Revised fire district study unavailable to firefighters
It's second draft
By Kara Chalmers
DMG Maximus, a consulting firm the Saratoga Fire District hired to study the level of fire and medical services in the district, sent a second, revised draft of the study to the fire station, which reached him on July 21, according to SFD Chief Ernie Kraule.
The district's board of commissioners did not discuss the study itself when they met for their regular meeting on July 24. But Kraule said the report had come in and that he would distribute copies of it to members of the committee formed to oversee the study. The commissioners have not yet released the study to the public, according to commission Chairman Bob Egan.
"It's still in a draft stage," Kraule said at the meeting July 24. "It's still confidential material."
The committee, which includes union president Capt. Bill Morrison, planned to meet during the week of Aug. 2, according to Morrison, at which time the committee will decide whether to make the draft available to the public, the press and the firefighters.
The committee consists of Kraule, the three SFD commissioners, Santa Clara County Fire Department Chief Douglas Sporleder, consultant for the SFD Lane Long, Morrison, and former Saratoga Public Safety Commission chairman Frank Lemmon.
Sporleder will not be able to attend the August meeting, according to Egan.
When DMG Maximus released the first draft of the study to the district in April, it was never distributed to the SFD firefighters, some of whom want the SFD to merge with the Santa Clara County Fire Department.
The profile report, for which the SFD is paying, includes facts about the district--such as its budget, staffing and response times--on which DMG will base its future recommendations.
According to Morrison, since the firefighters contributed to the data in the report, they should be allowed to look at it, too. The consultants interviewed both the administration and the firefighters.
Morrison said he contacted the union's attorney to see if it was legal to keep the study confidential, away from the firefighters and the public.
Previously, the commissioners cited inaccuracies in the report as the reason that it did not make the report public. Egan was also upset that the consultants had compared the SFD with the county department in the report.
In May, the committee decided that DMG would come back with a revised document that the SFD firefighters could view, according to Morrison.
Egan said that the second draft, which is a revised version of the first report, is more detailed and focuses solely on the SFD.
"It looks very good," Egan said. "I've got some questions."
|
Saratoga, California Since 1955
