Comments by Vince Williams

Video: Fire districts vote on contracting out services

August 20, 2006
Kathryn, I was not concerned by President Donovan's comments. It makes sense. PMFPD and HMBFPD have their own different weaknesses on their own, now. By combining they merge their different strenghts and weaknesses to become stronger, have an economy of scale and speak with one voice for the fire and emergency needs of the Coastside. Combining with some other San Mateo County agency before combining PMFPD and HMBFPD is going to leave a weak orphan as an adjacent district to the one that combined…

Fire boards vote to negotiate contract with CDF

August 21, 2006
Dave Heckman, (second post) You said, "I personally do not feel comfortable knowing that soon, my community, my family, and my friends may possibly rely on CDF for emergency services." Doesn't your low opinion of CDF reflect on all Firefighters and agencies? CDF is a big part of that community. Despite your attempt to finesse it, you have crossed a line. It is hard to believe that with all the government regulations, certifications, training, professional organizations and people dedicating their…

Fire boards vote to negotiate contract with CDF

August 21, 2006
Dave Heckman, You sure made a excellent arguments for why we don't want Firefighters and exFirefighters making decisions about our fire service. Let's try some facts rather than rhetoric. CDF is qualified to provide service on the Coastside. The town is not turning its back on the Firefighters. The Boards arranged that all of Linestaff will get jobs at CDF and their salaries will be red circled. If an individual Firefighter doesn't want to work for CDF, it is that individuals personal matter. #1…

Interim HMB Fire Chief Vern Hamilton has resigned

August 09, 2006
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…

Fire boards plan to select contractor tonight

August 01, 2006
Did You Know? HMBFPD has 9 new Cadets that just graduated from the fire Academy in May out of 31 Firefighters. The years in rank have declined due to attrition. The service level has declined in the District in the past year. (San Mateo County Grand Jury Report). Currently one of the Firefighters resides in Utah. HMBFPD Firefighters had average gross salary of $134K last year with some grossing $170K. (FY2005/2006 final accounting and 2004 MOU). Under CDF the Firefighters will be "red circled" meaning…

Devil’s Slide to reopen August 4

July 21, 2006
Thanks to all the folks that kept the pressure on CalTrans to open to limited traffic, especially the MCC. I have to chuckle at all the local politicos at the half way done photo-op last Saturday.

Editorial:  It’s time to solve the Coastside’s firefighting mess

July 26, 2006
Carl May, We must be at the bitter end of this discussion. Carl May writes: >Why consolidate with a sick, mismanaged, neighboring district first? The simple answer. There are no other options. Who will rescue PMFPD from thin revenues and the need to staff an engine company and provide Paramedics? How can HMBFPD afford to have Operations Chiefs, if it just has two engines and only its own revenue? This is a merger of financial and service necessity. Two Fire Agencies responded to the Request for…

Editorial:  It’s time to solve the Coastside’s firefighting mess

July 25, 2006
Carl May, We have been over local control many times. I agree with what Barry said in his editorial about local control. But, everything has a cost. Here is yours. The differences in the parcel taxes pale in comparison to the costs of PMFPD going it alone or contracting with CDF or San Mateo on its own. In fact to fund those at current rates would mean setting Measure H at $250/parcel and implementing a new parcel tax of about $125 on top of that. Why do you think your locally controlled Board has…

Editorial:  It’s time to solve the Coastside’s firefighting mess

July 25, 2006
Kristi Will, $170K was an estimate for 5 to 7 days of overtime per month depending on position. But, what is the average gross income for Linestaff at HMBFPD? Ed Carter posted the average compensation costs at $173K. I posted the benefits costs range from $30K to $48K. Subtract the average benefits costs from the average compensation costs for Linestaff and the average gross is $134K. You pointed out, not every member of the Linestaff wants a lot of overtime. If the Linestaff are transfered to a…

Editorial:  It’s time to solve the Coastside’s firefighting mess

July 21, 2006
Linda Prieto, Now about the salaries. The $170K is probably an upper practical limit of what a Captain/Paramedic could gross in a year. Salary Ranges(from 2004 MOU): Firefighter $59,741 to $78,193 Firefighter/Paramedic $67,360 to $83,812 Captain $ 81,449 to $90,588 Captain/Paramedic $89,068 to $98,207 Overtime is time and a half. A previous email of mine went over how overtime adds up. Benefits including retirement cost(the District) about 50% of base pay. The problem is not finding qualified candidates,…

Editorial:  It’s time to solve the Coastside’s firefighting mess

July 21, 2006
Dave Dewey, Great post. On one point, I think everyone agrees that unstaffed stations and two Firefighters on an engine is not acceptable. All the local Fire Service "contractors" I heard on PMFPD trying to staff their engine, wouldn't bid service with less than three on an engine.

Editorial:  It’s time to solve the Coastside’s firefighting mess

July 21, 2006
Linda Prieto, There are two stations in HMBFPD HMB Main Engine 40 and El Granada Engine 41. In PMFPD there is one Station Engine 44. Each engine is normally staffed with three Firefighters per shift and three rotating shifts. So, if no Firefighter ever took vacation,jury duty, military service or got sick or injured on the job, there would need to be 27 Firefighters for HMBFPD and PMFPD. So, there are additional Firefighters to cover absences. In addition HMBFPD has been staffing the primary ambulance…

Editorial:  It’s time to solve the Coastside’s firefighting mess

July 20, 2006
I want to correct one thing I posted earlier that was in error. The PMFPD Measure H Benefit Assessment is set at $160 per parcel per year. At the PMFPD Board meeting on July 20 the PMFPD Board kept the same $160 Measure H Benefit Assessment for FY2006/2007. Leonard, You are obviously one of the people concerned with the equities. The Joint Consolidation Committee has already decided to form service zones for the purpose of maintaining the existing parcel taxes and no more. Sorry, that Committee did…

Editorial:  It’s time to solve the Coastside’s firefighting mess

July 19, 2006
Linda Prieto, The current measure H benefit assessment/parcel tax in Point Montara(PMFPD) is set at $165/Parcel. It is set yearly this time of the year by the PMFPD Board. The Measure H funds can only be used for paying employee salaries in PMFPD. The maximum value Measure H can be set at is $250/Parcel. PMFPD has roughly 2000 households and one Fire Station. Compared to other Bay Area Fire Districts that is small in terms of households supporting the Fire Station. The average household in PMFPD…

Editorial:  It’s time to solve the Coastside’s firefighting mess

July 18, 2006
Mark Redman, My own personal observation is this is a Department teetering on the brink of operational failure with a much lower level of service than a year ago. But, I'm not a professional. I present the following to you so you can make your own assement on whether your safety is at risk: Incident: At the May HMBFPD Regular Meeting Director Lees reported that a cardiac arrest call from Montara was not responded to by the closest Engine 44 (Point Montara) because the engine was not staffed with…

Editorial:  It’s time to solve the Coastside’s firefighting mess

July 17, 2006
Barry, I agree completely with your editorial. I'd like to expand on a few of points. Chief Hamilton has done a great job of triage and stabilizing the remaining resources. Both Boards have cooperated to restructure services. But, these are all temporary. The Coastside fire service level is lower now than a year ago and operationally weak. This weak operational capability is exacerbated by the slide being out and the traffic backups. You wrote, "If something is not done, the result could be a tragedy."…

Grand jury says Coastside fire districts should merge and outsource services

July 15, 2006
Mark Redman, Mark Redman wrote: >Like I said 7 days extra a month works out to be about 96 hours a week. I said in my post on the red flyer "Line Staff". What you computed is true for Firefighter and Firefighter/Paramedics. It is not true for Captains or Captain/Paramedics. Captains and Captain/Paramedics are Line Staff. Please read my previous post again. It is confusing to talk in terms of weeks and hours. The Line Staff works a normal cycle of two days on and four days off. That is not most…

Grand jury says Coastside fire districts should merge and outsource services

July 14, 2006
Mark Redman, I said "Line Staff" that includes Fire Fighters, Fire Fighter Paramedics, Captains and Captain Paramedics. The following numbers are from the 2004 MOU: Shift is 24 hours. Six day cycle is 2 shifts back to back with 4 days off. That's roughly 10 full 24 hour days per month on shift and 20 days off. Base salary for a Fire Fighter Paramedic top step is $83,812. Overtime shift is $1,036. Base salary for a Captain top step is $90,588. Overtime shift is $1,120. Base salary for a Captain Paramedic…

Grand jury says Coastside fire districts should merge and outsource services

July 14, 2006
Comments on the red Firefighter flyer: The danger here is not selling out as the flyer suggests. The danger is in acquiescing to some individuals that are behaving in a cowardly fashion refusing to identify themselves and appropriating the logo of the District for their selfish purposes. This flyer uses the HMBFPD logo to make false statements about the District. This is an example of unprofessional conduct by some unidentified individuals. Ms. Mayne in one of her previous independent investigations…

Grand jury says Coastside fire districts should merge and outsource services

July 13, 2006
Brent Smith, Yor first paragraph describes strife which was promenently mentioned in the report along with some of the money you collected from your lawsuit. We could debate who is responsible forever and not come to a conclusion. My sense is that is what has been going on the last few years. From my perspective, citizens stepped in, LAFCo stepped in and now, the Civil Grand Jury has stepped in. There was a HMB Review article a couple of years ago that said you or your attorney may be taking some…

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