Quick Take
Central Fire District's board of directors rejected a plan to study consolidating three Santa Cruz County fire agencies. While the plan, which would have also explored ways fire districts could better collaborate when responding to emergencies, is shelved for now, fire chiefs say they remain open to future talks.
Weeks after agreeing to study the pros and cons of consolidating, three local fire agencies shelved those plans after leaders from one district voiced concerns about timing, cost and a preference to develop their own strategic plan for closer collaboration.
Members of Central Fire District of Santa Cruz County’s board of directors told a May 8 meeting that they didn’t believe it was a good time to press ahead with studying shared services across multiple fire districts, including Santa Cruz Fire Department and Scotts Valley Fire District. They cited concerns over balancing the study with focusing on changes happening within the agency – which serves Aptos, Capitola, La Selva Beach, Live Oak, Rio Del Mar and Soquel – and because the directors believed that it might be better for the board to develop a similar type of plan itself.
“This is the largest local government fire agency in the county, and I feel like a strategic policy initiative coming out of this board might make more sense, versus having it come to us,” said Director Jake Hess.
Director Don Littlefield worried that a study involving multiple agencies would be a slippery slope and could become contentious. He said, for example, if the participating agencies had differing feelings about the study’s results, it could be difficult or impossible to come to a consensus on how to move forward.
“I feel like today, we’re in a great position. We have strong finances, we have a new fire station to build, and a chief to hire very quickly,” he said, referencing the fact that Central Fire Chief Jason Nee is set to retire this year. “There are a lot of things in the mix right now and, for me, I’m not comfortable with this today.”
After Central Fire’s board opted to take no action on the proposed study, Scotts Valley’s board pulled the item from its agenda, effectively halting progress.
In mid-April, the City of Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley Fire District, Central Fire District and the Santa Cruz Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) agreed to move forward with exploring opportunities for increased coordination and shared fire services across the three jurisdictions.
Consolidating the districts into a single large fire service was one of the possible options that study sought to explore. But the districts were also planning to examine less drastic changes, such as aligning training and operations more closely to provide a more coordinated response to fires and other emergencies.
Santa Cruz Fire Chief Rob Oatey said that the failure to approve the study doesn’t mean it is gone forever. But he said that the cost of the study — about $20,000 per district — and a hyperfocus by board members on consolidation specifically led to its stalling.
“I tried to make it pretty clear that we’re trying to explore everything in between, but I think we get focused on consolidation,” he said. “It’s so hard, it takes so long, and we lose our sphere of influence.”
Oatey said that given the agencies share services fairly frequently already, shelving the study “seems like a wasted opportunity.”
Nee, on the other hand, said he thinks his agency’s board of directors saw things a bit differently. Since Central Fire and Scotts Valley already share services frequently, the districts can make that decision by themselves without a study: “Perhaps that was the elected officials’ perspective.”
While the study is off the table for now, both Nee and Oatey said there could still be a path forward in the future, especially considering how long the agencies have toyed with the idea.
“This has been a discussion that’s been around and come up throughout my 30 years in this county in the fire service,” said Oatey. “I definitely think it’s never dead, but it’s a matter of who’s open to it.”
Oatey said that while there might be some “awkwardness” as to why the agencies couldn’t make it work, neither he nor Nee believes that will impede any of their relationships or willingness to explore a possible study down the road.
“Like anything, we like to work through things and find solutions,” he said. “So I’m never saying never and I won’t give up.”
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