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One study of SFD ends, another begins
By Kara Chalmers
As the Saratoga Fire District wraps up an evaluation of the district's fire and medical services it hired an independent consultant to do, another study is beginning--one that the Saratoga Public Safety Commission will do.
The SFD has received the final report from the consultant, DMG Maximus, and will hold a public hearing on the report, which is available to the public, on Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. The meeting is tentatively scheduled to be held at the fire station at the corner of Big Basin Way and Saratoga-Los Gatos Road.
Also, a subcommittee of the public safety commission, which formed to evaluate fire services in the city, has narrowed its focus and created a mission statement. According to Commissioner Hugh Hexamer, who is heading the subcommittee, it will evaluate the adequacy of the city's current fire protection delivery system, which means it will study both departments that each serves one half of Saratoga--the SFD and the Santa Clara County Fire Department--and will study how the two currently work together.
"We'll make findings, identify issues, compare on key issues between the two, their strengths and weaknesses," Hexamer said. The study may be complete by the February commission meeting.
The SFD commissioned the DMG study because the union firefighters and the SFD administration--SFD Fire Chief Ernie Kraule and the three elected commissioners Robert Egan, Jay Geddes and Henry Clarke--agreed that one should be done, after the administration said no to the union's request to merge the two departments that serve the city. While the administration would like to keep control of fire services local and to keep the district, which was formed in 1923 and is tailored to Saratoga's needs, intact. Union firefighters say a contract with the county would provide a higher level of safety, and more services, for firefighters and residents.
The DMG Maximus study does not make a recommendation on whether the district should merge with the county fire department, and this is a point of contention between the commission and the union firefighters. According to commissioners, the study's point was to show if and how the SFD's level of service could be improved. According to union firefighters, the whole reason they supported the $6 million bond measure for a new fire station--which Saratoga voters passed in April--was because SFD commissioners agreed to a study that would include a recommendation on a merger, one way or the other.
The public safety commission, which is an arm of Saratoga city government, decided in November to form a task force to study the merits of the arguments from both sides of the issue--the union firefighters' side and the SFD administration's side. They decided this after listening to an hour of testimony at their Nov. 9 commission meeting from residents, firefighters, commissioners and the chiefs from both fire departments, who showed up to speak publicly on the issue.
At some point, the commission will have to report back to the Saratoga City Council with a recommendation. When three members of the public showed up to speak on their concerns about the SFD at an Oct. 18 council meeting, the council referred the matter to the public safety commission for fact-finding.
The city can take a position on the issue and make a recommendation on the fate of the SFD, but fire protection is something the city has no authority over. The city does not have any power over the SFD, which controls itself, the way any school district or other governmental body in the city does. SFD voters elect each of the three SFD commissioners, who in turn appoint the SFD Fire Chief. Hexamer in November said he doesn't think the commission has to support one side in the matter.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
