April 24--A proposal by San Diego's independent budget analyst and endorsed by Fire-Rescue Department leaders seeks to boost response times in the city's "gap areas" more quickly and affordably than building all the additional fire stations recommended last month by a consultant.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that efforts to increase response times in the increasingly congested city could take a big step forward under the compromise proposal.
The proposal includes covering six of the city's 12 geographical gap areas with fully staffed new stations in the next few years, and covering the other six areas less aggressively with "peak hour" engines until the city can afford new stations. Peak-hour engines, which the city hasn't used, would be deployed from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to boost coverage when emergency calls are the highest during late afternoon and evening commute hours.
The six neighborhoods that would get those engines are not identified in the proposal, but based on the consultant’s report last month, they would be Pacific Beach, south University City, Torrey Pines, Rancho Bernardo, Sabre Springs and southeastern San Diego.
The new fire stations would include one already under construction in Little Italy and others planned in Otay Mesa, north University City, Black Mountain Ranch, Home Avenue in Mid-City and on the UC San Diego campus.
The proposal, which is described as a "modified implementation" of the recommendations from Citygate consultants, would increase the city’s annual budget $15.2 million -- a 19-percent drop from the $18.7 million per year that full implementation would cost. More significantly, it would lower the initial capital costs of closing the gaps from $91 million under the Citygate plan to $13 million.
Shrinking the scope of the solution might boost the chances the city takes significant steps quickly, said Alan Arrollado, president of the labor union representing city firefighters.
"Historically we haven't done anything because we've been overwhelmed by the numbers," Arrollado told the Union-Tribune. "Our call numbers have nearly doubled in the last 10 to 15 years and we've added hardly any resources to address that increase."
Arrollado said he would prefer the city implement all of the Citygate recommendations, but he's also open to the modified proposal.
"We're so far behind at this point, anything is a help," he said. "If we need to look at a modified approach in the early years, then absolutely let's look at a modified approach."
The department was well short of its overall response time goals in the recent analysis, which covered the 12-month period from May 2015 through April 2016. During that time, emergency crews arrived on the scene within seven and a half minutes 74.7 percent of time, while the department’s goal is 90 percent.
Arrollado said the union is open to peak-hour engines, noting they have used a similar concept during fire season and anticipated storms.
"We have a similar model we use for weather-related events where we upstaff," he said. "This kind of grows that upstaffing concept to address our day-to-day service needs."
The independent budget analyst, Andrea Tevlin, said the city’s tight fiscal budget for 2018, which begins July 1, means that implementing the compromise proposal would need to wait until at least fiscal year 2019.
The Citygate analysis also recommended adding more fast response squads -- touted as “mini-fire engines” -- that aim to boost response times in areas located relatively far from other stations by placing two-man crews in revamped pick-up trucks in those locations.
The city’s first squad has significantly lowered response times in Encanto since it deployed nearly three years ago. A second was added last year in southern University City, and a third recently in San Pasqual through a partnership with the county.
