Jay Baksa – Guest Columnist
Over the last week or so there have been a couple of letters to
the editor/columns concerning the Sunrise Fire Station and its
staffing.
Over the last week or so there have been a couple of letters to the editor/columns concerning the Sunrise Fire Station and its staffing.
The story of the Sunrise medic-staffing configuration has many twists and turns and goes back several years. Therefore, because the City of Gilroy has welcomed many brand new citizens into our community in general, and in the Northwest Quad specifically during that time, I hope the following listing of events will help you see that the Emergency Medical Squad staffing of the Sunrise station has a history and a logic.
• In the early 1990’s, the city’s Capital Improvement Budget starts to fiscally plan for the purchase of land for a third fire station in the mid to late 1990’s, and the construction of that station in the early 2000’s.
• In 1999 the city contracts to do a full Fire Operations and Facilities Master Plan. Within the 20 recommendations, the most noteworthy is the projected need for two additional fire stations on the city’s west side. The highest priority of need was in the northern portion of the west side or the Northwest Quad.
• Throughout the spring, summer, and fall of 1999, the city attempts to negotiate a new labor contract with the firefighter’s union.
• In the fall of 1999, the City Council places on the March 7, 2000 ballot a measure (called Measure M) that would fund the staffing of a three-person fire engine at the new station in the Northwest Quad. The additional funding would also allow for a full citywide paramedic first responder program.
• In late 1999, early 2000, the city and firefighter’s union cannot reach agreement in contract negotiations, and the binding arbitration process as outlined by the city’s charter is initiated.
• March 7, 2000 – though Measure M receives 58 percent of the vote; it fails because it does not obtain the 66 percent voter approval needed for passage.
• In May 2000, though unsure how to staff the third fire station because of the failure of Measure M, Council directs staff to locate and purchase a suitable site for the third fire station in the Northwest Quad. The site is located on Sunrise Drive and is purchased by February 2002.
• November 2000, Arbitrator Bonnie Bogue, rules that the city must immediately increase citywide daily staffing on both fire engines from three to four persons per engine. This binding arbitration decision costs the city around $750,000 per year.
• In light of the failure of Measure M and the required increase in staffing levels resulting from the decision of Arbitrator Bogue, in March 2001 the fire department (administration, supervisors, and union leadership) met in an all-day workshop to determine new options for the staffing of the third station.
After reviewing many different options, the workshop participants agreed upon a two-person Emergency Medical Service (EMS) squad. The group knew that the EMS squad was to be only an interim answer until the funding of a full four-person fire engine was available; however, their overriding considerations were: (1) an overwhelming majority of the department’s emergency calls for services were medical, and (2) they felt that an emergency medical response from the Sunrise station would improve patient care and result in quicker response times to the residents of the Northwest Quad area rather than the alternative of relying on an existing fire engine to respond from another more distant city location.
• In April 2001, the city administrator takes the EMS Squad concept to City Council, where it is approved. They also direct staff to budget for it in the 2001-2006 Financial Plan. In June 2001 Council approves that budget with nine new firefighter positions.
• In September 2001, the City Council approves the citywide paramedic first responder program, and the newly funded firefighters will now be hired as firefighter/paramedics.
• Jeff Clet is hired as Gilroy’s Fire Chief in February 2002, and is immediately tasked with implementing the citywide paramedic program, staffing the Sunrise station, and designing and building the Sunrise station.
• Chief Clet creates the work-plan to accomplish all three tasks listed above, and presents it to City Council in April 2002 for their review. The Council approves the plan at that same April workshop.
• In the fall of 2002, Chief Clet proposes that the two-person medic squad vehicle be constructed as a Supplemental Transport Ambulance Resource (STAR) vehicle instead of a “normal” squad-medic unit. The new type of vehicle would allow the department to offer improved emergency medical care, as well as, patient transport for critical patients (if American Medical Response-AMR ambulances were delayed or unavailable). Council approves the concept and the STAR car is ordered.
• In the fall/winter of 2002/2003, all the necessary contracts are approved by the City Council with AMR to allow the City to start paramedic service in early 2003.
• January 15, 2003 paramedic service starts out of the Las Animas Fire Station. March 1, 2003 paramedic service starts out of the Chestnut Fire Station. July 2003 paramedic service will begin at the Sunrise Station site in a temporary building.
• City Council approves the construction bid for the Sunrise Fire Station on June 2, 2003. Construction will start this summer.
A couple of quick observations based on the above chronology and the letters to the editor/columns. First, the impact/development fees that will be used to construct the Sunrise Fire Station can only be used for the capital construction and not for the funding of staff or operations. It is not the construction of the Sunrise station that is the problem portrayed in this letter; it was and continues to be the cost of the staffing, which must come out of the city’s general tax dollars.
Second, though one may not agree with the outcome of the above listed chronology, the process was open, and collaborative between the City Council, city administration, fire administration, fire union, and the public (no wool was pulled over anyone’s eyes, Mr. Wheeler). Finally, absent the Bogue binding arbitration decision, and given the current 2003 staffing levels, the city would be in the position of staffing a paramedic three-person fire engine company at the Sunrise station at this very moment.
The long chronology is important for your general information, but also to show that no one over the last several years was ever trying to deceive anyone. What it came down to was the city trying to make the best out of a series of events that could have totally jeopardized the staffing of the third fire station.
Mr. Mulhern questions the point of only half staffing (medic only). We all agree with you that the full funding/staffing of a fire engine at Sunrise is our ultimate goal, but to not implement anything in the Northwest Quad is not in anyone’s best interest. As my dad used to tell me when I couldn’t get everything I wanted, “It’s sometimes better to get something instead of nothing”.
For a full review of the fire department’s staff report, which includes a more detailed discussion of the above chronology including more on the capability of the STAR car, and the new medic service in the Northwest Quad, please link to www.gilroyfire.com.
Guest columnist Jay Baksa is the city administrator. He is available at 846-0202.
