The Shell Game Moves West

HOCUS-POCUS STAFFING AND ROTATING CLOSURES ARE BEING practiced in California as well as everywhere else.

In San Joaquin County, the South County Fire Authority is a tax district that collects funds and distributes them to the City of Tracy Fire Department and the Tracy Rural Fire District, a 3-station department serving the rural areas around the city.  In the upcoming fiscal year, the R. F. D. is facing a $600,000 shortfall and needs to reduce its expenditures.

After declining to consider a “rolling brownout” scheme for its three stations, the fire district board approved a scheme this past Tuesday that, in effect, lowers the minimum-manning requirement from 3 to 2 on the engines.  The three stations are prioritized by “need” and if somebody calls in sick at one of the stations, a firefighter at the lowest-priority station is detailed to fill the slot, leaving the citizens in the Schulte Rd. area with a 2-man engine covering them.  If a second FF is sick that same day, the spot is absorbed by the Durham Ferry Rd. station.

An article in Friday’s Tracy Press relates:

[Fire Chief] Bosch and [Local president] Perez said the change should mean less overtime costs, but firefighters worry it could also mean greater risk — both to them and to the people the paramedics treat.  Perez said that by law, when there are only two firefighters at a burning building, they must wait for a second fire truck before they go inside.

And when a two-person crew shows up to treat a medical emergency, there’s one less person to administer an IV, open an airway, perform CPR or use a defibrillator if needed.  Perez said firefighters would “get the job done” but could be “slowed down.”

The move is not expected to lengthen the time firefighters take to arrive at either a fire or a medical call, though.

Insert the word “enough”  to complete the sentence properly – not expected to lengthen the time enough firefighters take to arrive at either a fire or a medical call, – and you get a different understanding of the effects of short-staffing.

To summarize (yet again), when you cut back your staffing, you are cutting back your service.

Read the full article from the Tracy Press HERE.

South County Fire Authority WEBSITE.

*  *  *  *  *

THIS PAST WEDNESDAY THE SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL approved the mayor’s 18-month spending plan that whacks an additional $82 million from an already-pared down budget.  Using some sleight-of-hand and ambiguous descriptions of what they’re doing, the mayor issued a statement saying:

The spending plan passed by the City Council includes reductions in virtually every city department and maintains the jobs of all sworn police and fire personnel. The plan also avoids closures of libraries and recreation centers, and continues to fully fund the city’s required pension payment.

Keep that statement in mind for a minute.  Their claim about maintaing jobs misleadingly refers to jobs that are currently filled.  They are intending to eliminate 134 vacant uniformed police officer positions as well as 50 unfilled firefighter positions.

The mayor’s statement continues:

Fire-Rescue would cut $18.6 million from its budget by eliminating 50 vacant sworn positions; reducing eight engine companies on a rotating basis; eliminating vacant construction plan-check positions; limiting lifeguard service at Torrey Pines Beach to the summer months; and reducing lifeguard overtime by holding fewer training sessions.

 

 

San Diego Main Library

Another set of slippery politicians with a bent set of priorities.

Read Mayor Jerry Sanders’ Fact Sheet (.pdf) HERE.

Also on FireGeezer…

• “Brown-outs”…. Still Doin’ Their Thing – March 23, 2010
• “Firehouse Roulette” Set to Move Its Game to Milwaukee – December 12, 2009