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Politics & Government

Fire Dept Staffing Not Keeping Up With Demand, Firefighters Say

More than 20 positions remain vacant.

The Cosumnes Community Services District avoided layoffs and brown outs this year despite a dismal economic forecast, but firefighters in Elk Grove and Galt are heading into fire season with bare bones crews.

The preliminary $38.6 million fire department budget leaves 23 positions—including 13 firefighter spots—vacant.

Rescue engines equipped with the “jaws of life” to extricate crash victims from mangled vehicles also continue to operate with only three firefighters instead of four, the National Fire Protection Association’s recommended standard.

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“We’ve seen a very significant decline in revenue, and cuts we’ve made to date cannot be sustained long-term,” Fire Chief Tracey Hansen said. “We’d like very much not to continue to reduce service delivery, but if things decline it could happen.”

Most of the fire department’s revenue comes from property taxes.

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A drop in home values, rising foreclosures and a slowdown in development has resulted in a nearly 20 percent revenue loss for the department.

Property taxes will bring in an estimated $38.4 million in 2011-12, compared to $52 million three years ago, Hansen said.

“That’s a big hit,” Hansen said.

When the economy began its downward spiral, one of the ways the CSD cut back was to “borrow” the fourth firefighter from its two rescue engines to fill vacant spots and offset overtime costs.

This practice saves the district between $700,000 and $750,000 a year, Hansen said.

But it’s hardly ideal.

 “These engines have the heavy-duty kind of tools and supplies required to peel a car away from a patient,” Hansen said. “Because they can be very labor intensive and more high risk to operate, we (usually) staff those units with four personnel—a captain, engineer and two firefighters. It’s far more efficient.”

In addition to closing a battalion chief position in Galt, the department hasn’t hired any new personnel since 2008.

“We’re down to minimum staffing every day,” said Capt. Andy Angell, who serves as the firefighters’ union representative. “That gives us fewer boots on the ground and less ability to perform in a timely manner.

“We have no plans to hire anybody that I know of, and fire stations that would’ve been built have been delayed indefinitely.”

The last time the CSD opened a new fire station was in 2001, Angell added.

There are currently eight stations, including six in Elk Grove, for a fire district that stretches over 157 square miles from Calvine Road to the San Joaquin County line.

“You can drive around and find signs that say, ‘Future home of fire station’, but we have no plans to build them,” said Angell, who thinks there should be at least 10 stations. "They’re not on the backburner – they’re not even on the stove.”

In 2001, when the last fire station opened, Elk Grove’s population was roughly 70,000 compared to about 153,000 people today, Angell said.

“Our call volume continues to go up and up and up,” he said. “We’re up about 400 calls from this point last year. We’ve done nothing, really, to keep up with the growth.”

Still, the CSD Fire Department has been able to avoid more extreme measures.

Budget woes in neighboring Sacramento area fire departments have led to “brown outs,” the closure of fire stations on a rotating basis.

“We have been using our reserves because that is what they are for, but we need to make them last,” CSD Board President Michelle Orrock said. “I do think that we are faring better than most government entities, mostly because we did put money away during the good times.

"I can tell you that personally I want to avoid browning out fire stations, because that would impact our service delivery to the community.”

Orrock said it’s been a challenge to meet the community’s expectations while faced with declining property tax revenues as well as rising costs in employee benefits and other expenses out of the board’s control.

Board members also have to balance two very different interests—parks and recreation versus public safety.

“The overall challenge is to provide the same level of service that has become the norm,” Orrock said.

“While it would be great to be able to add the fourth firefighter back on the engines and bring a battalion chief back, we need to wait until projects like the mall and Laguna Ridge come online and the overall economy rebounds.”

The CSD Board of Directors is scheduled to formally adopt the 2011-12 fiscal year budget Aug. 3.

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