Stockton looks to close five engine companies, cut engine and truck crews
By Christian Burkin
Record Staff Writer
May 24, 2011 12:00 AM
STOCKTON - The San Joaquin County civil grand jury Monday released a report saying Stockton Fire Department crews are too big and recommending cuts that it estimated would save millions of dollars.
The Fire Department's standard response to a single-alarm structure fire is three engines and two trucks, with four firefighters on each engine and five on each truck. Those numbers are protected in labor agreements between the city and Stockton Professional Firefighters Local 456.
In a written statement, Capt. Dave Macedo, president of the firefighters union, said the grand jury's analysis was shallow and contained nothing new.
"The City of Stockton can save money if it employs fewer firefighters. We doubt anyone would disagree with that," the statement said.
In its report, the grand jury recommended cutting engine and truck crews by one firefighter each and establishing a relief pool with the remainder to reduce overtime. The grand jury estimated savings from those reductions at $5 million to $7 million annually.
The Fire Department's staffing, and the contractual protection of that staffing, has come under heavy criticism. Advocates of Measure H, a city-backed ballot measure intended to shift power over the department to the City Manager's Office, called for cuts similar to those recommended by the grand jury. That measure won easy approval from Stockton voters last year.
Working under a worst-case budget deficit projection of $37 million, the city has proposed closing five engine companies and cutting engine crews to three firefighters and truck crews to four.
According to the grand jury report: "Every fire chief in the country would embrace four firefighters on the engines and five on the trucks, but in reality the cost to sustain those firefighters must be addressed at a time when cities are planning deeper cuts to city services to balance the budgets."
Though several large cities in Northern California maintain staffing similar or identical to Stockton's, the grand jury concluded, "Stockton has more in common with other cities in San Joaquin County than with San Jose, San Francisco or Oakland." Those larger cities may have similar staffing, the grand jury concluded, but they also have infrastructure Stockton does not. The grand jury also said those cities are planning to cut their crews.
The grand jury also said the 3.5 percent of Stockton's calls are for fires, part of a nationwide pattern of falling fire numbers.
Macedo said the comparison to Manteca, Lodi and Tracy doesn't bear out under scrutiny. Stockton has a greater proportion of old housing and mid- and high-rise buildings that Manteca, Lodi and Tracy lack. He added that Stockton fire is responsible for the Port of Stockton and a broad industrial base to worry about.
"It's an older town, the buildings are beat up and dilapidated, and even though they're abandoned, people are living in them," he said.
Citing a federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulation - called "two in, two-out" - requiring at least four firefighters at a burning building before entry, Macedo said a cut to staffing could slow response times. The three firefighters on the first engine to arrive at a structure fire would have to wait until more units arrived before going in.
"We're going to have to wait for the next engine to get on scene before we can go in," Macedo said. "Can we do it? Yeah, but the fires are going to get bigger."
A study in 2010 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded four-person fire crews overall work 25 percent faster than three-person crews. The union has long campaigned to protect its staffing, holding firefighting simulations to influence the thinking of local policy leaders and opinion makers.
Stockton Vice Mayor Kathy Miller said she hadn't seen the grand jury report Monday but that its findings were consistent with an outside analysis commissioned last year from the International City/County Management Association, which made similar recommendations.
"The public had been asking those same questions, and our response was Measure H," Miller said. "We couldn't control (staffing costs) contractually, and now we can."
Miller said "the safety of the public and of our firefighters is a top priority." Still, she said, the city must find ways to be more efficient.
Macedo said staffing cuts are almost inevitable. The Fire Department is expected to come up $19 million short next year. That can't be made up with wage and benefit concessions alone, he said, and the city has proved willing to impose cuts it can't negotiate. Macedo said firefighters are still negotiating with the city and making credible offers.
"We can get pretty close to saving all those jobs and doing what the city wants to do," he said. The city of Stockton has 90 days to respond.
Staff writer Daniel Thigpen contributed to this report.
Contact reporter Christian Burkin at (209) 546-8279 or cburkin@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/burkinblog.
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110524/A_NEWS/105240319/-1/NEWSMAP
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