Sara City of Saratoga*

It is extremely costly to equip a fire department for only the occasional fire response; the County and fifteen towns/cities have not been proactive in challenging fire departments to adopt changes that are more cost effective and that better serve their communities. Further, unions are more interested in job preservation than in providing the right mix of capabilities at a reasonable cost, using scare tactics to influence the public and fostering firefighter unwillingness to collaborate with EMS. The City disagrees based on lack of information to make a determination on this finding for fire service in the City. The City was established as a minimum services city with a deliberate decision on the part of the City's founders to leave fire service in the hands of the two independent fire districts serving residents of the City. Accordingly, the City lacks the institutional expertise to evaluate the specific circumstances of staffing and equipment levels in Saratoga. As a general matter, residents of the City appear satisfied with the quality of service, particularly since the two districts entered a boundary drop agreement in 2001 and the Saratoga Fire Protection District ("SFPD") contracted with Santa Clara County Central Fire District to provide services on SFPD's behalf beginning in 2008. Given limited funding available in the 100 current fiscal climate, the City lacks the resources to perform an independent evaluation of services not within its jurisdiction.

Whether the emergency responder is a firefighter-paramedic or an EMS paramedic matters little to the person with the medical emergency; using firefighter-paramedics in firefighting equipment as first responders to all non-police emergencies is unnecessarily costly when less expensive paramedics on ambulances possess the skills needed to address the 96% of calls that are not fire related. The City agrees that whether the emergency responder is a firefighter-paramedic or an EMS paramedic matters little to the person with the medical emergency. The City disagrees with the remainder of the finding based on lack of information regarding the necessity of costs involved given the specific circumstances in Saratoga. As noted above, the City was established as a minimum services City with a deliberate decision on the part of the City's founders to leave fire service in the hands of the two independent fire districts serving residents of the City. Accordingly, the City lacks the institutional expertise to evaluate the specific circumstances of management and resource allocation decisions with respect to fire protection in Saratoga.