First draft of fire district study available to key staff
By Kara Chalmers
The government consulting group, DMG Maximus, sent the Saratoga Fire District its first progress report on April 4, on the level of the district's fire and medical services.
The initial report is a profile of the district. It documents the district organization and the duties of the staff. The report does not present any conclusions. Rather, it presents all the data the consultants have collected so far from interviews with SFD firefighters and administration.
Last September, when SFD commissioners did not act on the SFD union firefighters' wishes to merge with the Santa Clara County Fire Department, the firefighters agreed to support a bond measure for a new fire station if such a study was done. In January, SFD commissioners hired DMG Maximus to carry out the study. When it is complete, the firefighters hope that at least one of the consultants' recommendations will be to contract with the county, which serves the part of Saratoga that the SFD does not.
The draft report states that its purpose is to ensure that the consultants have correct information, since the information will be used to assess the district. According to DMG Maximus' Matt Dhillon, one of the two consultants on the project, the initial report is a work in progress and is a draft only that should be reviewed, corrected or added to by "key personnel" in the district. Dhillon, Egan and SFD Chief Ernie Kraule agree that there are mistakes and inaccuracies in the draft report.
Dhillon said that the group will issue a follow-up, corrected document within the next few weeks, and the final report will be complete within the next few months.
Egan, who is handling the project for the board, did not receive the April 4 report until the week of April 10, when he returned from vacation. According to Egan, because of the flurry of activity surrounding the bond measure for a new fire station on April 11, he didn't look at the report until April 12.
On April 13, he distributed copies of the report to the members of the fire services study committee: the Santa Clara County Fire Department Chief Douglas Sporleder; Frank Lemmon of Saratoga's Public Safety Commission; SFD Chief Kraule; Lane Long, a consultant the district hired to help with the project; the other two commissioners; and Captain Bill Morrison, who is the union president.
In August 1999, union firefighters announced they would not support a bond measure for a new station that, a few weeks earlier, the three commissioners had voted unanimously to place on the November 1999 ballot. Although they saw the need, the firefighters said that the new station the commissioners had in mind was too large and expensive. They also said that the purchase of office space in back of the station for administration and dispatch would duplicate the functions of the county department, with which they wanted to merge.
Union firefighters still maintain that a merger with the county would provide a better level of service for the firefighters and Saratogans than that which the SFD provides today. Commissioners disagreed then and they still disagree. They do not see a problem with the SFD's level of service.
But both the firefighters and the commissioners agreed in November to do what the consultants suggest is the best and most cost-effective solution. Both sides also agreed then that the station on the corner of Saratoga Avenue and Highway 9 had to be replaced. The district placed a bond measure on the April 11 ballot to replace the station. It passed with flying colors.
The purpose of the level of service study is to "evaluate the fire and emergency medical services needs of Saratoga; identify the best and most cost-effective level of service possible; and determine the extent to which present fire protection and life safety services provided by the Saratoga Fire District meet the current and projected future needs of the community," according to the commissioners' request for proposals (RFP) form.
But, in December, after the firefighters had agreed to back a bond measure, commissioners decided that the study should only cover the SFD, not the entire city, and that the county fire department should not be asked to contribute to the cost of the study. The reason, according to SFD Commission chairman Bob Egan, was that the chief of the county fire department did not ask that the consultants study the county department.
This decision concerned the union firefighters who said they did not understand why the commissioners limited the study to only the district's coverage area. Also, because the district was paying for the study and not splitting the cost with the county, the firefighters were afraid the study might be biased.
"When the RFP (request for proposals) went out, it mentioned the whole city," said union boss Morrison. He said that because the SFD doesn't cover the entire city, the consultants also should look at the county's fire department.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
