Merger Eyed by Marinwood, San Rafael, CA, Fire Departments

The San Rafael and Marinwood fire departments, which have agreements dating back to 1973, are proposing a merger.

At its meeting Monday, the San Rafael City Council took no formal vote, but enthusiastically supported the draft plan. It involves consolidating the Marinwood agency into the San Rafael Fire Department in phases over the next three or more years.

The city and the Marinwood Community Services District have had a close relationship for years. In 1994, the city closed a fire station on Joseph Court after a study showed the Marinwood engine could fill the void and even improve response times and began compensating the district for staffing.

The most recent agreement was approved in 2018. The contract came after Marinwood’s fire chief retired. Rather than hiring a new chief, the Marinwood district, which funds the Marinwood Fire Department, has been paying San Rafael about $116,000 annually for chief officer services.

San Rafael fire Chief Abe Roman said the model worked for some years.

“As we move forward, however, we’ve seen increasing service demands, evolving industry best practices and ongoing fiscal pressures that are challenging the sustainability of our current model,” Roman said. “These factors have led us to take a thoughtful and proactive look to how we can continue to provide the highest levels of service to the communities.”

The Marinwood Fire Department staffs nine firefighters and operates from a single firehouse on a $3.28 million annual budget. In addition to the district properties, it provides fire protection services to the upper Lucas Valley area of unincorporated Marin and parts of Terra Linda.

The San Rafael Fire Department, established in 1874, has 73 firefighters operating out of six fire stations on a $40.1 million budget.

The Marinwood department has two vacant firefighter-paramedic positions. Daily staffing challenges have been compounded by a string of long-term and short-term injury leaves, officials said. Since late 2024, the Marinwood department has been operating intermittently with two-person engines, rather than the three-person standard.

The pay disparity between Marinwood and San Rafael employees has been a longstanding issue.

The three-phase merger is designed to address both of those problems. If approved, it would begin to take effect on July 1.

In the first phase, the existing service agreement would be amended so the Marinwood district would no longer pay the city annually for chief officer services. Instead, the city would contribute $350,000 to the Marinwood district to support the department’s budget. This will stabilize the staffing levels, ensure three-person engines and maintain reliable response coverage, said Paul Navazio, San Rafael city manager.

In the second phase, Marinwood would contract fire and emergency medical services from San Rafael. That means San Rafael firefighters would staff the Marinwood station. Current Marinwood firefighters would be offered employment by the San Rafael Fire Department. Those who accept would see their salaries increase to the same pay rate as the city firefighters in the same position.

Today, a Marinwood firefighter-paramedic has a base salary range of $93,825 to $117,063, compared to San Rafael employees in the same position who earn $125,768 to $149,935. Fire captains in Marinwood earn a base range between $103,230 to $131,739 annually, compared to $141,083 to $171,488 annually in San Rafael.

The target date to implement the second phase is July 1, 2027.

Navazio said the second phase is the bridge that would enable the two agencies to move into a full consolidation in phase three, which would require coordination with the Marin Local Agency Formation Commission. Tasks include establishing a governance structure and responsibilities, and making administrative decisions around how property taxes and fire assessments are allocated to provide the services, he said.

Vice Mayor Rachel Kertz said talks of agreements and mergers have been going on for years. She asked what makes this time different.

Eric Dreikosen, manager of the Marinwood Community Services District, said the district leadership has felt for a long time that it doesn’t belong in the firefighting business.

“It’s an expensive industry to be in and we do not have the resources to match, we recognize that,” Dreikosen told the City Council on Monday. “We recognize that what serves our community and our combined communities better is for our agency to fully dissolve in the long run, our legal responsibility for fire by merging in or having a formal consolidation with a larger, better-resourced agency.”

Dreikosen said the Local Agency Formation Commission already recommends that the district explore ways to consolidate, and said he feels confident that there is momentum from city and district officials to get it done.

“This is clearly a complex issue with decades of history, operational realities, fiscal responsibilities and most importantly, public safety at the center of it,” Kertz said. “I support continuing to move in this direction because maintaining an unstable model, which is where I think we’re at today, serves no one — not San Rafael residents, not Marinwood residents, and clearly not the firefighters and personnel who are doing this critical work every day.”

Councilmember Eli Hill thanked the Marinwood fire crew for continuing to step up to provide service despite the staffing issues, overtime and lower pay, calling them “superhuman.”

“It’s not fair,” Hill said. “So I am glad that we are doing the right thing for the right people. Obviously, we want to make certain that folks of Marinwood and San Rafael are served adequately. I am glad that we have a short-term plan to get to the long-term plan, but ultimately, I want to make certain that the people that we ask to get on the truck every day are properly compensated and not overworked.”

John Bagala, president of the Marin Professional Firefighters, IAFF Local 1775, retired from the Marinwood department in 2016. Bagala said he appreciated that city leaders acknowledged “an inequitable situation” in Marinwood.

“I’m very, very glad that San Rafael appears to recognize the fact that the flow of money, especially for the services that are provided, needs to go the other way,” Bagala said. “I’m very optimistic.”

“We see the value of working together to find a solution that assures both proper protection of our communities as well as safe working conditions for our members who serve those communities,” said Randy Ainsworth, a San Rafael fire captain and president of the San Rafael Firefighters Association. “We also recognize the need to work toward the goal of a regional response model and look forward to a future in which north San Rafael is served by one single agency.”

The draft proposal is expected to be presented to the Marinwood Community Services District board at its meeting on Tuesday.

An ad hoc committee of officials from the city and the community services district will meet later this month to make a recommendation for a final proposal.

The City Council and Marinwood district board are expected to consider the proposal for approval in June.

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