The resignation of Half Moon Bay Fire Chief Vern Hamilton’s was announced at tonight’s meeting of the Point Montara Fire Protection District. Division Chief Paul Cole will take over as Interim Chief and Captain David Cosgrave has been promoted to acting Division Chief/Shift Supervisor. Hamilton began a vacation this week.
Cole will be the department’s fourth Chief in a year. Hamilton was brought on as Fire Chief after the resignation, for personal reasons, of the previous Chief, Peter Bonano in March. Bonano resigned after writing a stinging evaluation of the department and recommending that it outsource its fire services. Bonano replaced Chief Jim Asche, who left in August December 2005.
Hamilton is an associate of Robert Olsen Associates, a consulting firm that is assisting the district with its reorganization. Hamilton returns from vacation the beginning of September, but as a representative of Robert Olsen Associates. His will continue as a consultant on the consolidation.
There are two important meetings coming up for Coastsiders interested in the fire situation.
- Wednesday, August 8, Robert Olsen will speak and answer questions at the Midcoast Community Council at 7:30pm at Seton Coastside in Moss Beach, during the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting. This is your opportunity to come and ask questions about the service contracts and consolidation progress. Robert Olsen is the chief consultant hired by both boards. He has conducted a variety of emergency service reviews, including providing recommendations and solutions for many California cities and fire districts.
- Thursday, August 17, the fire boards will hold their next meeting on consolidation and contracting. The meeting will be held in the large equipment area at the HMB fire station. The MCC meeting will be the only opportunity the public will have to have its questions answered directly by the consultant prior to the meeting on Aug 17th.
Do you want to be notified by email when news like this breaks? Sign up for Coastsider Alerts. Use the form near the top of the left-side navigation bar.
Chief Hamilton accomplished a great deal in the short time he was here. He performed triage on the HMBFPD, cut nonessential services, put a plan together that effectively utilized what remained of the resources of the Department and brought expenditures into line with resources. The employees supported him in his efforts and they should also be commended. But, these were all temporary measures designed to prioritize the remaining resources on critical operations. As a professional, Chief Hamilton couldn’t advocate just hoping the restructured Department would just limp along and regain its strength over a number of years. It had to meet its mission reliably, right now. That mission requires not letting any non-operational small details fall throught the cracks and later impact operations. Hence, the recommendations to outsource. Many involved had not learned a lesson from this crisis. Chief Hamilton achieved a great deal without a full majority of the Board behind him. But, his successes were his undoing. It allowed the chronic strife to resurface and reassert itself. That is what happened at the August 1 joint Fire Board meeting.
I have to respect Chief Hamilton’s decision to resign. To me it is consistent with his very professional performance in helping our community.
Now with this latest news, the HMBFPD organization has been so weakened that it has become again, a public safety issue. The Boards and the community need to recognize this. Time is of the essence. Outsourcing is the only option. We need a professional organization with a rule book for both the Linestaff and our two dysfunctional Boards. As Chief Kelly hinted in his presentation, its time for some consistant management.
Taking the longer view, while other communities take pride in their fire service and work on enhanced services, we have decimated ours with strife. The tragedy is we have pissed away so many services and now are forced to admit we have no local control of the situation and need outside help at all levels.
Thank you Chief Hamilton for stabilizing our fire service and showing us the way out.
Vince Williams