Good morning.

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Chief Westrope.

Good morning, Cheryl Krepke, Councilmember McDonald.

Scott Westrope, Fire Chief of the City of Santa Rosa Fire Department.

Today I want to go through briefly where we're at with Measure H implementation and kind of give the subcommittee an update on where we're at.

So as you recall, Measure H was passed by voters on March 5th of 2024.

The City of Santa Rosa receives 14.4% of the direct funding from Measure H proceeds, which is a county countywide half cent sales tax measure.

And then we have our REDCom fees covered, which is equates to about 1.5 million dollars as far as countywide technology and training fees we receive indirectly as well.

We have received two payments on two tax rolls to date, totaling just about 4.2 million dollars in the bank currently.

And we have a approved financial plan, and I just want to review where we're at with the financial plan and what it's going to provide for the Santa Rosa Fire Department.

It's one additional engine company.

This is a three-person staff 24-7 engine company that will be located in the southeast uh side of Santa Rosa.

And we are working towards building a new fire station for that uh for that engine company, which will be station nine.

Um as you recall, you approved counts full council approved the sale of the Franz Kafka property last year, which was actually has been in existence in the ownership of the City of Santa Rosa since 1998.

Um but our current uh deployment analysis and strategic plan shows that's not the current the currently um appropriate location for station nine.

So we're looking in the area of Santa Rosa Avenue and Elsa Drive is essentially where we're looking for engine nine.

Measure H also provides for two additional vegetation management inspectors, um, one additional on duty battalion chief.

We currently have one battalion chief that oversees uh 14 companies.

Um so their span of control is is way too high.

So this brings in a second battalion chief, and we'll be sitting splitting the city into a north-south configuration with two battalion chiefs.

And then we're gonna get to a two-person staffed, um, eventually we'll expand that.

But initially a two-person staffed 24-7 heavy rescue, um, which accounts for six FTEs.

This will be a countywide uh operational area resource for uh shoring trench collapse, anything like that.

So it'll be the first of its kind um in our county.

And it also provides for administrative support of tax implementation and maintenance.

So I just wanted to share with you what the essentially the leader's intent or the strategy was that I gave um the team to build this implementation plan with so you understand where they were coming from.

Um it's to remain within the established financial plan and with long-term financial uh fiduciary responsibility and sustainability.

Number one.

Number two is balance the need for additional resources with what is reasonable and rational for the organization's capabilities.

And what this means is we're in dire need of assistance on the streets.

Um, our response times are long, our call volumes way up from the last time we added resources.

So we all know, you know, you all and we all know that we need more resources on the street, but we want to do it right, we want to do it responsibly.

And lastly, is to protect the current workforce and provide stay uh stability with forecast to general fund reductions in the next fiscal year.

So, onto sort of the the meat of the conversation here is the implementation timeline that we have established, and there's a lot to this that I won't go into great detail on, but um with the fire inspectors, we can immediately um implement the fire inspectors, and the way that's accomplished is that we have two limited term fire inspectors currently on staff that they're that are hired under vegetation management with it, which is a grant funded um their grant funded positions.

So we've transferred them over to FTEs um under general under measure H, and then we'll backfill the LT position.

So we're able to do that immediately and provide stability for those two employees to make sure that they have an FT versus an LTE position.

Um, and then the exciting news is that engine nine and battalion two are both gonna go into service um at the same time on October 6, 2025.

So that gives us about three months at this point uh to get those resources uh ready to go.

We're gonna put them in service on October 6th, but we'll announce it.

We're gonna do a you know a more um robust ribbon cutting type ceremony on the anniversary of the tubs fire.

We feel that it's an appropriate time to talk about the additional resources the community is providing via sales tax funding on the anniversary of the tubs fire on the on the 8th.

And then rescue one will be in uh go in service.

Right now it's scheduled to go in service July 1st of 2026.

There's a lot to putting a new company on a new resource that we've never had before into service.

So it constitutes rewriting all of our policies, all of our procedures, all of our company standards.

So there's a lot of work that goes into that, and I'll talk a little bit about how we're planning to do that.

But that's the initial timeline for all of these resources.

They're all subject to change.

Man, I'm I've been very clear to our staff and to the city manager that none of this is set in stone, so they could be moved up if things work out really well and and we're able to get the resources and the staffing in place, or they might have to be delayed if if we run into problems there.

And sort of in summary, and this is to just kind of encapsulate some questions that are commonly asked with this, is the way that we're going to implement the rescue is we've already started working on a uh rescue working group, and so that's a uh a small team within the organization led by Chief Jenkins that's going to start working on all those administrative policies that need to be reviewed and revised, coming up with exactly how this uh new resource is going to be deployed in the city.

Um, and then we're working currently with real estate on a location for both temporary and permanent station nine.

One of the things we're exploring is uh can we find storefront space, something that's inexpensive where we can get engine nine in service and at least during daytime hours down the avenue to provide service to the southeast and the lower part of the avenue.

So if we can make that work financially and we can make it work um logistically, uh we're working with real estate on that, and also identifying uh the property for station nine.

The fire inspectors were getting them, they're already in service.

Um now it's just the backfill portion.

Engine nine and battalion two, October 6th, rescue one July 1st.

Um so initially, what we're gonna do with this October 6th start day with engine nine is they're gonna be sleeping at least at station one.