City of Davis Commissions Full Review of Fire Operations

While not a complete secret, the city seems to have intentionally kept this investigation and review under wraps.  The size of the contract is 15,000 dollars, which is less than the the minimum amount of a contract that would require council approval.  However, despite this, the city has apparently kept the city council informed and appraised of their activities throughout.  Each of the members of the city council has already according to the records, met with representatives from Citygate to discuss their views of fire operations.

“professional consultancy that provides services in the areas of general management consulting, fire protection and emergency medical services, strategic planning, organizational development, community development, animal care and control, and leadership development and ethics training.”

They provide a number of tasks including operations review and deployment studies of fire departments.

In a letter to Citygate from City Manager Bill Emlen dated April 9, 2009, Mr. Emlen wrote:

“The City of Davis wishes to proceed with the operational review, as outlined in your proposal dated March 16, 2009 albeit with some minor modifications, as discussed with Mr. Stewart Gary.”

He continues by laying out the scope of this study:

“As discussed with Mr. Gary, the City wishes to focus the. initial Phase of this project on issues related to Fire Department staffing and management structure, as well as a review of the City’s response time standards. In an effort to facilitate an expedited review, and control initial costs, the City will defer issues related to a fourth fire station and potential for consolidation with the UC Davis fire department to a possible Phase II. Citygate’s initial review – is outlined in Phase I – will focus on a review of existing documents and studies relating to Fire Department and engine company staffing levels, levels of service, response times, management structure, and current the Mutual Aid agreement with UCD Fire.”

In the scope of work portion of the contract the city and the consultant provide an overview of the services needed:

The City of Davis desires an independent, third party review of previous recommendations related to the organizational structure and staffing levels of its Fire Department.

“Citygate proposes this work effort in two phases across a total of five tasks. This will allow us to analyze the existing studies and report less formally initial observations and opinions to City management. Citygate recommends a phased project approach because it lets the City guide the direction of the study as the facts and policy choices become clear along the way.  Following Phase I, the City may choose to continue with more focused work leading to a public report. All work will be conducted at our time and materials rates to allow the City close control of the depth and breadth of work to be only that necessary to reach incremental policy decisions as issues come into focus.”

The first phase includes a full document review of previous reports and studies related to fire services in the city, a meeting with representatives from the city, but does not include mapping or an extensive fire station re-location analysis.

According to several individuals that the Vanguard spoke with, this represents the first necessary step toward the re-evaluation of the operations of the fire department.  This has largely been viewed a positive step my most involved in the process.

However, the Fire Chief Rose Conroy has apparently not been happy with the fact that the city has undertaken this review.

This snippet from an email transmission the Vanguard received gives one a snippet of the Chief’s response with the last line showing at the very least, irritation of this occurring:

“Could someone please tell me or email me the intent of hiring these people; what are you looking for; who will they be talking to; what are we paying them; could I have a copy of the contract? There are many questions here and I think it would be at the very least be polite to tell the department what is going on.”

The Vanguard views this development with skeptical and guarded optimism.  It is reassuring that the city is looking into issues of fire staffing and management–issues that remain long overdue to be address.  The placement of the issue of mutual aid agreement and consolidation with the UCD Fire Department has long been a sore subject for both entities, but from a fiscal perspective is an issue that needs to be placed firmly on the table.  While this phase of the does not examine the issue of consolidation, the fact that it is placed as an item for future consideration is seen largely as a positive step.

Despite this movement, there is good reason for skepticism.  The city manager at best seems to be of two minds on this issue and at worst appears to talk out of both sides of his mouth communicating one message to one group and an entirely different message to another group.

At the same time these studies are going on, City Manager Bill Emlen on April 13, 2009 was re-assuring former councilmember Ted Puntillo about his intentions.

“At the lack workshop on the budget, I established a goal of no reductions to fire [or] police staffing.”

However, he also acknowledges that this will be a difficult goal to attain.

“I must admit, it will be tough to meet.  COPS money may help on the police side.  It will be tougher on the fire side.  I do believe there may be ways to save money and keep them at current staffing levels if their operational model is modified…”

While it seems on the surface reasonable that the City Manager admits it will be tough to keep the same staffing level, it does not seem the best premise to start from.  What the City Manager ought to start with are ways to maintain the current service level using alternative and more cost effective models.

One way in which that might be accomplished is through the consolidation of fire operations with the university, something that most of the other college towns that we have compared Davis to have done.  Having four fire stations cover the city of Davis and the university might enable the city of Davis to go with four–three person fire stations and thus provide a level of service similar to what it is providing now with a more fiscally sustainable model.

Staffing issue aside, the other way the city can save money is through the next CBA.  As we have shown through extensive work, we simply pay too much per firefighter in this community given the frequency of fire calls that occur.  There is an unmistakable fact that the city of Davis ranks at the upper end of calls per service.  That clearly must be address.  Some of that might be addressable through staffing, but the rest needs to be addressed through collective bargaining.

Is the city on the right track here looking through independent eyes at their operations?  Yes they are.  But given how the Grand Jury investigation ended up, we are simply not satisfied with having a proper process in place here.  The question is how the city intends to act upon this information.

One thing is clear, the city does not appear to intend to make the findings of this report public.

In their agreement it states clearly:

“Following Phase I, the City may choose to continue with more focused work leading to a public report.”

That clearly indicates that the Phase I study will not be viewed by the public and thus public scrutiny is unlikely to play a roll in this portion of the process.

So, in summary, we are pleased to see the city taking this issue seriously, but skeptical as to how this report will be used and whether it will be utilized as an agent of change or a justification for the continuation of the status quo.

—David M. Greenwald reporting