Sonoma County still mulling fire department changes

Sonoma County fire officials are plodding toward improvements to the county’s outdated, uneven and underfunded fire services network of nearly 40 agencies.|

After years of discussions and hundreds of thousands of dollars in studies and time, Sonoma County’s 11 remaining volunteer fire companies - entrenched for decades as independent first responders in the county’s most rural pockets - will be absorbed, run by larger neighbors or combined into one fire district.

But not just yet.

And while regional groups of fire agencies continue pushing toward further consolidation and more seamless operations, that also remains in flux.

While all of this has been long sought by many of Sonoma County’s fire officials during four years of plodding toward improvements to the county’s outdated, uneven and underfunded fire services network of nearly 40 agencies, change remains several hurdles and a few years away.

Fewer fire agencies has been a trend in California as counties opt for streamlined administration and efficiencies. Sonoma County officials want the same, but have not identified where the money to revamp the system will come from, particularly in the aftermath of October’s firestorms.

“Fire is on top of everyone’s mind based on what we all went through as a community in October,” said west county Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, who is working with several fire agencies in her district toward collaboration. “Fire district and volunteer fire companies are our safety net and they stepped up hugely in October. Now is a good opportunity to have those conversations about being better and stronger and to ensure the services are available for years to come.”

During the October fires, the county’s volunteer and career firefighters fought together for weeks while de-emphasizing agency distinctions.

“Our efforts to work together prior to the fires also paid dividends in how well we were able to function together at a higher, more coordinated and effective level during the fires,” said Sonoma Valley Fire Chief Steve Akre.

The monumental firefighting effort helped ease much of what remained of longstanding agency turf wars. “Differences became petty” during the fires, said Jim Colangelo, interim director of Sonoma County Fire and Emergency Services which oversees the ?11 volunteer companies.

“Everybody came together and helped each other and realized we are all in this together,” he said. “We have pushed each other away for reasons that don’t make sense anymore.”

Galvanized by the firestorms, fire chiefs have fast-tracked plans for change. The 20-member Fire Services Advisory Council, set up by supervisors two years ago to shepherd the transition, approved a committee of six fire leaders to forge a proposal to meet Supervisor James Gore’s challenge for bold changes in exchange for county funding. The resulting proposal, still being refined, includes continuing regionalization of the volunteers companies, fire districts and city departments, adding staff to supplement volunteers in underserved areas, improving standards and more strategically locating stations.

In the plast two years, supervisors have approved about $4.5 million for countywide fire services, well short of the $11 million chiefs have called for annually to get agencies to uniform firefighting abilities. The new plan could seek more, chiefs said.

In the meantime, Gore has changed his message, saying a fire-exacerbated housing crisis and millions of dollars promised for county road repairs mean large sums of money aren’t available for firefighting. He has suggested chiefs champion a fire services ballot measure for a sales or property tax to create the funding they need.

Fire officials say they lack the time and expertise to launch a complicated ballot measure by next fall while working on a countywide fire fix. Instead, they decided to keep pushing their proposal to supervisors.

“I was gut punched. Supervisor Gore said ‘go out and raise your own money,’?” said Fred Peterson, a volunteer fire engineer and board member for Geyserville Fire Protection District, who also sits on the fire advisory council. “The county needs to make the hard decisions. That’s their job.”

In the midst of this seminal reorganization effort, there have been other fire-related developments, including the Fire Services Advisory Council recommending supervisors give $700,000 of already- approved county money to split evenly among seven firefighting regions for recruiting and retaining volunteers. A dwindling pool of volunteers has put more pressure on neighboring agencies, straining the system and slowing aid.

Additionally, the latest in a long line of taxpayer-funded studies analyzing the current fire services network flopped. The county has spent about $225,000 on three fire studies in four years, none of which significantly illuminated a way forward. The most recent, a $115,000 review by San Francisco-based Matrix Consulting Group, contained numerous mistakes and was never completed. Officials stoppedstopping payment at $86,000 and won’t seek reimbursement.

Current discussions under review for shifting fire agencies include having six contiguous volunteer companies from Bodega down to Lakeville form one long fire district; further collaboration or consolidation for Mountain volunteers, Rincon Valley and Windsor fire districts as well as for Fort Ross volunteers, Timber Cove and North Sonoma Coast fire district agencies, and for Sonoma Valley Fire and Mayacamas volunteers.

Knights Valley’s longstanding volunteer fire company, down to three volunteers, is on the cusp of being taken over by the Geyserville fire.

Even Camp Meeker volunteer fire company, the last volunteer holdout to consider change, is talking to Occidental’s fire district about collaborating, said volunteer Wilmar Fire Chief Mike Mickelson, who is helping lead the volunteer company changes.

“Everybody is in motion,” he said.

Cal Fire also has submitted a proposal to the county for taking over administration of all 11 volunteer companies at an annual cost of about $5 million, which includes additional fire services aid.

Gold Ridge Fire District, south of Sebastopol, already is a combination of three former west county agencies. It’’s proposing to run Valley Ford, Bodega and Bloomfield company jurisdictions at a cost of about $1 million, which would include added paid staff in volunteer areas.

“It’s all about the money,” said Gold Ridge Fire Chief Dan George. Gold Ridge can’t afford to drop its current service level by taking on other areas without proper reimbursement, he said.

Changes, once agreed upon, will need to be reviewed and approved by the Local Agency Formation Commission, which oversees governmental agency changes.

The volunteer company proposals to join up with other agencies point to Sonoma County getting out of the business of managing firefighters. The county’s Fire and Emergency Services Department oversees hazardous materials and fire prevention, countywide emergency response and the fire companies. It is for its management of fire companies that it has been most criticized.

Mountain Volunteer Company Chief Loren Davis likes the idea of being run by Rincon Valley fire or consolidating with Rincon and Windsor. He said he could let go of his chief’s job “with a smile on my face” knowing residents would be well served.

“The plan will give us some staffing during the day on weekdays when most of my people are out working,” Davis said. “We’ll still have our volunteers. We would still retain an identity” as a Mountain substation of the Rincon Valley Fire District.

Valley Ford Fire Chief Ron Caselli, one of three volunteers left, doesn’t mind stepping down if it means better service for the coastal region.

“I’ll still be a firefighter in Valley Ford,” Caselli said. “At the end of the day, I just want somebody to show up. I don’t care what the engine says on it.”

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