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As Campbell Fire Dept. shrinks, insurance risks rise
By jeanne starmack
CAMPBELL
The city is struggling to balance a need for an effective firefighting force and a tight budget.
A sign of that struggle: A rating that controls home- owners’ and businesses’ insurance rates worsened June 1 from a 6 to a 10 on a scale of one to 10. The Insurance Services Office raised the rating because of a lack of manpower and training. The department does not have records to show its firefighters trained for two hours every two months, and it does not have enough manpower to ensure that four of its firefighters respond to a fire.
Campbell officials have come up with several ideas to boost staff in the fire department, but not everyone agrees the ideas are good.
Campbell City Council is considering phasing in a volunteer fire department as the department’s five full-time staffers retire. That idea isn’t a hit with fire Chief Nick Hrlec and captain David Horvath, who say a full-time professional staff is better for the city.
Mayor George Krinos is trying to find a way to pay for a firefighter he recalled in December even though there was no money for him in the 2010 budget. Krinos has proposed combining fire and police dispatching, using the savings to pay for the firefighter, who costs the city around $65,000.
Krinos also hired 10 auxiliary firefighters, who would be paid only when they respond to a fire. But a state commission that oversees Campbell’s finances because it is in fiscal emergency has an issue with those hirings.
Paul Marshall, head of the commission, says the newest version of the city’s state-mandated financial recovery plan does not allow for any new hires.
Even if auxiliaries could be hired, says Hrlec, there is no gear to outfit them.
The city didn’t get to this point overnight. Dwindling manpower and unmet training standards were cited in letters from ISO, which rates communities on their fire-fighting capabilities for the insurance industry.
The company warned then-Mayor Jack Dill beginning in 2006 that the city’s rating would worsen if nothing was done.
“And now the city’s gotta eat the [higher homeowners’ insurance] rate,” said resident George Levendis.
Levendis said his insurance carrier indicated his homeowners’ rate might go up.
Other residents have complained at council meetings this year that their rates are rising.
Hrlec, Horvath and Levendis said that Dill gutted the full-time staff from nine firefighters until there were only four left.
Yes, say city council members. But Dill had instructed the fire chief to use part-time personnel to beef up the staff, which was not done.
The firefighters’ contract with the city, signed in 2008, allows for the use of part-time personnel. City council members say that the contract would have allowed part-timers even though full-timers were still laid off.
“When Dill was here it was agreed — get part-time people before a full-time firefighter was called back,” said council president Bill Van Such after a council meeting in May during which Horvath criticized the proposed move to a volunteer department, now included in the recovery plan.
“The chief chose not to do that,” Van Such continued.
Council members also said a letter from Dill dated Feb. 10, 2009, instructed Hrlec to use part-timers.
Hrlec says, however, that he had no knowledge of a directive from Dill to use part-timers. He also said that he has no power to hire anyone — the mayor does.
The letter, which was sent to the police chief as well, outlines how to schedule part-timers, and notes that Dill wanted the departments to use them to avoid overtime whenever possible.
It gave specific instances in which part-timers should be used, including “providing additional manpower to respond to fires.”
It does not include a direct order to interview applicants for part-time positions. But Hrlec said he never saw the letter anyway, until about a month ago when councilman Bryan Tedesco showed him a copy.
ISO has indicated it can review Campbell’s situation to see if a lower rating is warranted again.
Hrlec said there is no use in doing that until he can produce six months’ worth of training records. Training to ISO standards wasn’t done, he said, because only one firefighter at a time is around. Others couldn’t come in, he said, because they work other jobs.
There also isn’t any way right now to ensure four firefighters from Campbell can respond to a fire. Auxiliaries aren’t being used, and manpower from mutual aid doesn’t count in ISO’s standards.