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| Montara fire district mulls merger By MATT KAPKO Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 1:25 PM PDT Half Moon Bay Review As officials within the Point Montara Fire Protection District consider consolidating with the Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District, they can take solace in knowing they aren't alone. It seems every fire service in the area is looking for ways to cut costs. Before the close of last year, the Daly City Fire Department joined the North County Fire Authority, further expanding that management agency's reach. NCFA now manages three fire departments: Daly City, Pacifica and Brisbane. Daly City's chief leads all three departments. The desired result from the arrangement is to cut administrative and clerical costs, which could be the best solution available to the many fire agencies in San Mateo County reeling from budget shortfalls. But this approach hasn't solved all of the departments' financial woes. Other options, albeit less popular, have still found support in some cities over the hill. In Millbrae and Pacifica, voting property owners passed a fire suppression assessment that gave both of those cities a comfortable cash cushion. However, throughout discussions about its future with the Half Moon Bay district, the PMFPD board has maintained that raising taxes is its last resort. In fact, the board last month decided against raising its benefit assessment tax on property owners, keeping it at $177 per parcel. "Let's do everything first before we have to go to the people," PMFPD President Bruce MacKimmie said. "Give a break to the people - it's about time," he said. "Let's do one for the home team." Members of the PMFPD board aren't convinced that the financial situation will improve within the Half Moon Bay district. It's only going to get worse, they say. "I can clearly see big fiscal problems with these guys. I'm not willing to do that to our taxpayers," MacKimmie said. Keeping their options open, the PMFPD board has requested proposals from both NCFA and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. A unit chief from CDF made a visit to the board's meeting Aug. 10 and gave a presentation explaining how an arrangement with CDF could work. A 10-person engine company without a chief would cost the district $1,153,631, said John Ferreira, chief of CDF's San Mateo and Santa Cruz units. If the district wanted a chief it could hire one through CDF or share costs when one is dispatched from a nearby CDF station. Last month, the Half Moon Bay district handed the PMFPD board a revised 2004-2005 bill for $1,438,052. That bill represents all shared costs, including chiefs. But one of PMFPD's main gripes with its contractual relationship with its neighbor is its lack of control over personnel and management issues - and that wouldn't improve with CDF, but it could with NCFA. "The board would not have authority to hire and fire because all of the employees become state employees and they're hired through the state civil service system," Ferreira explained. "Certainly we attempt to hire people and promote people that live within the district that we're serving. In most cases all the employees are absorbed," he added. But how that breakdown works for the two districts "might get interesting," Ferreira said. When these two districts came together for a shared management arrangement in 1998, labor was absorbed into the Half Moon Bay District, leaving the PMFPD with no formal employees. It currently contracts with the Half Moon Bay district for those employees. Meanwhile, labor isn't just sitting on the sidelines. Fire Chief Jim Asche said he's spoken frankly with all the shifts and informed personnel that their jobs could be at risk. "My concern would be that the welfare of the employees comes first," Asche said. He's hoping to absorb all the employees into Half Moon Bay if the PMFPD board chooses to go with another agency, but it could be financially impossible, he said. MacKimmie, however, doesn't think the employees are at risk. After all, the PMFPD would offer employment to each of them if it were to go it alone, he said. He labeled Asche's actions "scare tactics," depicting it as a sign of desperation. "Right now, Jim Asche is doing some spin doctoring," he said. "I think they're panicking. They're desperate. They want our money," he said. MacKimmie admits he wasn't impressed with CDF's proposal, but is excited and hopeful that NCFA can offer something better. The PMFPD board formally invited NCFA to make a presentation and MacKimmie has already spoken with the group numerous times. Although Asche wants consolidation, he says he hasn't pressured labor in either direction. "We operate as one fire department. We will lose that efficiency no matter what Point Montara goes with," he said. "Myself I can't see that. Firemen are firemen - they get the job done," MacKimmie fired back. He's hoping to speak more directly with NCFA before the two districts hold a daylong series of consolidation meetings with a facilitator Aug. 28. |