Fire chief partnership in the works: Dan Belville to head San Mateo and Foster City fire departments

Belville will be the chief of both departments and will replace Tom Reaves in Foster City, who retires in June.

Belville will remain an employee of San Mateo and will be reimbursed by Foster City for half of his salary.

Foster City Manager Jim Hardy explored other fire service models in the county before deciding a partnership with San Mateo was the best fit for his city.

Both city councils must still approve the appointment.

"San Mateo is a natural partner because of our geographic boundaries,” Hardy said. "The departments already work closely together.”

Belville will take over the Foster City Fire Department on a permanent basis.

San Mateo has made a similar arrangement with Burlingame to have Deputy Police Chief Mike Callagy also act as the Burlingame police chief on a one-year contract. The San Mateo City Council approved the contract but Burlingame delayed the decision while a study is conducted.

Belville, 52, lives in San Carlos with his wife and two children. He has been the San Mateo fire chief for three years and spent the bulk of his 34-year career with the now-defunct South County Fire Authority, which served Belmont and San Carlos.

Belville looks forward to the challenge.

"You don’t get these opportunities very often,” he said. "There are two sound councils and two sound city managers that have the right attitude.”

Belville will be working on finding efficiencies immediately for both departments. Foster City has already saved $50,000 by not having to do an active recruit for a new chief. The department’s fleet will also be reduced immediately.

A full consolidation of the department could eventually be realized.

"The sky’s the limit. We will do whatever works best for both cities,” Belville said.

Foster City Councilman Art Kiesel said sharing the chief is a good opportunity for the city, although he is not sure if a merger of the departments would work in the future.

"We have to consider shared services because the dollars and cents are driving us there,” Kiesel said.

Kiesel said it is time for municipalities to take a lesson from the corporate world.

"Corporations merge all the time,” Kiesel said. "Why would it not apply to government?”

Loftus will continue to provide overall supervision of Belville, who will also report to Hardy to represent both cities for full-service emergency response services, according to a statement by both cities.

San Mateo and Foster City are natural partners for shared fire services given their geographic proximity and a long history of working together under the current county model of delivering fire services which includes the centralized dispatching of the closest fire resources to a particular call to minimize response times, according to the statement.

The cities attempted a merger more than 10 years ago that would have saved $1 million a year at that time. However, the city of Foster City backed out of the agreement.

Now, the cities are committed to taking the time to fully analyze shared fire service opportunities and evaluate their merits prior to making a decision, according to the statement.

Belville respects the move by the two city managers since neither are in "crisis” mode.

"It is not a forced decision,” Belville said.

Bill Silverfarb can be reached by e-mail: silverfarb@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106.