HMB Fire Board votes to explore outsourcing, consolidation with larger agencies

At Tuesday night’s meeting of the Half Moon Bay Fire Department board there was a spirited discussion of Interim Chief Pete Bonano’s assessment that the problems of the district could best be resolved by contracting out the services of the department.

Bonano’s presentation was not as hard-hitting as his memo.  He did note that "Mandatory inspections are not being done." However, he was quick to note that the staffing problems had not resulted in problems with emergency response, and that the conclusion of the memo that the fire services should be contracted out is his opinion.

Directors David Eufusia and Lane Lees did not dispute the Chief’s findings, but said that they were nothing new. Eufusia said, "This has been going on a long time" and acknowledged that the situation was a "crisis".

Point Montara Fire Protection District director Gary Riddell, attending as a liaison, echoed this, saying, "Tell us something we don’t know."

One clear voice was of an individual firefighter, not a union representative, who noted that the firehouse was under tremendous stress because of long hours and every time one firefighter takes a day off, another’s duty is increased, saying "People are not functioning as a unit."

What was less clear was what the board intended to do about the ongoing crisis. There was discussion of consolidation with larger agencies in addition to the Chief’s recommended alternative of contracting out services.

Lees noted somewhat encouragingly that "A RFP is not a decision".

The board voted unanimously for its consolidation committee to draft a Request for Proposal (RFP) for likely agencies, and asked the Chief to informally inquire which agencies might be interested in receiving the district’s RFP.