By Michael Weber
Chico Enterprise-Record
OROVILLE, Calif. — Oroville’s Fire Department is getting too many calls.
Cal Fire-Butte County Oroville Division Chief Chris Tenns informed the Oroville City Council that a steady increase in “preventable” calls for Oroville’s fire services have reached a point of abuse, mostly from private companies that rely on the public service because of “failed internal policies.”
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One particular address called 537 calls in one month, Tenns said, adding that the department’s resources were delayed for emergencies about 20 times in March because of avoidable, negligent or excessive calls.
Tenns said he would not name individual people or companies, but that something needed to be done about specific cases of excess calls that are “abusing the system.”
“A company, per se, is relying on taxpayer-funded resources to supplement their staffing levels, is what we’re really trying to get at,” Tenns said.
City councilors on Tuesday moved forward with creating an ordinance that would give the city authority to recover costs from “billable incidents” that are determined either by the Fire Chief or another designee.
Tenns said the ordinance, at its core, is about “protecting the ability to respond when it matters most” and “ensuring that preventable or repeated use of service does not place the full burden on the general taxpayer.”
“I want to be very clear about one point,” he added. “Nothing in this proposed ordinance should discourage anyone from calling 911.”
According to Tenns, the ordinance will have safeguards for fairness and financial impact to the public, with exceptions for real emergencies and an option to appeal.
He said that the city’s two fire engines are deployed on 30 to 40% of calls, and that engineers are often delayed in their response to true emergencies.
“There’s a lot of different scenarios where your engineers have not been able to respond because you’re supplementing somebody else’s low staffing levels in the private industry.”
Councilors brought the definition of “true emergencies” into question, with Councilor Janet Goodson expressing concern the city may be at risk of litigation if criteria for billing isn’t chosen correctly.
“Is it safe to say a cat up a tree is an emergency?” Goodson asked. “I don’t even own a cat, but that would be an emergency for some folks.”
Tenns said that every situation is different, but the cost recovery program will have a review process that he ultimately approves, and that 911 calls are already screened for non-emergent, life-threatening injuries.
“Typically whenever we respond without lights and sirens to a medical facility, because somebody has a non-emergent, life-threatening injury at a doctor’s office, potentially across the street from the hospital, we would deem that non-emergent,” Tenns said. “There’s a point it becomes abuse. We’re looking for companies that rely on taxpayer-funded resources to supplement their staffing levels. It’s not the average citizen.”
Mayor David Pittman, who once served as Oroville’s Fire Chief, said he’s seen some businesses call more than 100 times in a year because social workers couldn’t properly care for patients, and if companies “don’t have enough staff to move the patient, and they’re asking for our help, that to me is a very billable experience.”
With a minimum quota of four, Pittman, Goodson, Vice Mayor Eric Smith and Councilor Tracy Johnstone directed city staff to draft the ordinance.
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