By Marc Benjamin
Fresno Bee (California)
Copyright 2006 McClatchy Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Voters in the North Central Fire Protection District will decide in November whether the district will contract with Fresno’s Fire Department.
Board members voted 4-0 Wednesday to approve a measure binding them to what voters decide on the November election ballot. The board also unanimously approved the contract contingent on voter approval.
Board members chose the binding measure rather than an advisory proposal, which would have allowed the board to use voters as a guide but wouldn’t have forced them to do what voters decreed.
The measure would allow the district board to remain intact while its 50 employees become Fresno city workers. Under the plan, two North Central fire stations would close in northwest Fresno, but the city of Fresno would cover those areas with stations of its own nearby.
The district would pay about $5 million in the contract’s first year, a price that would rise annually with the cost of living.
Despite the 4-0 vote, board member Dennis Yates said he thinks the board needed to approve the contract already.
“I can’t believe we are going to spend $8,000 for people to tell us how inept we are at making a decision,” he said.
The contract with the city has been deadlocked in a 2-2 board vote.
Yates and board member Rusty Nonini have supported the plan, while board member Ken Abrahamian and Chairwoman Cheryl Belluomini have opposed it. The fifth member, Rusty Souza, has not voted on the issue because his job with the Fresno County Fire Protection District constitutes a conflict.
Belluomini said she can “live with the majority” vote, and Abrahamian also said he was comfortable with the binding measure.
“I want to put this issue to rest and let the people decide,” he said.
The measure will cost between $6,000 and $8,000 to place on the ballot.
Stations that would close under the plan are at Bullard and West avenues and Grantland and Shields avenues to avoid duplication of services from city stations nearby. Both stations would be used as paramedic stations by American Ambulance.
Fresno intends to staff the three remaining North Central stations in Biola, in Kerman and near Rolinda with additional firefighters. In Kerman, the station is proposed to be staffed with four firefighters, while the Biola and Rolinda stations would have three each, an increase from two under North Central’s existing staffing arrangement.
North Central Fire Chief Lonnie Downs said that under the contract 32 firefighters would cover the district in a 24-hour period instead of the 11 or 12 in a 24-hour period used by North Central now. Those additional firefighters also would respond to emergencies in the city of Fresno, but they would be available to North Central residents, too.