Skyrocketing county fees lead city to form fire department

The City of Canyon Lake decided Wednesday that it could no longer sustain the substantial increases in the costs of its contract with Riverside County for its fire and emergency services.   At its monthly city council meeting Wednesday evening, the city council members unanimously authorized the formation of a brand new City of Canyon Lake Fire Department effective January 2022.

With each new contract for fire and emergency services with Riverside County, the City of Canyon Lake has experienced skyrocketing increases in fees. Contracts have increased about $1 million over the past five years with future increases expected. The city’s only real alternative to accepting the increases was to establish its own municipal fire department. The new fire department will be owned and operated by the city.

Throughout the history of the city, fire and emergency services were provided by county-run Station 60 in Canyon Lake through contracts the city and county signed.

The city council Wednesday heard from City Manager Chris Mann about the feasibility of creating its fire department. Chris presented an historical presentation as to the costs, services and issues with fire and emergency services. He also spoke of potential solutions, including the creation of the fire department. The council had been given a thorough study conducted by Emergency Services Consulting International, a 176-page study that outlined the risks and costs associated with dropping the county contract for establishing a stand-alone fire department.

Renewing a contract with the county would have continued to stretch the city’s budget. The current fee is about $2.2 million a year for fire services out of a total $6.6 million city budget.

The new city fire department is expected to save the city between $300,00 and $600,000 a year, once start-up costs, which include leasing fire engines and hiring an interim fire chief, were concluded.

Chris made it clear at the meeting that the move to not renewing the county contract was strictly financial and not based on county services.

“We are very happy with the level of service from Cal Fire,” he said. “But, we have to look at the sustainability of the city’s ability to pay for it.”

The council vote Wednesday came after years of studying the possibility of establishing its own fire department.

Over the years various city councils and staff have grappled with how best to address ever-increasing public safety costs. Many options have been explored, including contracting with another municipality instead of with the county, forming a fire department under a joint powers authority (JPA) with neighboring cities, closing Station 60 and paying a reduced fee to be serviced by fire stations located in surrounding jurisdictions, etc.

As the current city council and staff researched the issue over the past 18 months, it became evident that the most realistic alternative to contracting with the county would likely be the formation of its own municipal fire department.

Over the past few months, city staff and the Fire Ad Hoc Committee have worked with Kevin Jeffries, the Riverside County Supervisor for Canyon Lake, the County Executive Office, the County Fire Chief and other municipalities to acquire the information needed to review the city’s options.

The council was under pressure to make a decision at Wednesday’s meeting because of a deadline where the county needed to know about its contract.

“Per our current cooperative agreement with the county for fire service, “ Chris said, “we have to let them know by Nov. 30 if we are not going to renew our agreement or if we are going to renew with any requested changes. Since this will be the last time the council meets prior to that deadline, failure to give direction at the meeting would necessitate calling a special meeting prior to the end of the month.”

“We wouldn’t propose this change if we couldn’t provide the same level of service or better service,” Chris said. “The public’s safety is our highest priority.”

With the approval of the new fire department, the next steps for the city’s staff are to recruit and contract with a consultant/interim fire chief, create contracts and budget adjustments to bring to future meetings for the council’s approval and ratification and create an ordinance to bring to a future council meeting to officially establish the City of Canyon Lake Fire Department.