City Council approves job descriptions for City Fire Department and leases Station 60

BY

When the Canyon Lake City Council held a special meeting last Thursday, July 16, it was their first chance to meet corporately for an update from the interim Fire Chief and City Manager since declaring a State of Local Emergency on June 30.

That was the date the City’s contract with Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire expired. It was the same date that a San Bernardino County judge waited until the last possible moment to rule that he wouldn’t require Riverside County Fire to temporarily extend its current contract. And it was the date that the Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted to offer Canyon Lake a new one-year contract at a cost of $1.75 million.

For those who continue to question why the City of Canyon Lake refused to sign the one-year contract with County Fire, and others who wonder why the City Council waited so long to take action on a municipal fire department, there are no short answers. (Visit www.cityofcanyonlake.org to read “Press Release regarding Declaration of Local Emergency and Fire Services.”)

As City officials point out, this issue did not develop overnight or even one year ago or five years ago. The City has known for many years that public safety costs were rising faster than its ability to pay for them. City officials have sought for many years to negotiate a solution with County Fire.

The City has been drawing from its reserves to cover the difference between what the Structural Fire Tax and Utility User Tax bring in and what County Fire demands (which is almost half the City’s budget). Now, City Council and Staff have chosen to use the money that remains to form a municipal fire department that can provide fire protection and cooperative agreements with neighboring cities within a budget the City can sustain.

At last Thursday’s meeting, the City Council approved job descriptions for fire chief, fire captain, fire engineer and firefighter. The job descriptions were developed in coordination with the fire chief of a fire academy that would be able to assist in finding recruits that would match the needs of the department.

Council also approved a salary and wage schedule under which Fire Department personnel would be City employees and receive hourly wages with a goal of having 24-hour coverage provided by a three-person crew consisting of fire captain, fire engineer and firefighter.

Each Fire Department employee would work part time so the City would not be required to pay into Cal PERS, and would be led by a part-time fire chief working no more than 960 hours per year (due to legal limitation of work hours imposed by Cal PERS). Chief Wilson explained the fire chief probably would change every six months so as not to exceed the 960 hours (or 1,000 hours) limit.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, Council unanimously approved a lease agreement with the Canyon Lake Property Owners Association for the lease of Fire Station 60, with the agreement that the CLPOA will utilize half of the captain’s office at the station for its own purposes.

The lease cost remains the same as it had been for County Fire: the cost of property taxes and assessments on the property or one dollar, whichever is greater, as well as the requirement that the City cover all maintenance and insurance costs. The City already owns Engine 60 and some of the equipment at the firehouse.

Citizens in attendance at the July 16 meeting had a number of questions, comments and suggestions, as did the City Council members themselves.

Some questioned why the position of paramedic was not included in the list of job descriptions. Chief Wilson explained that the City cannot afford a paramedic position and that medical response will continue to be supplied by American Medical Response (AMR), which has paramedics. (AMR bills for services rendered). It was requested that paramedic be include in the list of job descriptions for the sake of budget analysis.

Another topic of discussion was the necessity of Cooperative Agreements for “automatic aid” and “mutual aid” with neighboring cities. Currently, under the State of Local Emergency, County Fire is authorizing engines to respond to fire emergencies in Canyon Lake. They do not respond to public service calls; however, on occasion, the Emergency Command Center in Perris will dispatch an engine to a medical emergency in Canyon Lake if needed, as occurred last week.

As shown in a fire call this week, the engines may come from further away than Station 94 and Station 5. (See sidebar.)

With regard to the State of Local Emergency, Chief Wilson says it is temporary, and response from allied agencies will not continue much longer without a contractual agreement whereby the cities whose fire departments respond to Canyon Lake’s emergencies are reimbursed. The City Council made it clear at the July 16 meeting that it is willing to pay for the responses it receives from outside stations, though an agreement to do so is not yet in place.

After the City has its own Fire Department, Cooperative Agreements with neighboring cities will be necessary so that, when the need arises to fight a fire, there is more than one engine available to do so. Cooperative Agreements require time and outside consultation, Wilson explains.

Another requirement that has to be resolved is 911 dispatch services. Chief Wilson says this would need to be negotiated with County Fire, which has the only emergency radio frequencies that can “reach into the bowl,” as he describes Canyon Lake’s topography. He explains that County Fire is not required to provide dispatch services and, in fact has not responded to a request by the City of San Bernardino to provide dispatch services.

In attendance at the July 16 meeting were a few experienced professionals from Canyon Lake who want to volunteer their services to get the Fire Department up and running. Among them were Mike O’Gorman (fire background), Larry Neigel (public safety background) and Dennis Korte (accounting background). It has been noted that there are some 150 active and retired fire professionals living in Canyon Lake.

A fire chief from Hacienda Heights with 33 years of experience was in attendance at the meeting. He said he read about Canyon Lake’s situation and believes the community is in a good position to have its own Fire Department. He offered advice about hiring retired firefighters as well as trainees out of local fire academies. He also provided clarification with regard to mutual aid, and indicated his own interest in being fire chief.

The final item on the meeting agenda was the timeline for getting the Fire Department operational. Chief Wilson explains, “This is a six to 12-month process that we are trying to implement in four to six weeks. It is a herculean effort.”

The issues, he pointed out at the July 16 meeting, are time and budget. The budget won’t be available to the City’s Finance Committee before its next meeting, scheduled for August 4. The next City Council meeting is scheduled for August 12.

“Once a plan is in place and everyone understands the cost involved, the City government and its citizens will have to decide whether that is the direction it wants to take or whether it’s time to disincorporate. Disincorporation itself is a complicated one- to two-year project,” says Wilson.