Monte Councilmember: Marshall Anstandig Rporated Ma*

It is extremely costly to equip a fire department for only the occasional fire response; the County and fifteen town/cities have not been proactive in challenging fire departments to adopt changes that are most 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 of Monte Sereno partially disagrees with the finding. The City actively participates in discussions with Santa Clara County fire to identify and implement changes that provide cost efficiencies and better serve the community. Over the past several years the City has include periodic reports from Santa Clara County Fire to the City Council. The purpose of the reporting is to allow the City Council and the members of the public to fully understand the services that are being provided and at what level they being are provided. In addition, City staff meets on a regular basis with the appropriate personnel at Santa Clara County Fire to discuss levels of service issues that may arise and to find efficiencies in the services the City and Santa Clara County Fire are providing. <b>Recommendation 1B</b> All fifteen towns/cities - Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Milpitas, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga, Sunnyvale – and the County (for CCFD and SCFD) should determine the emergency response service they want to achieve, particularly as to the result, then determine how best to achieve that. The City of Monte Sereno has implemented the recommendation. The Public Services and Facilities Element of the General Plan sets forth the standards for emergency response. The policies contained within General Plan also state that the City shall provide these services in a cost effective manner by periodically reviewing the provision of services. The City continues to work with Santa Clara County Fire to provide an adequate level of service in a cost effective manner. The periodic reporting by Santa Clara County Fire to the City Council details the calls for service and the response time. The City of Monte Sereno also has an adopted Emergency Operation Plan. This plan details the expectation for services from Santa Clara County Fire when responding to a disaster or other local emergencies.

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 of Monte Sereno agrees with the finding.