Staff Recommends UCD’s Fire Chief to Head Up JPA Between City and UCD to Provide Fire Management Services

In a move that offers the promise of some fiscal savings, but figures to change the way fire service is managed in Davis and UC Davis, the city staff is recommending that council “direct staff to prepare the documents necessary to create a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) between the City of Davis and UC Davis to provide Fire Management Services for each entity.”

The move also may resolve firefighters’ concerns about the next fire chief.  Staff recommends that the city agree to this one-year joint exercise of powers agreement “for Shared Management Services between the City of Davis and UC Davis.”

Staff notes that UC Davis would be receptive to implementing the “shared management oversight prior to finalizing a Joint Powers Agreement.”

“This would address the concerns of the Davis Firefighters relative to a Fire Service Professional overseeing Davis Fire Department operations,” the city noted, with the recommendation being that the “current Fire Chief for UC Davis has successfully qualified to be the next Fire Chief for the City of Davis.”

That would make Nathan Trauernicht the new fire chief of both the city of Davis and UC Davis.

The hiring of a permanent fire chief has been a critical sticking point and a point of contention for the firefighters’ union.

Staff writes, “In May of 2012, the City of Davis conducted a nationwide recruitment for the position of Fire Chief. The City received fifty (50) applications, thirty-four (34) of which were from outside the State of California. In December of that year, the City invited seven candidates, three (3) of which were from outside the State of California, to participate in external and internal oral interviews.”

Staff reports, “As a result of that process, the current Fire Chief from UC Davis Fire was the only candidate recommended by both interview boards to be advanced to the City Manager for continued consideration for appointment.”

The broader question, before a new chief can be hired however, is one of joint powers management between the two agencies.

According to the staff report, “The City of Davis and UC Davis Fire Departments have a shared goal to protect the fire and life safety of the greater Davis community. The parties believe that open communication on operational and administrative processes can result in the restructuring of these processes and a more streamlined system for delivering services to the community.”

While there have been several attempts over the past twenty years to expand the City’s partnership with UC David in terms of cooperation between the two entities relative to the delivery of fire and safety services, the most recent effort ended in failure.

However, the November 13, 2012, fire audit revived the possibilities.  First, earlier this year, council approved the boundary drop that allowed the nearest unit to respond to an emergency call, regardless of the jurisdiction.

Furthermore, in January, “the Davis City Council directed City and UC staff to explore the feasibility of entering into a shared management oversight model for management of the City and University Fire Departments.”

Staff has analyzed the feasibility of a full merger/consolidation of the Davis and UC Davis Fire Departments, in addition to the shared management oversight concept.

Staff writes, “For more than 85 years, California state law has allowed public agencies to work together by signing joint powers agreements (JPAs). Some JPAs are cooperative arrangements among existing agencies, while others create new, separate institutions called joint powers agencies. Officials create JPAs to: cut costs, be more efficient, reduce (or eliminate) overlapping services, and/or share resources.”

The staff report focuses on three alternatives.  One possibility is a full merger and consolidation.  However, staff notes, “Given the differences between the governance models for the City of Davis and UC Davis, fully merging the two agencies would be best facilitated by a contract for services by one agency to the other. Since there are no examples in the State where a municipality contracts with a college or university, it stands to reason that if the two agencies were to merge, UC Davis would contract with the City for the delivery of fire and life safety services to the UC Davis campus.”

The problem here remains the discrepancy in the benefit package and compensation provided by the city, as opposed to that of the university.

Staff notes, “The net savings to the City of Davis is approximately $170,000 annually. However, the increased cost to UC Davis is over $1,300,000. The primary reason for the increased cost is the cost of the benefit package provided by the City of Davis.”

Efforts to curtail costs have been met with resistance from the firefighters’ union which has, to this point, refused to sign onto the city’s new bargaining contract and remains at impasse with the city.

A second alternative is the shared management services model, which would acknowledge “the current level of collaboration between the agencies relative to the West Valley Regional Fire Training Consortium, the sharing of the Division Chief duty coverage, and the positive aspects of the Management Services Agreement between the parties that was placed on hold in January of 2012.”

“A Shared Management Services Agreement would take full advantage of the Joint Powers Agreement governance model where both parties retain a significant amount of local control. Implementation of this alternative could be accomplished in a short period of time (one to three months).”

However, staff recommends the joint management structure which “provides for one Fire Chief; two Deputy Fire Chiefs; three Division Chiefs (24 hour); and, one Fire Marshal (40 hour). The Fire Chief will have executive management responsibilities for setting the organizational values and vision; representing both the City and UC in interactions with external influences and the business community; and, providing guidance and recommendations to the City Council and UC Chancellor’s Office relative to the delivery of fire and life safety services. Both of the Deputy Fire Chiefs will report directly to the Fire Chief; one having managerial responsibilities for the day-to-day operations of the fire department, and the other will serve as the West Valley Regional Fire Training Consortium Coordinator.”

Under this model the city would save about $78,200 while the university would only save $7500.

However, “The City will realize additional savings if the Davis division chief position is transitioned into the UC Fire salary and benefit package. The benefit package for the division chief position is approximately $48,000 per position more as a City of Davis employee than it would be as a UC Davis employee. This amounts to a total cost savings for the three positions of $143,342.”

Staff also notes that the agencies “have dropped the boundaries separating the response districts such that now the closest resources are dispatched to all calls for service, regardless of the jurisdictional area served. There is an opportunity to expand the economy of scale for delivery of fire and life safety services to include a shared management oversight of both departments.”

However, the city and UC Davis have been down these roads previously, and in the recent past.  In September of 2010, there was a Management Services Agreement (MSA) to share a fire chief and assistant fire chief on an interim basis while the two agencies explored the feasibility of a full consolidation of the two fire departments.

That effort was “paused” and eventually failed in January 2012.  In a letter to Davis City Manager Steve Pinkerton, UC Davis Vice Chancellor John Meyer on January 12, 2012, stated, “Both of our agencies remain committed to a unified fire department to serve our shared community. However, I believe that we have reached a point of limited progress and that for a variety of reasons, most particularly the City’s pending negotiations with its firefighters, we should pause this process as described below and then reconvene in the 2012-13 fiscal year.”

Among the various problems was what Vice Chancellor Meyer called a “significant compensation disparity.”

“I am deeply concerned about the significant compensation disparity highlighted in the CityGate report,” he wrote.  “The report suggests that UC Davis will increase its compensation in support of consolidation efforts. I believe such action would not be sustainable by UC Davis and should not be assumed in future planning.”

The city by going to this model would avoid, at least for now, the issue of the gulf that separates UC Davis and City of Davis firefighters, in terms of total compensation.

—David M. Greenwald reporting