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Amid stalled talks, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors suspended its fire services negotiation ad hoc committee and voted to end its participation in a countywide fire district feasibility study.
The board’s move came during its April 22 meeting, the morning after the Hollister City Council directed its own ad hoc committee to continue negotiations with the county and the city of San Juan Bautista.
On a 3-2 vote, the supervisors also gave the green light for another ad hoc committee, made up of Supervisors Angela Curro and Ignacio Velazquez, to meet and analyze creating its own fire department.
Board chair Kollin Kosmicki and Supervisors Dominic Zanger and Velazquez supported the moves while Supervisors Mindy Sotelo and Curro opposed them and called for continuing negotiations with Hollister and participation in the feasibility study.
Hollister city officials are seeking to increase San Juan Bautista’s and San Benito County’s shared rate for fire services by $3.9 million. They gave both jurisdictions until May 9 to make a one-time payment of $1.3 million as part of the offer.
According to the current contract, the city of Hollister is scheduled to receive a total of $2.6 million in calendar year 2025 from both jurisdictions and claims it is subsidizing the services to its partners by about $4 million. The city’s budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year is $16 million.
A majority of the supervisors—Kosmicki, Velazquez and Zanger—supported a plan where the county would pay $3.4 million annually in total with a 3% annual increase and a one-time payment of $1.1 million, noting that this is what the county can afford.
Hollister is asking a total of $6.5 million combined from both jurisdictions.
“Adding millions of dollars to fire services in a budget that is already a deficit budget will inherently mean cuts elsewhere in the county that will be painful,” Kosmicki said.
He and Velazquez acknowledged there will be large startup costs to create a county fire department, but argued the county could save money by controlling costs in the long run.
“The big difference in this whole conversation that seems to be getting lost is one-time versus operational,” Kosmicki said. “I’m concerned about the operational ongoing costs and we would have the ability to control those with our own fire department.”
The supervisors received a presentation from consultant Don Ashton in October that outlined seven options for fire-protection services. According to the presentation, creating a new fire department has “significant upfront costs” for infrastructure, equipment and staffing.
But Ashton also said this option could potentially be realized the quickest. He said the county would face challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified staff because the market for firefighters is competitive.
“Your competition keeps getting worse and worse,” Ashton said at that meeting. He noted that Cal Fire is looking to hire more than 2,000 firefighters and can offer higher wages. He also said the pool of firefighters has significantly shrunk over the last 20 years.
Velazquez said the city of Hollister could still send offers to the Board of Supervisors for consideration even though its ad hoc committee has been suspended.
Besides disagreeing on shared costs, the jurisdictions differ on the minimum staffing of fire engines. Citing costs, the county wants a minimum of two per engine, while the city of Hollister is offering a minimum of three for safety reasons and concerns over mutual aid expectations from neighboring fire departments.
Searching for a long-term solution, Hollister, San Juan Bautista and the county have partnered to conduct a county-wide fire district feasibility study. The three jurisdictions had agreed to split the $100,000 cost of the study, with the county and Hollister each sharing 45% of it and San Juan Bautista paying 10%.
But Velazquez said he wanted to suspend participating in the study because it was unlikely to be completed by the next election cycle, as voters need to approve creating a countywide district because it would be funded by additional taxes.
At the April 21 Hollister City Council meeting, Councilmember Rolan Resendiz said he opposed moving forward with the study but the council did not take action.
San Juan Buatista Mayor Leslie Jordan and Hollister Mayor Roxanne Stephens told BenitoLink it would be difficult to move forward with the study without the involvement of all three jurisdictions.
“The city still believes that a fire district is the best option for the future of fire service in this area,” Stephens said. “Our hope is that the county and city of San Juan Bautista join us in that feasibility study.”
Fire service costs have been an issue for Hollister for several years. Velazquez, when he was Hollister mayor, told the City Council on March 18, 2019, “We’re carrying the burden and we are subsidizing the county by quite a bit of dollars.” He added, “I’m raising the flag here, a warning flag. We’re headed for trouble—big financial trouble.”
The San Benito County 2022-23 Civil Grand Jury Report found that Hollister Fire Department’s resources were stretched thin due to staff shortages and equipment issues. Fire Chief Jonathan Goulding told the Board of Supervisors he had 41 firefighters including “quite a bit” on long-term disability. He said two firefighters on disability were not expected to return.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, most fire departments have between 1.5 and 1.8 firefighters per 1,000 residents. San Benito County’s ratio is 0.6 firefighters per 1,000 residents.
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