Fire Department Consolidation

By Jim Hill

I am committed to the joint operation of OCSD Fire Department with the Cities of Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach to maximize service quality and efficiency and minimize costs.

Meanwhile, constantly increasing Federal and State regulations made it increasingly difficult to maintain the volunteer Department due to the amount of training time required for personnel to maintain proficiency. OCSD provided extensive training to personnel who would most often leave almost immediately for paid positions elsewhere.

Over the past 4 years, OCSD and the Cities have consolidated the 3 Departments' operations jointly under a single Chief and a Battalion Chief as if they were a single Department with 3 stations. The Departments are staffed with full time professionals and paid reserves who are shared among the Departments. Morale has improved. Training has been standardized and most equipment has also been standardized with the rest in process. Redundant equipment has been or is being sold to capture efficiency.

Today, residents of all 3 communities enjoy excellent fire and emergency response protection with professional staff at a cost equivalent to the old separate Department operations. I am committed to continuing and expanding the partnership with Grover Beach and Arroyo Grande to provide all our residents with superior fire and emergency response service at minimum cost.