10:00 PM PST on Monday, November 29, 2010
By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise
Special Section: Inland Wildfires
Severing ties with Cal Fire and creating an independent Riverside County fire department would increase costs by $46.6 million a year, a new report concludes.
In addition, setting up a stand-alone agency would require the county to replace three state-owned fire stations at a one-time cost of $11.9 million, the analysis found.
Riverside County has contracted with Cal Fire for fire protection since 1946. The Board of Supervisors ordered the study earlier this year amid concerns over the administrative fee the state agency charges.
Cal Fire proposed increasing the fee at a time when the county faced budget cuts.
“The study clearly shows we have a good deal with Cal Fire,” board Chairman Marion Ashley said Monday.
“Cal Fire is functioning extremely well.”
It’s the second time in five years the county has analyzed the costs of establishing a separate fire department. A 2005 report concluded that remaining with Cal Fire was the county’s best option.
The county, through its contract with Cal Fire, provides fire protection for the unincorporated areas, 19 cities and one community services district. Under the current arrangement, it costs $178 million to do so.
With a stand-alone agency, the costs would jump by $46.6 million, the result of staffing increases, county overhead and a $22.7 million boost in pension liabilities, according to the report.
Of the $46.6 million, the 20 contracting agencies would be responsible for $21.4 million; the county would pay for $25.2 million out of its general fund. The report assumed cities would continue contracting with the county.
Ashley said the “sticker shock” alone should be enough to keep the county from pursuing its own department.
“This is not a time to spend $25 million more in general fund money to operate a fire department,” he said.
Still, Ashley said studying the issue was worthwhile, given the potential rise in Cal Fire’s fees.
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The county should go county fire…….trust that if Cal Fire firefighters are laid off the consequences of that desicion will be that a group of inteligent firefighters will approach the Board of Supervisors and blow the lid right off that study and every dirty piece of information that has been hidden from the public i.e. “Tisdale era and the eastern division giving brand new county purchased supplies to Mexico”. This county could save some real costs and keep all fire stations open if it got rid of corupt fire management.
It would be a comprehensive plan and all the contract cities would have to be on board, but I would be inclined to believe that most local cities would if you could keep their staffing levels the same and save money. This plan would be to contract in turn with the state to protect state lands for $20.5 million dollars similar to Orange and L.A. County, then to develop one regional medic squad program with two medic squads per county battalion, reduce or eliminate all reserve volunteers, reduce and eliminate 40 Battalion chief positions only leaving one chief officer per battalion, eliminate all excutive staff such as deputy chief, admin chief, operations chiefs, division chiefs and emergency dispatch chief officers.
Just like enron or any other business that eventually crumbles Cal Fire management is the same, but I believe worse because essentially you have a chief officer managing a multi million dollar budget with literally a high school education not to mention the incestious train of thought of “this is how it always has been or this is what my boss told me to do”. These simple qoutes are said everyday in management offices, So what do we do to fix this debacle?
I can tell you its not the union, because the chief of the fire department has not and will not speak to the union regarding any labor issues. Any rules, agreements or laws made by the union have been violated and are being violated with know consequences. Understanding that it is not the firefighters wanting this for the public nor the union wanting this as a labor organization, than who really wants this for the public and the firefighters serving the public? Yes, The fire chief and his two uneducated vidictive assistance.
After all of these facts being put forth, I don’t blame the county board of supervisors but I do blame the fire chief recommending this uneducated 1920’s pre-depression corupt management of keeping managers in lieu of actual workers. History will repeat itself if we actually let it and do not learn from our past.
Hopefully the board of supervisors will listen to all sides, search all avenues for funding and make the right desicion on tuesday. Also a recommendation would be to as resident of Riverside County attend the meeting Tuesday the 9 a.m. downtown Riverside and don’t believe what the used car sales men Cal Worthington aka “Fire Chief” because it really doesn’t matter what he says his actions dictated far more on how he really feels about you the public “NEGATIVE Customer Service”