Two and a half hours into last night’s council meeting—and seven years since the council first began considering consolidating with a neighboring fire district—the Sebastopol City Council approved a plan to merge the Sebastopol Fire Department into the Gold Ridge Fire Protection District.
The presentation began early in the evening with a report from councilmembers Neysa Hinton and Jill McLewis, members of the Fire Ad Hoc committee. Hinton began by acknowledging, with her voice breaking, that “This is super-emotional for our community.” Then Hinton, McLewis, Interim Fire Chief Todd Derum and City Manager Don Schwartz laid out the case for why consolidation was necessary and why they recommended Gold Ridge, as opposed to Graton Fire, as their partner.
McLewis emphasized the thoroughness of the process—seven years of conversation, numerous community meetings, three fire ad hoc committees, multiple reports and a fire study, plus—just in this most recent round—more than 33 meetings with city staff, firefighters, fire chiefs and fire boards of directors.
Both Hinton and McLewis emphasized that they did not have their minds made up before the process began. McLewis, in fact, like Councilmember Sandra Maurer, ran on the promise of keeping the Sebastopol Fire Department independent.
But to paraphrase something said in the council chamber later in the evening, “Feelings are feelings, but numbers are numbers.”
Organizational and public safety reasons to consolidate with Gold Ridge
Derum laid out three essential features of a well-functioning fire department: “Is it reliable? Is it sustainable? Is it adaptable?” he asked.
“In terms of reliability, it is amazing what this city and volunteer firefighters have done,” he said. “We're on track to exceed 1,400 calls a year. That's over an average of four a day. (I think today we're up to six, and Sunday there were nine calls and that was just before I went home at 5:30 in the evening.) Nearly 230-250 of those calls are back-to-back or simultaneous. That is a huge demand to place on volunteers.”
“Our intent is not to get rid of volunteers; it’s to honor them and support them in their commitment, but we have to have the reliability, and right now it's vulnerable given the number of calls, the projected number of calls and the demands. Relying solely on [volunteer] firefighters and one or two paid staff is not adequate,” Derum said.
While praising the efforts of the volunteers, Derum said that there have been times when the station couldn’t muster enough people to respond to a call—or to respond to it adequately.
“Firefighting quite frankly—and I'm saying this with all due respect—it's a team sport. It takes a team to respond and be efficient, effective and safe—not only safe for our community but for the firefighters that are providing that level of service.”
“Training and standard operating procedures are key to success. When a fire engine arrives to a house that's on fire, there's a number of key tasks that have to be done either sequentially or simultaneously. So you need to have three or four people in that first engine, followed up by another three or four. Ultimately, in our arrangement, by national standards we would want about 15 people there within nine minutes. That's the national standard for a community our size. We're not quite there, but we need to target that in the future.”
Derum also talked about what he called, “the speed and weight of response.”
“When I first took this job, there was a lot of talk around response time. As mentioned earlier by councilmembers, response time is critical. We all know if you stop breathing for four to six minutes there's a possibility of brain damage. We know in a fire in a residential structure that a condition known as flashover extends from the room where it starts into the other rooms in a short period of time as well. So speed is necessary.”
“But equally as important is the weight of the response,” he said, “and the weight of the response is the trained and qualified women and men on that fire engine to provide those key tasks. That first engine shows up. The company officer gives a report on condition; they do a size up; they pull an attack line; they secure the utilities. By Cal OSHA regulation, before two people go in and fight a fire, you have to have two people outside. That's why you need that next engine real quick. So it's not just the speed of a fire engine getting there, but it's the speed of a fire engine getting there with a trained and qualified crew. Just to reiterate: the national standard for a community our size is 15 firefighters in nine minutes, 90% of the time. That's what we should be aiming for.”
He noted that larger fire districts like Gold Ridge have a greater depth of resources—both apparatus and personnel. He also praised their depth of leadership—both strategic and day to day—and the fact that they had a fire marshal and offered a greater range of opportunities for volunteers.
Ultimately Derum compared consolidation to graduation.
“It is a little bit emotional for me even though I've been here a short time,” he said. “I recognize the value and the dedication. I recognize the tradition of a fire department established in 1902. And to make that change is going to hurt. It's going to come with growing pains. But so was watching my granddaughter graduate from grammar school and later high school. She didn't graduate because she was a failure. She outgrew the model that she was in; she had new challenges presented in front of her and needed to prepare herself. I’d like to look at this next step through that lens.”
Financial reasoning for consolidation with Gold Ridge
City Manager Don Schwartz handled the financial piece of the presentation.
Before introducing the numbers, he warned, “These are starting points, and they’re estimates. They’re not precise. This is what I’ve called in the report ‘the end of the beginning,’”—quoting Churchill—“not the final shot; and there's a way to go. But we're confident enough in the numbers to make a recommendation to the full council to make a decision.”
“We looked at three options: staying independent, going with Gold Ridge, or going with Graton,” Schwartz said.
The upshot of this analysis looked like this:
Independent
Revenue potential: $2.7 million
Operating expenses: $2.5 million
Available: $200,000 a year, which is likely insufficient for fleet or building
Gold Ridge
Revenue potential: $3.8 million
Operating expenses: $2.1 million
Available:$1.7 million sufficient for fleet and building
Graton
Revenue potential: $3.7 million
Operating expenses: $2.7 million
Available: $1 million — could be sufficient for fleet and building
The relatively higher revenues listed for Gold Ridge and Graton are due to the fact that residents in those fire districts pay a parcel tax. For Gold Ridge it’s $265 a year for a single family home. If and when the Sebastopol Fire Department consolidates with one of those fire districts, their parcel tax structure would automatically apply to all property owners in Sebastopol.
Schwartz said the Fire Ad Hoc Report was recommending Gold Ridge because it was the highest rated for service quality; had stronger, deeper leadership; was most cost-effective; presented the most strategic proposal; had better governance opportunities for Sebastopol; prior experience with mergers; and strong support for volunteers.
Next Steps
Schwartz laid out the following next steps, which also happened to be what the city council would be voting to approve that night.
City Council direct staff to move forward with the merger of the Sebastopol Volunteer Fire Department with the Gold Ridge Fire Department; and
City Council direct staff to send a letter to the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), requesting initiation of the consolidation process, including a waiver of fees to the extent feasible; and
City Council authorize staff to take other actions as needed to initiate process with LAFCO, including payment of $10,000 deposit from Fire Department budget; and
Council authorize the City Manager to enter into a short-term agreement with Gold Ridge to provide Chief Officer services at the Sebastopol Fire Station during the transition period while developing a longer-term agreement subject to the approval of the City Council and Gold Ridge Board of Directors; and
Council Terminate Current Ad Hoc Fire Committee; and
Council Authorize Creation of new Ad Hoc Committee and Appointment to Ad Hoc Committee to represent the City in negotiations with LAFCO and the Gold Ridge Fire Department and related matters, with a description of tasks, roles, and responsibilities to be presented to the City Council for approval at a future Council meeting; and
City Staff to terminate recruitment for Fire Chief for City of Sebastopol, thereby terminating the 960 Annuitant Agreement with Todd Derum; and
Authorize the City Manager to explore Consulting Services for Negotiations and related assistance for Consolidation.
Hinton and McLewis wrapped up the presentation. After tracing the path that brought her to this decision (see the arguments above), Hinton said, “I feel really solid about my recommendation tonight to consolidate with Gold Ridge.”
McLewis said that she had really struggled with the idea of consolidation, since she had opposed it during her campaign, but ultimately she indicated that going through the decision process over the last several months changed her mind.
“Knowledge is power,” she said. “Listening to all the experts and them telling us the ways in which we're doing great and the ways where we really need to step it up. And then looking at all the finance challenges…when we looked at all the costs involved and the final financial proposal—that also weighed on me…It's been a very windy road to get to this point that I, too, feel very solid in this recommendation.”
She also recommended the city come up with some kind of monument to Sebastopol’s volunteer firefighters. “Whether it's a statue, whether it's a wall, whatever it is, to honor the past, the present and future volunteer firefighters. I think they deserve that.”
There were a few minor changes to the list of next steps. Both Hinton and McLewis signed on to be members of the new Fire Ad Hoc committee. Shepley Schroth-Cary also recommended that the city set aside some money to do public education and outreach about consolidation, especially given the resistance to it in the past. This was added as point #9.
Public comment for and against
Speaking of resistance, volunteer firefighters Shawn-Paul O’Dell and Cato Grace spoke against consolidation, both arguing that a financial plan for an independent fire station was not given due consideration. Both criticized the council for choosing a path that will simply impose a parcel tax on Sebastopol residents without their permission or their vote.
“And the end result is that you’ll lose control of your fire department,” Grace said.
Former council member Michael Carnacchi also spoke against consolidation. An amateur historian, he read a newspaper article from 1902 about the delivery and testing of the town’s first fire engine.
Oliver Dick spoke in favor of consolidation with Gold Ridge. A former city council candidate, who once opposed consolidation, he seems to have had the same change of heart as Jill McLewis. “I'm supporting this,” he said. “Thank you very much to the city manager and the ad hoc committee for what I think is a very professional and very, very thorough document. And I think for people who are really worried about this, this is kind of the end of the beginning. I think there's a long way to go” before consolidation is complete.
Sebastopol dentist Bryce Hetler also spoke in favor of consolidation. “I'm in full support of the merger. You have the emotions” he said, nodding to the volunteer firefighters, “but they have the economics. But there's a point where we need value, we need service. The volunteers have done an outstanding job, but at this point the town has outgrown that. With a merger and consolidation, we won't lose our identity; we’ll be part of a bigger team. I think that's the way to go. It'll serve the town better.”
A unanimous vote
In the end, the city council took the Fire Ad Hoc’s recommendation and voted unanimously to move forward with consolidation with Gold Ridge, approving all of the nine next steps.
“I'm just incredibly impressed by the thoroughness of this report,” Mayor Rich said before the vote. “I am really appreciative of the collaborative work done between our council members on the ad hoc committee and staff, with a special nod to our interim fire chief who stepped in to the middle of this. Having been on the city council for four years and seen a portion of the history that Councilmember Hinton was describing, I think it's an incredible culmination of a huge amount of work. And I recognize that for some individuals, for some firefighters, this is not going to feel right—and we've heard from a couple of them. But I sit here as an individual who needs to vote with the city of Sebastopol’s interests in mind, and overall I just think that this proposal is the proposal that serves the city of Sebastopol the best in a sustainable way into the future.”
Read the full Fire Ad Hoc report here.
Thank you, as always, for this excellent write-up. Pardon my ignorance, but does the merger mean that the actual, physical Sebastopol fire station will be closing?
Painful but necessary.