PD Editorial: Measure G for better, faster fire service

Sonoma County has too many fire departments and not enough firefighters.

Measure G on the March 3 ballot promises to combine some of the 38 fire districts, volunteer companies and municipal departments, while adding firefighters, improving training, upgrading equipment and reducing emergency response times.

The carrot is money, and so is the stick.

Measure G, a half-cent sales tax increase, would raise an estimated $51 million a year, with 100% of the revenue earmarked for fire suppression and prevention and emergency medical services.

To get a share of the money, fire districts and volunteer companies would be obligated to work toward regional consolidation.

There already has been some progress, with fire districts combining in the west county, the Sonoma Valley and along the Highway 101 corridor.

How many fire departments do we need? Certainly not 38 of them.

Mark Heine, chief of the newly formed Sonoma County Fire District, is a member of a working group on consolidation. He said five or six municipal departments plus one fire district in each of the county's four geographic quadrants is an achievable goal.

Measure G doesn't specify a target or fix any deadlines, a reflection of the stiff resistance from some agencies that has stymied consolidation for decades.

That's a flaw in this proposal. However, the Board of Supervisors would be empowered to cut funding for fire districts that resist, and Measure G requires an assessment of progress and allocations once $172 million of the tax revenue has been distributed.

In an emergency, no one checks the name of the firetruck. When people have to dial 911, they want to know that help is on the way. On this, Measure G delivers.

Understaffed rural fire districts, especially volunteer companies, often struggle to handle the volume of calls, especially for medical assistance. The expenditure plan includes 200 additional firefighters, with paramedic training, spread across the county, so local agencies can get closer to the national guidelines of arriving within 5 minutes on 90% of emergency calls and three trained firefighters on each engine.

Measure G also would pay for nine new fire stations, replacing some that don't meet modern seismic safety standards, as well as eight relocations and upgrades at numerous other stations. There's also money for equipment, including fire engines, ambulances, breathing apparatus and other safety gear for firefighters.

Fire districts would be authorized to spend some of their share on emergency alert systems, including hi-lo warning sirens for evacuations.

The county would receive about $2.5 million a year to upgrade emergency notification systems and about $2 million a year for stepped-up vegetation management efforts. There also is funding to hire inspectors dedicated to vegetation management.

Most of the revenue would be collected in Santa Rosa and other cities, and much of it would be allocated in unincorporated areas, but that doesn't mean the cities wouldn't benefit. They are guaranteed a share of the revenue, and they stand to get some relief: If rural agencies are better staffed and trained, larger departments shouldn't be dispatched outside their jurisdictions as frequently.

The threat of catastrophic wildfires looms over California. Measure G won't change that. It will provide Sonoma County with a larger, better organized corps of firefighters to make a stand like the one that saved Windsor and Healdsburg during last fall's Kincade fire, and to meet day-to-day emergency needs for a half-million residents and visitors. The Press Democrat recommends a yes vote on Measure G.

You can send a letter to the editor at letters@pressdemocrat.com.