Gilroy Fire Department officials recently presented the City
Council with a wish list of approximately 21 items that the
department would like to implement during the next
15 years. The wish list took the form of an update on the fire
department’s master plan.
Gilroy Fire Department officials recently presented the City Council with a wish list of approximately 21 items that the department would like to implement during the next
15 years. The wish list took the form of an update on the fire department’s master plan.
We unequivocally agree that the Sunrise Fire Station ought to be fully equipped and staffed ASAP. It’s galling that while the Gilroy Police Department is beginning construction on a new police station with a
$27 million price tag, the fire department’s modestly priced, much-needed third fire station doesn’t even have a fire truck.
City Council members and city administrators seem to forget that the disparity between treatment of departments causes friction and lower morale among city employees. The glaring differences between the Sunrise Fire Station and the planned police department are just one example of the incongruity that city employees most assuredly note.
The station, which needs four firefighters to serve the nearly fully developed northwest quadrant homes, has only a captain and a firefighter/paramedic with just a STAR car parked inside.
The STAR car can take some medical patients to the hospital under very limited conditions. It has no firefighting capabilities.
But firefighters have to realize that they’ve limited the city’s ability to deliver on some of their wish list items because of their contract’s already generous retirement benefits.
Gilroy firefighters, as a result of binding arbitration after the city and the union failed to come to terms when the last labor agreement expired, get two percent of their last year’s salary, multiplied by how many years they served in the department, as their retirement pay.
Firefighters are pushing to increase that to a three percent benefit to match what Gilroy police officers and many other California firefighters receive.
The firefighters’ contract expires at the end of the year, and we’re hopeful that a bitter, protracted, two-year battle won’t mar negotiations this time around.
But the city, which already spends a huge percentage of revenues on public safety, does not have an unlimited pot of funds. Every dollar spent on public safety – which is an important priority, we grant – is still a dollar that cannot be spent on fixing roads, funding recreation programs or revitalizing Gilroy’s downtown – which are also important priorities.
Every dollar that is spent to compensate current Gilroy firefighters – who are important to Gilroy’s quality of life, we grant – is a dollar that can’t be spent on expanding the number of firefighters who protect our community – which is also important to keeping residents safe.
In a perfect world, we would wave a magic wand at the GFD’s wish list, and make it so. But we live in a world with limits on resources, necessitating setting priorities.
We urge Gilroy City Council members to put fully staffing and properly equipping the new Sunrise Fire Station at the top of its fire department to-do list.
Further, we hope they’ll remember to take a citywide, cross-departmental view as it sets priorities and spends money on any project, whether it is for the fire department, police department or recreation department.
