Despite public pushback, Santa Clara County’s south and central fire districts will merge — a move county officials assert saves fire service in the south county from failure, even as some firefighters and local leaders challenged the transparency of the process, arguing it leaves unanswered questions about the region’s public safety.
“We have a responsibility where we see a major problem looming right in front of us, to do the hard thing to do, to address it,” said County Executive James Williams of the merger. “Change is a hard thing, but we can’t ignore and look the other way.”
In January, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors moved to merge two of the county’s fire districts: the Central Fire Protection District — which includes Cupertino, Los Gatos, Saratoga, and some unincorporated regions bordering the northern cities, and the South Santa Clara County Fire Protection District that covers unincorporated land around the southern edge of San Jose to the southern border of the county. Many of the highest fire risk areas are located in the southern reaches of the county.
Cal Fire is currently under contract to serve the southern district, but the county has opted to allow that contract to expire at the end of June. The Central Fire District will take over firefighting duties throughout the newly expanded district.
The move was inspired because the small tax base of the sparsely populated south county fire district couldn’t match growing need, and required a growing influx of cash from the county to stay afloat. Officials argued that essentially left the county with a choice between cutting services and making a merger.
At a meeting Wednesday, attended by firefighters and south county leaders, the merger awaited final approval from the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), which oversees the boundaries of jurisdictions in the county.
“There’s urgency around addressing the fiscal situation … It’s never been about the performance of Cal Fire,” said Sylvia Arenas, LAFCO board chair and county supervisor, as she looked at the group of Cal Fire firefighters as she spoke. “The situation is dire.”
The move would allow the funds from the central county fire district, which is larger and has tens of millions in “unassigned” funds, to buoy the needs of those in the south. Even so, the services to south county following the merger would cost millions more when compared to the current model. Additionally, in moving away from Cal Fire, the county would have to build its own fire station and would have a staffing shortage from July to September as it trained new firefighters to serve south county.
“It’ll be very costly in every sense of the word,” said Brandon Barrett, a Cal Fire Captain based in Morgan Hill, who questioned the logic behind the merger. “None of it adds up. It’s a plan that will fail long term.”
Both representatives from Cal Fire and the City of Morgan Hill also held that they hadn’t been at the table for decisions that they argued would directly affect them.
“Decisions of this magnitude must be made with full transparency,” said Morgan Hill City Manager Christina Turner, who expressed concerns about the county not including the city early enough in the decision-making process. “Unfortunately Morgan Hill was not notified.” Morgan Hill currently contracts with Cal Fire for its local service and shares cost on a fire engine.
In response to concerns, Williams argued that the new fire station would be an investment in better fire service and that central fire had assured the staffing shortage would not affect service. Williams also said he had reached out and was open to collaboration with Cal Fire and leaders throughout South County.
Despite the pushback, the board voted 6-1 in favor of the merger, with commissioner and Morgan Hill Mayor Mark Turner in opposition.
After a window allowing residents to file written protest against the decision, the two districts are slated to merge, and central fire would assume firefighting responsibilities beginning July.
