By Lauren McSherry
The cities of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills face some “sobering” cost projections as they continue joint contract negotiations for fire protection from the county.
The Santa Clara County Central Fire Protection District has proposed charging the cities approximately $2.6 million more for fire services, a 66 percent increase.
The cities are paying nearly $5 million under the current 10-year contract that expires at the end of next year. That cost would increase to $7.6 million in 2007 if the contract is extended.
In 1996 Los Altos and Los Altos Hills contracted with the district for fire services. At the time, the switch represented $249,000 in savings for Los Altos.
At a regular council meeting Nov. 15, Los Altos city officials and councilmembers said they were satisfied with the level of services provided, but were surprised by the cost increase. Under the new contract, Los Altos would go from paying just over $3 million to paying $4.67 million.
“I’m hung up on the $1.65 million (increase),” Councilman Ron Packard said. “I see us wanting to spend money on other things and this is sobering. … How are we going to deal with this?”
City Manager Phil Rose and Los Altos Police Chief Bob Lacey, who have been involved in the negotiations, called the base price reasonable and said it was similar to what other cities are being quoted. Personnel, health care and retirement costs have gone up and that’s contributed to the increased cost, Rose said.
One issue that has surfaced during negotiations is getting fire district officials to “show their work” regarding cost accounting, Rose told the council.
“In terms of the cost per station or per firefighter, the county is telling us they don’t have these numbers,” Lacey said.
Mayor David Casas said the council’s decisions can’t be based on “a leap of faith,” and that a “certain due diligence” is needed regarding the cost breakdown.
“Transparency I believe is important,” he said. “Clean or dirty, I’d like to see their allocations.”
The cost increase that Los Altos Hills could be confronted with is even steeper than Los Altos’ based on its need for wildland fire prevention. The proposed increase is nearly $1 million, a hike from $2.01 million to $2.94 million.
“It was unexpected,” said David Bergman, president of the Los Altos Hills Fire Protection District. “But we’ve also looked at other numbers from other setups and the costs aren’t that far off. The old contract probably didn’t keep up with county fire costs.”
The new contract would cover operating three fire stations in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.
The Los Altos City Council will address the issue again at its regular meeting Tuesday to decide which direction the city should take in negotiations.
