Five Cities Fire Authority (FCFA) union President Jeff Lane has enjoyed teamwork and being physically active since he was in high school. It informed his career path to skip college, get his fire technology certification, and eventually join the FCFA as a reserve firefighter more than a decade ago.
“A big part of why I got into it is it’s an amazing job to get paid to help people. Most of the time, people are very appreciative and happy to see you,” Lane said. “All of us individuals have sacrificed something, especially money, to be able to figure out how to live here and continue to stay in the community.”
But now, Lane—a third-year full-time firefighter—is one of 11 union members (there are 20 total) who are looking for firefighting opportunities at outside agencies. Frozen funding contributions from Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach, and the Oceano Community Services District have left the South County fire department asking for more money to hire more employees and, in turn, expand fire services.
These three communities formed a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) in 2010 to combine their fire service resources and form one fire department. A 2020 amendment locked in the contributions from each member community until it expires in July 2023.
“The funding shortage is because the cities haven’t allocated the funding that’s necessary to progress or keep up the fire department to the standard that they keep the rest of the city up to,” Lane said. “They encourage growth and development, but with growth and development comes call volume increase.”
Call volume levels are currently at an all-time high, according to FCFA statistics. Previous New Times reporting found that as of Nov. 30, the fire department received 6.7 percent more calls in 2022 than it did in 2021. FCFA data shows a continued average increase of 4.8 percent annually.
Lane added that the FCFA is a “catchall” for the 911 system. He said that unless it’s a call for a domestic dispute or a police officer is near the service location, the FCFA arrives on scene to fix those issues.
“A lot of the times, it’s when someone’s sprinkler is broken,” he said. “Legally, we’re not allowed to do things like [that], or shut your water off to stop a leak, that would be a water department’s job. I think the fire department, to a fault, says, ‘This isn’t what we’re here for but we’re going to do it anyway because we’re public servants.'”
Before trying for the job, firefighting hopefuls can enroll in a state-accredited fire academy like the one offered at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria. The FCFA also hosts an in-house, six-week fire academy that’s tailored to how their firefighters handle tasks.
“Part of being a small department that hasn’t been funded is we don’t have a training facility,” Lane said. “San Luis city has a training tower behind their Station 1 headquarters. It’s a mid-rise concrete building that they’re able to put smoke in and have pseudo-live fire. They can get that experience of pulling a hose into a dangerous environment where you have to wear your pack. We don’t have anything like that.”
Lane told New Times that the out-of-pocket cost of receiving certification is still high compared to how much FCFA staff ultimately earn. A step below the top level of the firefighter rank, Lane makes $23 an hour over a 56-hour work week. He said once firefighters reach the highest level, pay increases stagnate unless there’s an opportunity to be promoted to the rank of a fire engineer. A salary study found that they get paid 18 to 30 percent below average across all municipal departments in SLO County and Santa Maria.
“The starting hourly pay for our first-year firefighters is $19 an hour to work a 56-hour work week,” he said. “Our overtime rate is the same time-and-a-half rate which exists by California law. There is no hazard pay, or double time pay for any reason. My certifications and training hours, that are well above the minimum for our department, is in the excess of 2,000 hours.”
According to FCFA Fire Chief Steve Lieberman, the department is asking cities for an additional $1.9 million. The fire department, which operates a fire station in each member city, hopes that amount would increase staffing numbers from 27 to the 39 that are immediately needed for the FCFA to run efficiently.
The future of fire services is further complicated by the repeated failure of Oceano to pass a special fire tax. Grover Beach City Manager Matthew Bronson said that while his city and Arroyo Grande were able to fund significant investments transitioning FCFA’s reserve firefighters to permanent positions, Oceano couldn’t pull its financial weight without asking its voters for a supplemental tax measure. To buy Oceano more time to pass the tax and to account for pandemic uncertainties, the FCFA member communities designed and adopted the JPA amendment in 2020 that locked in each area’s funding contributions.
It’s a point of frustration for the fire union. Lane said that the while cities inject more funding into their respective police departments, the FCFA’s funding is inconsistent. Both Bronson and Arroyo Grande City Manager Whitney McDonald said that police departments and the FCFA are governed differently.
“The Fire Authority is a joint powers authority that has a different governance model and two different types of communities—two incorporated cities and an unincorporated community services district,” Bronson said. “That’s not the case with police. They are city departments that are part of city operations.”
Now, because Oceano failed to pass the tax for a second time in November and is likely leaving the FCFA, the cities are figuring out what fire services will look like over the wind-down period that will end on June 30, 2023. The city managers hired an outside consulting agency to assess service and funding needs, and the report will be ready in February. All three members of the fire board – Grover Beach Mayor Jeff Lee, Arroyo Grande City Councilmember Keith Storton, and Oceano Community Services District Director Karen White—are leaving their political posts, so appointing their replacements will be one of the first priorities in 2023.
But Bronson acknowledged that the FCFA needs more funding.
“We are determined to figure out how we can best meet our community service needs, fire and emergency medical needs, and determine how we can fund those needs,” Bronson said. “Our current situation is not for a lack of financial support from the cities. It’s really tied into the complex governance arrangement that we have currently with the authority.” Δ
Clarification: New Times would like to clarify that all members of the current fire board are vacating their political seats.
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Dec 15-25, 2022.
