Future of fire services

The future of Healdsburg’s fire fighting services could look very different from what we all have become used to over many previous decades. The fire trucks and the siren alarms will be the same and the volunteer and paid emergency and safety teams will likely remain in place. But who is in charge, and how everything gets paid for could change dramatically.
Local 9-1-1 calls have been routed to a central dispatch for many years. Soon, all other fire, medical emergency or routine business calls may be re-routed as well. Maybe there will be a Healdsburg fire chief, or maybe not.
As elsewhere across Sonoma County, Healdsburg has not been able to keep up with increasing costs of fire safety and emergency services. The General Fund support from the City of Healdsburg must now be augmented with a portion of Transient Occupancy Tax funds, too. Without county, state and federal grants, Healdsburg firefighters would not have all the modern equipment or special training that supports their excellent safety record and response times.
A three-year study by the county Board of Supervisors is now under way to look for better quality of services with new cost effective systems or governance structure. At the same time, Cloverdale, Geyserville and Healdsburg fire safety leaders have held their own conversations about possibly consolidating services for all of northern Sonoma County.
It is not too early for Healdsburg and north county residents and business owners to start paying attention to this issue. The excellent fire protection services we’ve come to take for granted will definitely be changing — with or without our input.
There is no question that Sonoma County’s patchwork of fire and emergency response services needs a major review and possible overhaul. Currently there are 15 all-volunteer small rural fire companies, 19 other independent districts, five city departments and a county Fire and Services Department and a state Cal-Fire. All of these various fire units cover different parts of our expansive, mostly rural Sonoma County. Some areas may be under-served while in other places neighboring fire agencies may duplicate services.
Local control — considered sacred by some, the sharing of property tax proceeds and changes in the ranks of paid and volunteer firefighters are all at stake. A county-wide ad hoc committee of fire chiefs, EMT professionals, county administration staff and labor union representatives have just completed a series of 10 community talk sessions. Next comes a year of staff reviews and a county-wide survey of existing services and costs. Implementation of a new plan could take place  by late 2016.
Messing with the local fire district leadership is always a hot topic. All our local fire houses and volunteer corps stand on a rigid foundation of history and individual personalities. But lately, these once all-volunteer institutions have been augmented with paid support, inter-government contracts and various joint services agreements with the county or neighboring fire districts.
Plans to modernize the county’s fire and emergency services have been launched before. A few smaller volunteer companies have been merged into regional fire districts, but only with mixed results and smoldering firehouse politics and turf battles.
Fire services have been very good to excellent in Healdsburg over recent years. Maybe the need for any changes may appear misguided. But this is a case where Healdsburg, it’s rural neighbors — and all taxpayers — need to look at a bigger horizon.
The facts are that Healdsburg alone has not been able to pay its annual firefighting bills without outside help. And, it is also a fact that Healdsburg, Geyserville, Windsor and others are paying for an unnecessary duplication of services.
It is time to modernize Sonoma County’s fire protection services. Giving up some ownership in exchange for broader financial support sounds like it might save bigger costs or forced changes later.
— Rollie Atkinson