million off that SAFER grant because we had 12 people being paid by somebody else and that means we should have been able to put $1 million or $1.5 million aside.”

Richman also objected to fire fighters riding along in ambulances for free because it essentially means the city is supporting the for-profit ambulance company.

Avera took a moment to add to the mayor’s observations about paying down debt.

“In the last three years, we have gone from a $1.6 million reserve to a $5.3 million reserve,” he said. “I think that’s what that’s for, and this is, so to speak, the rainy day. I want everybody in the room to understand that why we’re able to have this discussion is because of the decisions the council has made and we have that reserve to spend.”

Vince Grewohl, president of the Hollister Firefighters’ Association, addressed the medical calls issue, saying the fire department has the obligation to provide safety for all citizens.

“It’s not up to us or to anybody else other than the medical dispatch, to determine who has an emergency,” he said. “I think it’s safe to say that five times a week we don’t have any ambulance coverage here in town because we’re either transporting out or waiting on ambulances from Monterey or Santa Clara County.”

Grewohl said he doesn’t know how anyone can commit to a specific amount of money for emergency response services because of the fast-growing population.

“To commit to a dollar amount when the projected population increase is 3,000 over the next three years, it’s hard to do,” he said, and then commented on reserves: “It’s a big component of our department. It’s a stepping stone, so we train people to our standards, hopefully, to come and work for us. Public safety should be your priority with paid, professional firefighters.”

As Grewhohl was receiving loud applause for his last comment, Friend took the moment to state that he resented those comments.

“For the union to think that we’re not protecting the city, we wouldn’t be having this meeting if we didn’t care,” Friend said. “We would just say we can’t make that budget, then cut it. For somebody to stand up here and say we don’t care about the firefighters, that’s bad.”