Report: Merge fire services

In a report released yesterday, the grand jury recommends the cities of San Bruno, Millbrae, Foster City, San Mateo, Redwood City and the fire protection districts of Woodside and Colma to either consider consolidating with its neighboring cities and districts or contract with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to provide fire service.

The report comes as the cities of San Carlos and Belmont are in the midst of dissolving a joint fire department that has served both cities since 1979 and just two days after Foster City announced the hiring of San Mateo Fire Chief Dan Belville to also lead its department.

Belville will lead both departments just as Fire Chief Dennis Haag leads both the San Bruno and Millbrae fire departments.

The county has 14 fire agencies that serve 27 cities, towns, communities and the unincorporated areas of San Mateo County.

The North County Fire Authority represents the county’s largest consolidated fire agency serving Brisbane, Pacifica and Daly City with a coverage area of 60 square miles and a service population of 155,000. The Colma Fire Protection District has a service area of just two square miles and serves roughly 5,600 people in Colma and Broadmoor.

Both agencies have fire chiefs and battalion chiefs who demand significant salaries, according to the report. Consolidation would require less management and administrators to run an agency, the report said.

Currently, San Bruno, Millbrae, Hillsborough and Burlingame are studying whether to provide fire services jointly.

Burlingame and Hillsborough formed Central County Fire under a joint powers agreement in 2004 that covers 12 square miles and serves 39,550 residents.

"We’ve been considering this for three years now,” said Millbrae Councilwoman Marge Colapietro. "There was a time I would have said ‘no way.’ But I don’t think cities will survive unless more things are done regionally.”

Millbrae is expecting a consultant’s report on consolidation next month and has engaged labor in the process, said Millbrae Councilwoman Gina Papan.

"Sharing the fire chief with San Bruno is working quite well,” Papan said.

Through a series of mutual and automatic aid agreements, each fire department in San Mateo County responds seamlessly to provide citizens with the closest available units, according to the civil grand jury report.

All fire agencies are dispatched through one central dispatch which creates a "boundary drop” that enables all fire agencies in the county to operate as a single fire department, according to the report.

The civil grand jury report also indicates labor contract obligations were negotiated when tax revenue was higher and are generally no longer sustainable in the current economic environment.

All fire departments have fixed overhead costs for administration and management regardless of the size of the department, according to the report.

When comparing cost per capita to the population each fire agency supports, Woodside and Portola Valley residents pay far more than the rest of the county at about $769 for each resident a year. Coastside residents pay the least, compared to the rest of the county, at $133 for each resident a year. The Coastside Fire Protection District serves Half Moon Bay and nearby communities.

Brisbane, Pacifica and Daly City residents pay about $148 each a year to support the North County Fire Authority while Colma residents pay more than double that figure to support its fire agency at about $372 each a year.

Burlingame and Hillsborough residents pay about $404 each a year for fire service.

Foster City residents pay about $263 each a year and San Mateo residents pay about $206 each a year for fire service.

"Economics are going to drive consolidation but we have to be sensible about it,” said Foster City Councilman Art Kiesel. "It is almost there now. It shouldn’t be that difficult.”

However, Kiesel said, consolidation should be done methodically and he does not expect the Foster City and San Mateo fire departments to merge any time too soon.

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