By Mike Rosenberg
San Mateo County Times
BELMONT, Calif. — Faced with losing their joint fire department, officials on Tuesday will begin debating the best and most affordable way to fight fires and respond to medical emergencies.
The Belmont City Council, acting as the Belmont Fire Protection District board, will launch what will prove to be a lengthy process on the future of the city’s fire services. The board must establish a new fire department by October 2011, when San Carlos will pull out of the joint fire department that has served both cities for the past 37 years.
Acting City Manager Thomas Fil said officials, with the help of consultants, will study whether to create the city’s own fire department, or contract services to Cal Fire or another local department. They could also share some fire services with other cities, as San Bruno and Millbrae do now, or potentially find a new partner to merge with.
Officials will not make any decisions at the meeting but will likely give their first thoughts on which options they would like to focus. They have already made clear that they would prefer to keep the same level of service over saving big bucks, but the city is facing a 7.5 percent drop in spending for the year starting in July after a 10 percent dip this year.
Fil said they will pay three consultants an attorney, a fire services expert and a certified public accountant to aid in their research. The trio also helped Belmont officials when they were deciding whether to remain fire partners with San Carlos in 2006 and 2007, a process that ultimately led the two cities to sign a new deal in April 2007.
The team will have to study how each option would affect the quality of service, costs, and more.
San Carlos officials in April voted to give Belmont an 18-month notice that they would be leaving the department, which is required under the joint agreement. San Carlos leaders, who are facing bigger budget problems than their Belmont counterparts, decided to contract out their fire department to save money but have yet to pick an agency to provide those services.
In a response letter dated May 4, Fil made sure to call San Carlos leaders’ attention to a provision in the agreement that requires both sides to “delegate all their firefighting resources and responsibilities to the joint fire department until the dissolution date.”
Belmont officials have not been willing to talk about service cuts to the department, which leaders in San Carlos have asked to explore.
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