Turlock Fire receives funding boost. But council to consider study on future services
A week after approving about $725,000 in additional funding for the Turlock Fire Department, the City Council on Tuesday will consider a study proposal aiming to give recommendations on the department’s future.
While the funding boost provides for critical needs, Interim Fire Chief Michael Botto said the six-month study would assess how adequately the department serves the community.
Plans for a fire feasibility study date back to June, when the council budgeted $25,000 for one. The study will determine if Turlock can provide the same or better fire services at a lower cost by sharing resources, Interim City Manager Sarah Eddy told The Bee in an Aug. 30 article. The city planned to examine contracting Modesto for services, like Ceres did earlier this year, Turlock Firefighters Union President Chad Hackett said in the same article.
At the upcoming council meeting Tuesday, Botto said, the fire ad hoc committee will present an agreement for the consultant Citygate Associates LLC to conduct a fire master plan study. Citygate proposes charging about $80,000 for the comprehensive study, per the proposal Botto provided via email.
“The study will evaluate fire administration and provide options for council’s consideration,” Botto said in an email. “This may include keeping a traditional fully funded and staffed in-house administrative team or partnering with a regional fire administration team for shared services.”
If the council approves the agreement, the consultant will evaluate the department’s administrative support, fire stations and vehicles. The Citygate proposal also includes a community risk assessment, standards of cover study and the master plan on managing short- and long-term fire services.
The ad hoc committee decided to request an outside consultant instead of starting an internal study, Botto said. He identified the committee members as himself, Council Members Pam Franco and Nicole Larson, the city manager, the finance director, two members of the firefighters union and the fire chief of operations.
Committee goals include the following statement by Larson, which Botto sent in an email: “To establish and recommend the best approach to improve the current level of fire services to the city of Turlock in the most efficient, financially sustainable, and practical manner that satisfies the public, the department employees, and the City Council for decades to come.”
Turlock council approves fire budget boost
During the Oct. 18 meeting, the council approved adding about $725,000 to the Fire Department’s budget for this fiscal year. The funding covers overtime needed to staff all four fire stations from October to December, equipment maintenance and updating broadband technology to improve communications. It will also allow the department to reinstate a fire prevention inspector and unfreeze two firefighters, one engineer and a training chief, per budget documents.
Six funded Turlock Fire positions are vacant, Botto added. The city just hired three new firefighters, but Botto said they must go through training and will not start working until February.
The roughly $725,000 in funding comes from a mix of federal COVID-19 relief funds and Measure A, the sales tax measure passed in November. Sales tax revenues coming in higher than projected allowed the council to allocate more money to multiple departments from the general and non-general funds.
In the future, the department is considering adding a communications tower to one of the stations, Botto said at the Oct. 18 meeting. The $50,000 of approved funding for broadband technology is part of a short-term solution, he said.
“It is a good investment that’s not going to go to waste regardless of whatever else happens in the city,” Botto said during the meeting.
The ad hoc committee plans to present the fire study proposal at the Oct. 26 regular council meeting, Botto said. The city will post the agenda on its website.
This story was originally published October 25, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
