Crime & Safety
It's Official: San Carlos Firefighters to Transfer to RWC
The San Carlos Fire Department will remain branded as San Carlos FD. The new contract between the two cities takes effect July 1.
Written by Vanessa Castañeda and Joan S. Dentler
All San Carlos firefighters will become Redwood City Fire Department employees on July 1st, after Redwood City and San Carlos city councils voted in favor of the the transfer Monday to make them full time employees.
The vote was unanimous in both cities--- 4-0 in Redwood City (3 Council Members absent) and 5-0 in San Carlos.
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Instabilities in the San Carlos Fire Department department inspired the Redwood City Fire Department to enter into an agreement with the San Carlos to manage operations in June 2011. Four people had resigned from the San Carlos Fire Department that year, forcing Redwood City Firefighters to fill in for them.
“It got to the point where we had to brown out one of the engines a fourth of the time,” said Jim Skinner, Redwood City Fire Chief, in a presentation to city staff on Monday.Those Redwood City employees were often paid time and a half for working in San Carlos, depending on how many hours they had already worked that week. Subsequently, the City Councils of San Carlos and Redwood City began looking for ways to reduce the costs and optimize this relationship.
The transferred fire department staff will be compensated at the same rates at Redwood City fire department personnel, according to a report prepared for the June 24, 2013 San Carlos City Council meeting. Notably, Redwood City FD will count the years that the firefighters served with San Carlos when seniority is used in the future to make decisions about station assignments and vacation time.
The Redwood City Fire department is scrutinizing the fire stations throughout the region to see if they can be consolidated. It costs about $2.5 million annually to operate a station, according to Chief Skinner.
“When we start looking at regionalization, it’s a way to save money,” Skinner said, noting no official discussions have taken place. “We’re looking at the data, call data and response times to see if it’s a feasible alternative without degrading service,” he said, noting that consolidation stations could save about $400,000 each year.
The cost of operating the fire departments was on the minds of many in Council Chambers.
Bob Bell, Redwood City’s City Manager, said that city staff needs to be mindful of future pension liabilities and how they relate to the original cost projections that were written into the contract when it is reviewed on December 2014. During that review session, all elements of the contract will be explored.
Jeff Maltbie, San Carlos City Manager, said, “We are confident with the working relationships that developed that we’ll be able to craft solutions that benefit both communities…and push forward in a countywide manner, this idea of shared services and collaboration to ensure that the residents of San Carlos and Redwood City can receive the highest level of fire services that’s possible.”
He said he wanted to make sure that he got the “absolute best price for taxpayers who are flipping the bill for all of this.”
Find out what's happening in San Carloswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
San Carlos City Councilmember Councilmember Ron Collins said the price tag was a little higher than he was hoping to see, but he is on-board with the agreement.
While San Carlos Fire Departments will be staffed with Redwood City employees, the San Carlos Fire Department will remain branded as San Carlos FD.
“We don’t want to lost the identity,” Chief Skinner said. “We’re at a point where we’ve transitioned in our department with a lot of new people, new firefighters, new captains. We want to move them forward to continue to build on the culture that we’ve built over the years…We’re part of the community," he said.
The contract between the two cities begins on July 1, and expires on June 30, 2018.
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