San Joaquin County Civil Grand Jury Countywide Dispatch for Fire Two Are Not Always Better than One*

Conclusions 3

• CL1
  The vast majority of fire agencies are in favor of a single countywide emergency fire dispatch center; they agree it would be in the best interest of the citizens and the County of San Joaquin. Most county and city administrators, as well as IT staff support this concept. With such an overwhelming response, one should ask why no significant effort has been made to make this happen. While attempting to answer this question, the Grand Jury discovered; Egos, politics, and fear of change have impeded improving public safety in our county. ш This is a significant leadership issue. Our citizens deserve better. VRECC has additional emergency fire dispatch ACE accreditation that Stockton Fire does not have. Disparagement of VRECC emergency fire dispatch is unwarranted.
• CL2
  VRECC dispatch center has deployed "state-of-the-art" CAD and AVL technology.
• CL3
  Stockton Fire has not. Stockton Fire charges its JPA members twice the amount for fire dispatch than VRECC charges its JPA members. There are operational differences between the fire dispatch centers. Intelligent Ш individuals can and should disagree based upon their experiences. This is normal. Not negotiating to seek a common solution through compromise to improve public safety is not. REDCOM provides fire dispatch services for 44 fire departments of which six (Healdsburg, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, and Sonoma) are urbanized cities. The dispatch center is operated by AMR, the same for-profit non-governmental company that runs the San Joaquin VRECC dispatch center in Salida, CA. The REDCOM dispatch center has operated since January 2003; none of the concerns that were expressed in San Joaquin County have been an issue at REDCOM. The 2016-2017 Grand Jury has determined that a single countywide emergency fire dispatch center is needed in the County of San Joaquin. Leadership must address this challenge head on, overcome politics and egos and negotiate in good faith to create a single countywide fire dispatch center. Now is the time for county, city and special district leaders to join together "under one roof "in the interest of public safety. Disclaimers Grand Jury reports are based on documentary evidence and the testimony of sworn or admonished witnesses, not on conjecture or opinion. The Grand Jury is precluded by law from disclosing such evidence except upon the specific approval of the Presiding Judge of the Superior Court, or another judge appointed by the Presiding Judge (Penal Code section 911, 924.1 (a) and 929). Similarly, the Grand Jury is precluded by law from disclosing the identity of witnesses except upon an order of the court for narrowly defined purposes (Penal Code sections 924.2 and 929). One grand juror did not participate in this investigation, which included reviewing material, interviews, site visits, preparation, writing or approval of this report due to a perceived conflict of interest. Response Requirements California Penal Code sections 933 and 933.05 require that specific responses to all findings and recommendations contained in this report be submitted to the Presiding Judge of the San Joaquin County Superior Court within 90 days of receipt of the report. The agencies listed below shall respond to the following findings and recommendations within 90 days of receipt: The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors: Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation - R1.3 The Stockton City Council: Findings F1.1; F1.2; F1.3; F1.4; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendations R1.1; R1.2; R1.3; R1.4; R2.1; R2.2 The Manteca City Council: Finding F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Lodi City Council Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Tracy City Council Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Lathrop City Council Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Lathrop-Manteca Fire District Board of Directors Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Escalon Fire District Board of Directors Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Ripon Fire District Board of Directors Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Farmington Fire District Board of Directors Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The French Camp Fire District Board of Directors Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Collegeville Fire District Board of Directors Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Montezuma Fire District Board of Directors Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Linden Fire District Board of Directors Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Clements Fire District Board of Directors Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Woodbridge Fire District Board of Directors Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Liberty Fire District Board of Directors Findings F1.2; F1.3; F22.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Mokelumne Fire District Board of Directors Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 The Waterloo Morada Fire District Board of Directors Findings F1.2; F1.3; F2.1; F2.2; F3.1 Recommendation R1.3; R2.2 Mail or hand deliver a hard copy of the response to: Honorable José L. Alva, Presiding Judge San Joaquin County Superior Court 180 West Weber Avenue, Suite 1306 Stockton, CA 95202 Also, please email the response to: Ms. Trisa Martinez, Staff Secretary to the Grand Jury at grandjury@sjcourts.org . ·

Agency Responses 1

Government agencies' official responses to this report's findings and recommendations. Click on a response to see the structured breakdown.