Like many fire departments around the nation, the Contra Costa County (CA) Fire Protection District is dealing with extraordinary financial problems, and now the department’s chief is facing calls for him to leave–in this case from the local newspaper.
An editorial from the Contra Costa Times (http://bit.ly/Vz7xAj) says the only answer Fire Chief Daryl Louder had for the financial crisis “was to raise taxes. Never mind that it wouldn’t fix the underlying structural problem, only delay the day of reckoning.”
Describing the chief’s performance at a public hearing on the department’s condition, the editorial went on to say he “came only with a recommendation to close four of the district’s 28 fire stations, and he never showed numbers to justify why those four were selected. Moreover, closing four stations won’t solve the problem. More cuts will be needed before July 1, the start of the next fiscal year.”
“There was no thoughtful discussion of how to more efficiently respond to emergency medical requests, which account for about 80 percent of the calls,” the editorial continued. “Amazingly, Louder suggested tapping county coffers for a bailout of the separately funded fire district.”
Read more about the situation at http://bit.ly/Vz7xAj.
For more reflections on the budget problems affecting U.S. fire departments, consider Are We Short -Staffed or Just Short -Sighted? , Fire Service Leadership and Management: Revenue Change-Based Negotiations for Fire Departments, and the “Inside a Budget Fight” series.
