Grand Jury Report on Fire Protection in Contra Costa County

Statute grants the Grand Jury with power to investigate and report upon the operations, accounts, and records of our County, cities, and special districts. The Grand Jury has completed an investigation and submitted a report titled:

Report 1211

Contra Costa County Fire Protection and Emergency Response Services

“Leveraging Combined Strengths to Address Individual Weaknesses”

The report states that …“With no assurances as to when a significant recovery may arrive, it is time for fire agencies to rethink their operating approach.”

The report further states that…”Other California fire agencies have taken innovative, new approaches to providing services in a manner that allows the elimination of operation deficits without compromising recognized standards for response time.”

The report additionally states that …”Feedback received from service providers that have been through the change process suggest that a prerequisite for the successful implementation of any of these potential, cost-saving alternatives to structure and/or operational service delivery models is the political will to recognize and overcome the stakeholder’s resistance to change.”

The report includes the following recommendations:

• 
  "All fire agencies and the County should
  conduct, on an individual agency and county-wide basis, evaluations of
  alternative service models utilizing independent consultants with a history of
  analyzing fire agency challenges.”
• 
  “Fire agencies, LAFCO, and the County should
  find ways to cooperate with one another in the evaluation and adoption of
  alternative service delivery models.”

All of the Grand Jury’s reports can be found online at the
Superior Court website:

www.cc-courts.org

This specific report can be found by using the following
link:

http://www.cc-courts.org/_data/n_0038/resources/live/rpt1211.pdf

Thank You,

The Contra Costa Grand Jury