Full meeting audio:
{play} http://www.goldrushcam.com/sierrasuntimes/images/2015/audio/fire332015.MP3{/play}
The following are excerpts from the discussion:
Sheriff Binnewies became the Interim Fire Chef on August 5, 2014. He said his knowledge is mainly in law enforcement and emergency services not fire suppression.
Before he came onboard the department was rudderless and drifting.
The Interim Fire Chef Binnewies selected Bill Hodson (retired CalFire Chief) to be the Mariposa County Assistant Fire Chief to help rebuild the county fire department. Mr. Hodson is classified as an extra help county employee.
Some of the urgent concerns from the volunteers were (1) Lack of Leadership (2) Consistency (3) Training (4) Policy and (5) Safety.
They currently have 15 policies in process with some of them currently applied. Previously there was a void in department procedures.
Deputy Fire Chief Curtis Jackson has extensive fire fighting suppression experience along with internal knowledge of the department. The Deputy Fire Chief is currently the only full time overhead position in the department.
The Interim Fire Chief said there were holes in the department Administration when he took over on August 5, 2014 and the one employee was overloaded with work. Now there is an additional employee plus three volunteers as extra help.
Problems that were noted in Administration were not getting Federal reimbursements, delinquent on grant reports and some accounts were expired. These problems would cause no Federal money to come into the department. But now they are getting everything back up to speed.
Don Florence with Mariposa County Office of Emergency Services is working on the Mariposa County Emergency Operation Plan.
The Interim Mariposa County Fire Chief said they have a lot of challenges and some of them they are working on. They have a lot of infrastructure in the department with the 13 fire stations.
There is still unfinished business with the fire stations that they are struggling financially to take care of.
CSA #3 does not allow for the maintenance of the new fire trucks. These trucks are incredibly expensive and with the inside equipment would cost $500,000. Along with the water tenders they need a maintenance schedule.
Maintenance schedules need a lot more attention than they were receiving along with servicing of the equipment.
They are currently working on this along with identifying funding sources for the maintenance.
A pump had to be serviced out of county at a cost of several thousand dollars due to lack of maintenance.
The Interim Fire Chief said he heard through rumor that the previous board of supervisors were told the new equipment did not need maintenance so money did not need to be identified.
Other challenges are recruitment and retention. This has been ongoing. As they look at personnel files to see who is qualified and who is not and who is an active member and who is not.
They are on the cusp of sending out notices of training delinquencies.
The Interim Fire Chief said he had heard through rumors that the department was close to 300 volunteers.
There are currently 44 active and certified volunteers. This is a challenge.
He would like 100 active and certified firefighters. One of the complaints from the members were safety and training. That has now been increased.
With the drought challenges a report is being prepared for a North County Water Suppression Plan.
They are working closely with CalFire. During the off season there are three active CalFire stations in the county.
Coulterville, Mariposa and Usona stations.
They are pursuing an Amador Plan (provides staffing for fire and emergency response during the off season when the stations would normally be closed.) or a plan like the Amador Plan with CalFire. They will come before the supervisors for the next off season for approval for one station. CalFire is heading to year round coverage in the state. With some additional money the county could have another station staffed. Those stations would enhance the volunteer stations.
The board has not made the decision if the department is going to be a stand-alone department or a consolidated department.
