The City of Redwood City will be discussing an amendment to the fire department’s personnel contract on Monday, which, if approved, would bring 19 firefighters onto the city’s payroll.
The firefighters are employed by the San Carlos Fire Department, which has contracted with the Redwood City Fire Department to share services since 2011.
In July 2012, the Redwood City and the San Carlos City Councils began discussing ways to optimize this relationship and reduce costs. San Carlos firefighters were resigning and moving to other fire departments that paid them more money.
From October 1, 2011 to July 9, 2012 four people resigned, according to a staff report prepared for the San Carlos City Council. This forced Redwood City Firefighters to fill in for them, often getting paid time and a half for doing so.
Both town’s city councils will be discussing this amendment on June 24, 2013.
If the amendment is approved, the City of San Carlos will pay Redwood City $5,570,024 in the first year of the contract, according to a staff report prepared for Redwood City's Council meeting. The San Carlos firefighters would become full time Redwood City employees.
The transferred firefighters would receive the same compensation levels as existing Redwood City fire personnel, according to the report. Notably, Redwood City FD would count the years that the firefighters served with San Carlos when seniority is used in the furture to make decisions about station assignments and vacation time. Redwood City’s Fire Chief would be the Chief of the San Carlos Fire Department, although the San Carlos Fire Department equipment and personnel would remain branded as San Carlos FD.
Redwood City FD would provide a deputy fire chief to manage operations in San Carlos. San Carlos would remain responsible for hiring and maintaining their stations and equipment, according to the staff report prepared for the San Carlos City Council meeting.
While San Carlos city staff say that this amendment would increase costs of providing fire services, it also offers the opportunity to save money by consolidating fire stations in the future. San Carlos Fire Station 16, located at 1280 Alameda de las Pulgas, and Redwood City Fire Station 12, located at 3700 Jefferson Avenue, are in need of repair and being scrutinized for consolidation.
If approved, the agreement will restart the five year contract on July 1, 2013, moving the expiration date to June 30, 2018.
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