Fire officials seek to reshape Sonoma County fire services

About three dozen fire chiefs, firefighters and fire officials from throughout Sonoma County continued to wrestle with the complex question of how best to reshape fire services throughout the county.

Sonoma County administrators are leading a study on the issue and have formed a 70-plus member advisory committee of fire officials.

The committee’s size is a concern of many fire officials who have feared such a huge group had little chance of success. Formal recommendations from the committee, which had met twice before, aren’t expected until fall.

About 35 committee members participated Tuesday night, including 10 or so who listened in via conference call with varying success.

Assistant County Administrator Chris Thomas, who is guiding the county study, asked committee members what topic they wanted to focus on first, financials or calls for service.

Members eventually decided to create two subcommittees to hone in on what data are necessary to collect from the county’s 41 fire agencies in the two broad categories and how that data might lead to recommendations for change.

The decision to create committees came about after several members Tuesday night expressed growing frustration with the county’s desire for five years’ worth of call and financial information, without what the fire officials said was a clear vision of what the county will do with it.

“What do you want with the data? What is the end result?” asked Steve Gould, a board member with Knights Valley volunteers.

Thomas said the information is necessary for the committee to have a clear understanding of the current state of fire services. “We have to know all of the pieces to the puzzle,” he said.

“Do you want to analyze every call every agency does?” asked Bill Newman, a Bodega Bay fire board member who was participating by phone.

“Yes, in some fashion, you bet,” Thomas answered.

“You’re going to bury us all,” said Paul Bernier, a Geyserville fire board member, referring to the time it would take to gather the data.

After the meeting, Thomas, chiefs and fire officials expressed hope the smaller committees will help the process and said it felt like progress. Some noted the process is difficult.

Fred Peterson, president of the Geyserville volunteer firefighters association, told Thomas “You’ve been trying to herd cats to come to a resolution.”

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