A study has confirmed what many already surmised: consolidation of the Seaside and Marina fire departments could benefit both cities.
With the Fort Ord property between them being developed and populations increasing, each city would spend more on staffing and building new fire departments by continuing to operate independently than if they merged, said Les White, interim city manager for Seaside.
The study conducted by The Davis Co. of Sacramento indicates the cities could eventually save about $600,000 annually by consolidating the staffs and services.
The merger idea has been around for years since the cities are similarly sized, but it was the noose of tight financial times that compelled the city leaders to actually study it. Last year, each city contributed $10,000 to study the issue.
A number of questions still have to be answered before any final decisions are made, including how much a merger would cost on the front end.
Seaside City Councilman Don Jordan said while he favors the idea of pooling resources, he has some concerns about Marina's current firefighting capabilities. The city's public safety department has employees who serve as both police officers and firefighters.
"Seaside has a full-time fire staff. Marina is transitioning into one. We don't want to end up with less efficiency," Jordan said Wednesday. "We want to enhance the situation."
Marina is working toward separating its public safety department into independent fire and police departments, said Marina City Manager Anthony Altfeld. And that is happening whether or not the merger with Seaside happens, he said, because growth demands it.
Members of the public safety department spend 10 months as police officers and two months as firefighters. At any given time, the city has six dedicated fire staff, according to the consultant's report. The city recently hired three new employees who are firefighters only.
On Tuesday, the Marina City Council voted to have staff look into hiring a consultant, in partnership with Seaside, to study the idea of forming a joint powers authority that would oversee a combined department. The Seaside City Council will take up the issue tonight, but White said he doesn't expect the council will make a decision.
Marina City Councilman Ken Gray said the arrangement could be beneficial to both cities, especially in regard to coverage on Fort Ord. Marina Councilman Gary Wilmot said it would guard against any possible future redundancy in service.
A merger would allow the two cities to save on administrative costs, limit the number of fire personnel that would have to be hired in the future and pay only the cost of building one new fire department on Fort Ord rather than two, according to the study. The cities would also be able to hire a fire marshal, which neither currently has.
Consolidation would also allow the departments to address gaps in service, according to the study.
With the growth on Fort Ord, response times for both fire departments continues to be a challenge. Pooling resources would make it easier to respond to larger areas of the cities.
While the standard recognized response time for fire departments is five minutes, 90 percent of the time Marina typically has trouble meeting that standard, especially with the addition of Preston Park on Fort Ord. Seaside likewise often exceeds a response time of 10 minutes to new areas of the city, Seaside Highlands and former Army areas, Brostrom Park and SunBay Suites & Apartments.
"The preferred standard will be especially difficult for both cities to achieve as separate service providers," according to the Davis study.
As it is, the cities receive 3,300 service calls annually and that figure is expected to increase by over 2,000 new calls with new houses and commercial development on Fort Ord.
And even if the two cities decide eventually not to consolidate, the idea to build a joint fire department at Eighth Street and Second Avenue will still be fully explored, Altfeld said.
"We don't want to build fire departments across the street from each other," he said.
