A. Special Presentation - Fire District FundingCounty Administrative Office
www.SBCounty.gov
Fire District Funding Workshop
Gary McBride
Chief Executive Officer
Dan Munsey
Fire Chief/Warden
May 19th, 2020
Page 2
Fire District Budget
Page 3
2019-20 Budgeted Revenue by Type
Budget Unit/Zone Property Taxes
Fees/Contracts/
Other Revenue
County
General Fund FP-5 Special Tax Total Revenue
Mountain 13,974,056 2,833,990 1,067,990 5,438,903 23,314,939
North Desert 15,653,165 11,246,127 6,318,393 11,781,090 44,998,775
South Desert 6,812,212 2,588,792 993,538 9,550,111 19,944,653
Valley 44,930,849 32,644,329 - 14,717,632 92,292,810
Admin/Special Ops.10,834,431 5,091,384 5,285,554 - 21,211,369
Total 92,204,713 54,404,622 13,665,475 41,487,736 201,762,546
Note: Total FP-5 Special Tax revenue of $41.5 million does not include $1.2 million budgeted in 2019-20 from a
recommended 3% inflationary increase that was not approved by the Board on June 11, 2019 (Item #96).
Page 4
FP-5 Revenue Breakdown
Voter-
Approved Board-Approved
Budget Unit/Zone
Helendale/
Silver Lakes Needles
Twentynine
Palms
San
Bernardino
Upland/San
Antonio Heights
Sub-Total
LAFCO Approved FP-5 Expansion Grand Total
Mountain - 5,438,903 5,438,903
North Desert 1,172,472 - 10,608,618 11,781,090
South Desert 468,345 2,330,034 2,798,379 6,751,732 9,550,111
Valley 7,838,721 3,313,830 11,152,551 3,565,081 14,717,632
Admin/Special Ops.- -
Total 1,172,472 468,345 2,330,034 7,838,721 3,313,830 13,950,930 26,364,334 41,487,736
LAFCO-Approved Annexations
Note: Total FP-5 Special Tax revenue of $41.5 million does not include $1.2 million budgeted in 2019-20 from a
recommended 3% inflationary increase that was not approved by the Board on June 11, 2019 (Item #96).
Page 5
Fire District Operations
Page 6
County Fire District –All Hazard Response
•Aircraft incidents
•Big Rig Fires
•Business Inspections
•Cave Rescue
•Cliff Rescue
•Commercial Structure Fires
•Fire Cause Investigation
•Forest Fires
•Hazardous Materials Incidents
•High Angle / Tower rescue
•Ice Rescue
•Medical Aid Mine Rescues
•Multi-Casualty Incidents
•Narrow or blocked access roads
•Off Road Incidents
•Over the side rescue
•Overgrown Roadways
•Railcar Incidents
•Residential House Fires
•Snowcat responses
•Swift Water Rescue
•Traffic Collisions
•Vegetation Fires
•Water rescue
•Wilderness rescue
Page 7
Station Closures Required if FP-5 is Repealed
23
6
8
6
15
4 4 3
0
5
10
15
20
25
Valley 74,610 Calls Mountain 4,576 Calls North Desert 47,499 Calls South Desert 11,862 CallsFire StationsStaffed Fire Stations by Zone would decrease
by stations throughout the District
Current Without all of FP-5
Page 8
Increase in Annual Calls per Firefighter with Station Closures
232
88
311
233
88
145 145
229
180
300
127
396
439
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
Valley Mountain North Desert South Desert Chino Ontario Rancho Apple Vly ColtonCalls Per YearCalls Per Firefighter by Zone
Current Without all of FP-5
Page 9
Average Response Time by Zone with or without FP-5
4:42
7:50
13:24
10:36
5:47
9:50
18:40 18:45
0:00
2:24
4:48
7:12
9:36
12:00
14:24
16:48
19:12
21:36
Valley Zone Mountain Zone North Desert Zone South Desert ZoneMinutesAverage Response Times
Current Without all of FP-5
Page 10
Total Staffing Reductions
Service Zone Current Staffing Level Staffing Without Entire FP-5
Administration / Special Operations 44 25
Mountain Regional Service Zone 54 36
North Desert Regional Service Zone 153 120
South Desert Regional Service Zone 51 27
Valley Regional Service Zone 321 249
Totals 623 457
Assistant Chief 7 5
Battalion Chief 26 17
Captain 181 132
Engineer 181 129
Firefighter 228 174
Totals 623 457
Page 11
East
Valley Service Zone
Page 12
•14 full time staffed stations
•156 suppression personnel
•San Bernardino City -9 stations
•S.B. Intl. Airport -1 station
•Grand Terrace -1 station
•Devore -1 station
•Mentone -1 station
•Muscoy -1 station
East Valley –Division 2
Page 13
46,500 incidents per year
Complexities:
•Severe wildfire danger!
•Large homeless population that produces an increase call for service.
•San Bernardino has a large number of unoccupied buildings and large number of structure fires.
East Valley –Division 2
Page 14
Service Level Reduction
•Reduction in 3 engine companies and one squad in the Greater San Bernardino area.
•Reduction in staffing by 4 fire stations in the Greater San Bernardino area
East Valley -Division 2 Without FP5 Funding
Page 15
Enhanced Services Reduction
•Under contract with San Bernardino International Airport for Aircraft Rescue
Firefighting (ARFF), County Fire pays a shared portion of the suppression personnel
costs.
•County Fire provides paramedics to law enforcement for SWAT program responses.
East Valley –Division 2
Page 16
Grand Terrace (Station 23) Current Response Times
Call Type Responses
Medical Aid 1,180
Other 23
Public Service 42
Traffic Collision -TC 71
Other Fire 17
Vehicle Fire 8
Investigation/Alarm 43
Hazmat 28
Vegetation Fire -FG 9
Traffic Collision with Extrication 2
Structure Fire -FS 7
Structure Fire -FC 4
Page 17
Grand Terrace Average Response Time
Responses Average Response Time
All Call Types/ 2019 1,434 0:05:55
Response Modeling Without FS23 1,424 0:09:36
Page 18
Administration/Special Operations
Page 19
Special Operation Division -Current Service Levels
Special Operations Division
Training and Safety
New Hire Firefighter Recruit
16 week Tower Training
Specialty Training
Rescue, Haz Mat, ARFF
Aircraft Rescue Firefighting
(ARFF) Training Center (SBRETC JPA)
Safety Officer Program
Emergency Medical Services
Training and Continuing Education
Ambulance Operator Program
Program Development
Quality Assurance/Quality
Improvement
Wildland Fire
Professional Fire Hand Crew
Inmate Hand Crew
Heavy Fire Equipment Operations
Program
Helicopter Medical Care and
Rescue Program
Page 20
Office of the Fire Marshall
Impacts
Page 21
Office of the Fire Marshal
The Community Safety Division is committed to creating a safe community through community risk reduction based education, engineering, and fire code enforcement programs. The division’s focus is on fire prevention and protection for our citizens and business community.
Services include:
1.Fire Planning and Engineering
2.Plan Reviews
3.New Construction Inspections
4.Annual and State Mandated Fire Inspections
5.Fire /Arson Investigation Programs including a proposed K9 program
6.Public Education (schools, community outreach/education)
7.Juvenile Firestarter Program
8.Fire suppression support activity such as damage assessment and crew support through the Arson Investigation Unit.
Community Safety Division Current Services
Page 22
The loss of administrative general fund support could result in a $2.7 million loss in operating revenues for the Community Safety (CS) Division. Current prevention services are supported by the fire suppression divisions through reimbursements for fire prevention services provided in their respective divisions. In order to offset the loss of funding, the following measures would be necessary.
1.Reduction in Community Safety staffing by 50% creating an immediate and devastating impact on the Annual Mandatory Inspection program. Current goals of 100% compliance would be compromised.
2.Increase of approximately 41% to program fees; increased financial hardship for business community.
3.Elimination of ancillary services such as public education, juvenile fire setters program, etc.
4.Contract city services would need to be re-negotiated to maintain current level of services.
5.Community Risk Reduction (CRR) as an on-going initiative would be drastically reduced, as it requires a robust Fire Prevention Program that includes prevention programs, construction planning/inspection services, arson investigations, pre-planning and public outreach for stakeholder investment. Further, CRR impacts all divisions’ aspects of strategic planning, standards of cover and professional standards for the department.
6.New positions approved for FY2021 will not be filled.
Loss of FP5 Funding Impact
Page 23
Enhanced Services
Impacts
Page 24
•Advanced Life Support
•Paramedic level care and transport
•Technical Rescue
•Type 1 State Certified USAR Heavy Rescue
•An integrated part of Regional Task Force 6
•Water Rescue
•Lake Arrowhead Rescue Boat
•Big Bear Lake Rescue Boat with Ice Rescue
•Colorado River/ Lake Havasu Rescue Boat
Fire District -Enhanced Services
Page 25
•Inclement Weather fire, rescue and EMS services
•Largest fleet of Snowcats of any West Coast Emergency Service. Snowcats allow rescue workers to
gain access to persons in need in even the harshest snow and ice filled situation.
•Wilderness Rescue
•“Side by side” off road vehicle transports rescue crews to remote areas to provide rescue, patient care
and extraction of patients.
•Hazardous Materials Response and Mitigation
•Trained Haz Mat Specialists respond to over XXXX events annually to protect lives, property and
the environment.
•Air Rescue, Medical Care Transport, and Fire Attack
•A collaboration of SBSO pilots and crew chiefs, with Fire District Flight Captains and Flight
Paramedics are available for all types of responses. These range from: Hoist Rescue, Swift Water
Rescue, Fire Suppression Air Drops, Crew Transports, Reconnaissance and Mapping.
Fire District -Enhanced Services (Continued)
Page 26
•County Fire District is the largest provider of Advanced Life Support (ALS) Emergency
Medical Services in the County with over XXX Paramedic and XXX EMT’s.
•County Fire District is also the second largest provider of ambulance transport services
in the County with XXX full time Advanced Life Support Ambulances deployed daily.
•Ambulance transport services are provided by County Fire District Ambulances in the
following areas:
ALS Care and Transport
∞Lake Arrowhead
∞Twin Peaks
∞Crestline
∞Fawnskin
∞Yucca Valley
∞Yucca Mesa
∞Hesperia
∞Phelan
∞Wrightwood
∞Baker
∞Lucerne Valley
∞Trona/Searles Valley
Page 27
•GEOGRAPHIC DIVISIONS –Daily Operations
•43% reduction in staffing within Administration/Special Operations
•Reduction of manpower within the Divisions will limit the ability to effectively fight fires.
•Firefighter risk will increase dramatically, and unnecessary property loss will occur.
•While response times will as much as double, if any unit is on call the times could be more than
5 times longer.
•The ability to obtain apparatus to “cover behind” when our equipment is committed to an incident can be
delayed by a factor of hours.
•Degradation of our “standing army” of equipment and personnel will inevitably lead to a less
effective response that may often prove detrimental to the citizen victim awaiting our help.
•Community based programs such as CERT, ECS, Fire Explorers, Fire Cor, etc would be reduced
or cancelled due to lack of funding or lack of personnel to coordinate and assist.
Geographic Divisions -Direct Operational Impacts
Page 28
•Wildland Division
•Inability to plan and develop community risk reduction and fuel modification projects to reduce the threat from wildfires
•Training/Safety Division
•Inability to deliver recruit training tower
•Inability to continue to develop our employees through remedial and career development training
•Inability to properly support our specialty programs (Hazmat, USAR (CA-RTF -6)
•EMS Division
•Inability to properly support, oversee and develop Ambulance Operator program
•Inability to research and develop forward thinking future EMS services/programs
•Inability to properly support personnel EMS training/education needs
Special Operations Enhanced Services Reduction
Page 29
•With fewer resources being available and the consequent loss of one third of it’s
professional suppression staff, there would be a significant reduction in the ability to
continue to provide enhanced services.
•All fire department personnel have a “First Responder Operational” level of knowledge.
•These defensive actions set the stage for “Specialists” to come in and mitigate the emergency.
•Without specialists to provide additional skill sets, many events could be prolonged without
resolution.
•This lack of operational depth will lead to a less effective response to:
Enhanced Services -Direct Operational Impacts
•Aircraft incidents
•Big Rig Fires
•Cave Rescue
•Cliff Rescue
•Commercial Structure Fires
•Forest Fires
•Hazardous Materials Incidents
•High Angle / Tower rescue
•Residential House Fires
•Ice Rescue
•Mine Rescues
•Multi-Casualty Incidents
•Narrow or blocked access roads
•Off Road Incidents
•Over the side rescue
•Overgrown Roadways
•Railcar Incidents
•Snowcat responses
•Swift Water Rescue
•Traffic Collisions
•Vegetation Fires
•Water rescue
•Wilderness rescue
Page 30
•The VOTERS will have a chance to decide during the November 3 election on the
funding of the fire department.
•The Department and elected officials continue to model different staffing scenarios if
FP-5 funding is repealed.
Next Step