Rincon Valley firefighters’ letter signals breakdown in deal with Windsor district

Rincon Valley firefighters say they want out of a now three-year effort to share their administration with Windsor firefighters, a joint operation they contend lacks leadership and has been a demoralizing failure for their department.

The request from Rincon Valley firefighters to dissolve the arrangement, known as the Central Fire Authority, came Tuesday night in a stinging letter from Rincon Valley firefighters’ union leader Andrew MacLean to the fire district’s board members.

“We gave this agreement our best, but were often met with indifference or completely ignored. It is time for Central Fire Authority to end,” wrote MacLean, a Rincon Valley fire captain.

The request from Rincon Valley firefighters to drop the joint powers agreement, or JPA, comes one month after Windsor firefighters made the same request of their district board, a move Windsor department members said would improve their agency’s leadership and structure and take them off the sidelines where they feel they’ve been left.

Rincon’s move also comes amid fledgling talks with the city of Santa Rosa to take over firefighting in Rincon’s sprawling jurisdiction through a contract for services, paid for by the district’s current fire fees. That possibility remains at least several months in the future, but MacLean said the Central Fire JPA should be abolished regardless of the outcome with Santa Rosa issue due to the severity of the current problems.

“Central Fire Authority has fostered a difficult work environment that has leadership voids, ineffective communication, is contentious and demoralizing to its members,” MacLean wrote in his letter. “This JPA has failed in fulfilling its purpose …”

John Hamann, board president of the Rincon Valley district and Central Fire Authority, and Central Fire Chief Doug Williams said the request from Rincon Valley firefighters was not a surprise. The two officials did not take issue with the harsh criticism in the letter.

“I’m not sure if they’re trying to fire everybody up or what. They’re impassioned about it,” Hamann said. “They’re just coming out with both barrels pretty much.”

“It’s an opinion,” Williams said. “I think it’s good to have a healthy discussion about things. It’s not as if we’re not going to go out and fight fires.”

Williams declined to comment on specific contentions in the letter, including claims Central Fire Authority lacks leadership.

Windsor and Rincon Valley fire departments joined their administrations three years ago. In large part it was the effort of former Windsor Chief Ron Collier and Williams, then as Rincon Valley’s chief. The merger of administrations followed Collier’s retirement and resulted in Williams being chief of both departments, through the joint agency.

Central Fire serves an area home to 60,000 people, including greater Windsor and a wide band around the city of Santa Rosa.

Rincon’s 18 firefighters and Windsor’s 12 remain in separate departments. While they train together, and respond to some of the same calls, equipment and staffing levels continue to differ.

One year ago the Rincon Valley and Windsor district boards, with Williams’ support, were moving toward consolidating the two fire departments completely. But firefighters this spring spoke out against the idea, with Rincon asking for time to pursue the Santa Rosa contract and Windsor firefighters suggesting their agency seek other possible partnerships.

The latest requests from firefighters at the two departments represents an open breakdown in the partnership.

“This is a serious issue that requires your full attention,” MacLean wrote in his letter.

Rincon Valley union vice president Ryan Estes, a firefighting engineer, Wednesday said the problems have included basic components of the initial JPA agreement never being met despite the deal’s implementation in late 2011. Important issues such as filling supervising battalion chief slots haven’t been completed, Estes said.

“All they’ve done is change the patch on the chief’s arm,” Estes said. “If we dissolved we’d deliver the same service.”

Windsor firefighters Thursday will meet with board members for an informal discussion of options for ending the JPA, said Jason Jones, Windsor firefighter and president of the Windsor firefighters’ union.

Firefighters said Williams could remain chief of both agencies - a strategy being used by other departments to trim administrative costs. Training and responses, which are frequently conducted together, could continue but each agency could focus on the needs of their fire districts, Estes said.

Hamann, the Rincon Valley and Central Fire board president, however, questioned how the departments would succeed if fully separated. He echoed Windsor fire board president John Nelson, who last month said the timing seemed wrong to discuss the end of Central Fire in light of countywide talks of fire agency consolidations.

Going it alone could prove too costly, he said.

“Show us how we’re going to do this, being separate. There’s no way Rincon or Windsor can afford to have any kind of chief and administration staff on their own,” Hamann said. “It seems crazy to split it up when we still need to work together on administrative stuff.”

You can reach Staff Writer Randi ?Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @rossmannreport.