Santa Cruz County fire agencies set to study possible merger after years of discussion

City of Santa Cruz Fire Chief Rob Oatey and Central Fire District of Santa Cruz County Chief Jason Nee have worked in local fire service for over 25 years. Even when they started as paid call firefighters in 1999, they thought it made sense for the county to have one large fire organization rather than 12 individual agencies, since they’re already constantly working together. The two talked about it again two years ago, and revisited the idea of exploring ways to make an already close working relationship between local fire districts even stronger — and simpler.

“I think even some of those that came before us had talked about this,” said Oatey. “It’s only sort of natural that when Jason and I had an opportunity to hold this leadership position, we owed it to ourselves and our respective agencies to ask that question.”

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 a study to evaluate the pros and cons of consolidating fire districts within the region. It will aim to explore opportunities for increased coordination and shared fire services across the three jurisdictions.

Consolidation, or moving toward operating the three districts under one parent agency, is one potential option the study will explore, as the three districts already share boundaries and assist each other with emergency response through mutual aid requests. However, other options could be as simple as the districts simply aligning their training and operations more closely to provide a more coordinated response. Nee reiterated that the study is not a decision or commitment to consolidating, and that it is not binding.

“Maybe it’s just two of us going together, or maybe it’s none of us,” Oatey said. “We want to make sure they look at all these different opportunities and not leave any stone unturned.”

Oatey said there are a lot of things that the fire districts do together as is, and they often assist each other in major incidents. He said that the districts typically do a lot of training together on a quarterly basis, which consolidation or merging the existing districts’ training divisions could make easier, along with sharing information.

“That’s where I think we become much more efficient and more importantly, much more effective,” he said. 

Nee said that the districts operating in more lockstep fashion to some degree or another could also provide better service, as things such as training and emergency response protocols would be the same for everyone. He said that sometimes firefighters from different districts will go about the job in slightly different ways.

“You would think that everybody does it the same way, but there are some subtleties between each agency,” he said. “If you have to borrow someone, maybe they do things a little differently [in their agency]. There is better safety and effectiveness in your operations when everybody’s doing things with the same expectations the same way.

“You could have an ability to have all of our folks, basically from the yacht harbor to almost the city of Watsonville all operating the same way, with the same training and everybody working off that same sheet of music,” said Nee. “Being able to staff a confirmed structure fire with our own staff members and not have to lean on the help of other organizations is immensely helpful.”

Scotts Valley chief Mark Correira said that increasing collaboration, whether it means consolidating or not, can help with some specialized incidents. For example, he said that Scotts Valley does not have wildland hazard inspection officers, who work to detect fire hazards in forests and other wilderness areas, but Central Fire does. Consolidating or collaborating more closely could mean that residents in both Central Fire and Scotts Valley’s jurisdictions would benefit from the service, as they would all then be covered by one larger fire service. 

Similarly, Oatey said that Central Fire has water rescue, but no lifeguards. The agency is responsible for some of the most popular beaches in the county, including Twin Lakes State Beach and New Brighton State Beach, as well as renowned surf spots like The Hook and Pleasure Point.

“I think there’s a huge hole in the county in terms of beaches that aren’t protected,” he said. “That’s something that I think we can bring to the table that currently isn’t provided.”

Oatey added that since all the agencies share boundaries, consolidation or more uniformity in training and protocols could allow a potential larger agency to send the closest unit to an incident rather than having to borrow services from other districts.

Beyond smoother operations, Nee pointed to the prospect of long-term financial savings from a potential merger. He said before Aptos/La Selva Fire District consolidated into Central Fire in 2020, each had its own legal counsels, information technology staffs, and separate boards of directors. After becoming one agency, it had only one of each, and could make purchases for a larger organization, making it more cost-effective.

“The ability to purchase in bulk saves us some significant dollars as opposed to a small agency trying to buy things that you pay a premium for,” he said.

Oatey agreed: “You have an economy of scale, whether that’s us purchasing multimillion-dollar fire apparatus or buying really expensive rescue equipment. If we can buy those on a larger scale, I think there’s a huge benefit to the taxpayer.”

Nee and Correira said the failure of Central Fire and Scotts Valley’s bond measures from November 2024 — Measure R and Measure S, respectively — did not contribute to the decision to explore consolidation and collaboration options. Nee said preliminary discussion began in 2023, before the conception of Measure R. 

Measure R sought to authorize the fire protection district to issue $221 million in bonds to fund a multitude of projects for the district serving Aptos, Capitola, La Selva Beach, Live Oak, Rio Del Mar and Soquel, while Measure S aimed to authorize the district to issue $24.5 million in bonds to fund the construction of a new 12,000-square-foot fire station and a 4,000-square-foot administration building at Mount Hermon Road and La Madrona Drive, several miles south of the current station at Erba Lane.

The planning of the study is still in its infancy, said Oatey, who added that the city expects to put out requests for proposals and search for a consultant to study options to improve fire service in the region. Nee said that in past studies, those ranged from administrative consolidation to operational consolidation and contracting some functions to another district. Oatey hopes to have the study completed by May 2026 and then expects the agencies will go to the community for input.

Regardless of the results, Nee said he believes discussing the matter with other fire districts and agreeing to explore the possibilities are a move in the right direction.

“This is a pretty marked change in the culture in the fire service. Quite frankly, you couldn’t get all these leaders into a room together to have a conversation about this, because of the historical tribalism about ‘this organization versus that organization,’” he said. “The fact that we can all sit in there and get along is a pretty significant step in the fire service in this county.”

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