By Julia Scott
Inside Bay Area (California)
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All Rights Reserved
HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — Coastside residents have gotten used to the sight of their local firefighters around town this month — not on firetrucks with sirens blaring but in front of the local post office and coffee shop, bearing clipboards with a petition to sign.
Overriding firefighters’ vehement objections, the joint boards of directors of the Half Moon Bay and Point Montara fire districts voted on Jan. 30 to enter into a three-year contract for fire services with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Two joint fire board members who had spoken out against the outsourcing proposal were absent at the time of the meeting, and the resolution passed unanimously.
On Feb. 5, less than a week after the controversial vote, district firefighters began collecting signatures on a petition aimed at giving Coastside residents the chance to vote on whether to overturn the move. The Half Moon Bay and Point Montara districts, which are in the midst of consolidating their own administrative and fire services, serve a population of roughly 25,000 residents.
The firefighters already have collected about 1,500 signatures and will keep collecting them until Tuesday, said Half Moon Bay fire Capt. Ari Delay. Delay is leading the latest petition effort. A previous one organized for the same reason in the fall collected the same number of signatures but could not proceed because the fire agencies had not come to a final vote.
“The message is very straightforward and clear — this department’ssuccessfully operated for years, and we’re trying to keep it local,” said Delay.
Firefighters will need to collect a minimum of 667 signatures within the Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District and some 300 signatures from Point Montara-area residents to qualify the petition for a referendum, said David Tom, elections manager for San Mateo County. Once the signatures are verified, Tom said it would be up to the fire districts’ board members whether to overturn their vote to outsource fire services, which would presumably also cancel their contract with CDF, or to put the item on the ballot in the next general election.
At a dollar a person, choosing the latter route would cost district taxpayers approximately $14,000, Tom said.
Becoming CDF employees would mean major changes for Coastside firefighters. Their 56-hour weekly shifts would become 72-hour shifts, keeping them away from home for longer periods. Half Moon Bay and Point Montara firefighters would all be guaranteed a job at their current pay rate — but their salaries would be frozen for up to 10 years.
“It would force most of our guys to look for work elsewhere,” said Chip Pickard, a firefighter paramedic with the Half Moon Bay Fire Department. “I’d say two-thirds of our guys are testing out (with other fire departments) right now in case CDF comes in.”
Firefighters argue that although the board of directors would be able to set policy and pass ordinances pertaining to the programs proposed by CDF, the state would bring in their own fire chief, who would ultimately not answer to local officials.
The joint fire boards began discussing the possibility of contracting neighboring fire agencies last March after interim fire Chief Pete Bonano released a scathing memo blaming mismanagement and “a culture of lawsuits, grievances and excessive sick leave” for the agency’s tenuous financial situation. Both Bonano and a Civil Grand Jury report released in June recommended outsourcing fire services.
Half Moon Bay Fire District Board President Gary Burke said the new agreement, under which CDF will receive
$5,472,000 to provide for salaries and benefits, would save the district a considerable amount of money without affecting quality of service.
“There are enormous cost benefits to us -- probably in the neighborhood of $1 million in savings,” said Burke. “As of today, we do not have a dime in reserve if we needed to buy a new fire engine.”
An audit of the Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District’s finances, released in June, said the lack of reserves represented a “significant challenge” to a district that already saw its expenditures exceed its revenues by over $250,000 in 2006.
Burke said the firefighters’ alternative proposal, to hire a permanent fire chief who could get the district back on its feet, was “trying to go back to a system that has been described as dysfunctional for years.
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Burke said.
The question remains as to whether outsourcing fire services is legally referendable. Assistant County Counsel Michael Murphy said he had never heard of a referendum held by a fire district in his 25 years working in San Mateo County. But that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t qualify, he said.
“It gets really complicated. It’s something we’ll have an answer to when we get the petition,” said Murphy.
Regional CDF fire Chief John Ferreira said that none of the 10 Bay Area fire agencies that currently contract with CDF had ever held a referendum on the issue.
“I accept that they’re going to do what they can to avoid change,” Ferreira said. Change is hard for everybody.”