Milpitas Responds to Report on Consolidating Fire Services

After a lively question-and-answer session with the city’s fire chief, the Milpitas City Council on Tuesday unanimously agreed to approve a formal response to a report on fire services recently sent out by the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury.

In its report, released this summer, the Civil Grand Jury explored the possibility of consolidation of fire departments and districts in the county in the interest of increased efficiency.

According to the report, about $14.2 million, or 20 percent of Milpitas' general budget for 2010 was allocated to the city's fire department.

The amount per capita, comes out to $219 a person. San Jose's per capita was estimated at $162 and Santa Clara's at $289.

In Fire Chief Brian Sturdivant’s seven-page response to the jury’s report, he noted that his department disagreed with many of its findings and agreed with several others. “The report spoke at a very high level,” Sturdivant said, adding that it also suggested changes in union and local staffing.

“We crafted a response that would allow us to develop a high level of self-analysis so that we can identify some areas where there is room for more efficiency," Sturdivant told the council.

“This particular report had four findings and 10 recommendations that we responded to,” he said. Of particular concern was the report’s “one-size-fits-all” approach to staffing all fire districts in the county, which Sturdivant called “unrealistic.”

He noted that Milpitas has unique community needs. Among them are emergency medical services and fire response to the Elmwood Correctional Facility, operated by Santa Clara County.

That said, Sturdivant said his department is not philosophically opposed to some regionalization and standardization of services that would shave expenses. He noted that discussions about that have been ongoing for quite some time.

“We want to be strategic in our approach, using statistics, analytics and metrics,” Sturdivant explained of the fire department’s internal efficiency studies. “We’re still conducting the level of analysis which has been in place since July 1. We’re still in the collection mode.”  

Councilman Armando Gomez expressed concern that the “one-size-fits-all” approach wouldn’t be fair to everyone. “It’s troubling. My concern is when combining with larger organizations, the smaller organizations tend to get hosed,” he said.

Sturdivant agreed, saying that any consolidation should not negatively impact fire department service to the community. “It has to be at our current level of service, not a degraded service.”

Mayor Jose Esteves noted that, according to the jury report, 96 percent of emergency calls that Santa Clara County fire departments respond to are not related to fires. “Are most calls EMS? Why do you bring a fire truck?” he asked.

“Most tasks involve more than two people,” Sturdivant responded, adding that extra people are needed to help with cardiac calls, drug therapy, packaging, loading, lifting and patient care on the way to a hospital. “The truck carries the staff,” he said.

“Is there another way?” Esteves asked.

“Maybe a pickup truck or sport utility vehicle with a couple of guys," said Sturdivant. "We haven’t yet analyzed that yet. But there are opportunities to look at it.” 

He added, “Our philosophical approach is that whoever the service provider is, they should maintain service and not degrade service.”  

Read the Santa Clara Civil Grand Jury Report, Fighting Fire or Fighting Change: Rethinking Fire Department Response Protocol and Consolidation Opportunities.

Read the response letter from the city of Milpitas written by Fire Chief Brian Sturdivant.