Annexation of the Gilroy Fire Department to Santa Clara County Central Fire Protection District is currently an option supported by multiple labor groups and has shown it can be done in 90 days. Completely getting out of the business of managing and funding a Fire Department that has struggled to grow and retain staffing under multiple Fire Chief's and City Admin’s is on the table, including the escalating costs to pay for contract emergency medical dispatch. Our City Administrator has extensive experience with this from his time at Saratoga, Cupertino, and Los Gatos. Our Assistant City Attorney has experience with the recent annexation at Los Altos where she serves as their City Attorney.
Responsibility for delivering services transfers entirely to the Fire District. This means no labor negotiations, no personnel management issues, no operational liability, no budgeting for multi-million-dollar fire engines, no station maintenance projects, and no station replacement programs.
After police services, fire services are often one of the most resource-intensive municipal functions, consuming significant time from elected officials and staff. This service model includes the communications and dispatch component being funded and handled by the District and they will assign a Chief Officer as the City Liaison. That way the City Manager and Council have a point of contact for fire-related questions, meetings or concerns.
We established the minimum standards in 2019 and for now that includes the Santa Teresa 12 hour unit, we can’t reduce our overall citywide times and Santa Teresa District, without staffing this company on a regular basis 24/7 365.
The letter that we received from Local 2805 in 2023 was a lifeline for help, they weren't trying to fight us, they weren't asking for increase in wages and benefits, they are contracted by the city to provide services that we established through our standards of coverage in 2019. We need to ensure that the voices of Local 2805 and AFSCME Local 101 have a seat at the table during any future Fire Department Strategic Planning, since this affects both of their working conditions. LAFCO Fire Service Review 2023