Mixed emotions at fire district JPA meeting

Compared with the general positive tone of last Thursday’s meeting between the Sonoma City Council and directors of the Valley of the Moon Fire Protection District, Mayor Joanne Sanders’ closing comments about slipshod governance came as something of a surprise.
The agencies were assembled as the Executive Board of the Sonoma Valley Fire and Rescue Authority, a joint-powers agreement (JPA) founded in 2002 to increase efficiency and eliminate redundancy between the 29-square mile VOMFPD and the Sonoma Fire Department, which now provides fire and ambulance service to most of central Sonoma Valley.
Meeting for nearly 90 minutes at the SVFRA’s headquarters on Second Street West, and closely attended by a roomful of blue-clad SVFRA personnel, the panel voted unanimously to endorse the JPA’s newly finished Standards of Response Coverage. Four years in the making, the 95-page document covers – and sets expectations for – all aspects of SVFRA service, including a less than six-minute response time from an initial 911 call. (The SORC can be downloaded from svfra.org, under the heading “News & Employment.”)
In presenting his “Year in Review” report, Fire Chief Philip Garcia stressed the “spirit of cooperation” between JPA members – and how the JPA model allowed SVFRA to leverage grant money last year for nearly a half-million dollars worth of new fire and medical equipment, much of which was on display prior to the meeting.
That spirit was echoed by several speakers during the evening, including SORC steering committee member Dick Fogg, who noted that the document – like the JPA itself – was driven by firefighters and EMS personnel rather than chiefs and administrators. “It’s very refreshing to work with people who want to be measured,” Fogg said.
One mildly contentious issue concerned the executive board’s next meeting – which, after 15 minutes of comparing calendars, turned out to be Jan. 26. The JPA board had originally scheduled last week’s session for July 23, but the City Council cancelled that on July 16 as the date conflicted with Sanders’ attendance at a Sister Cities farewell soirée for an Egyptian ambassador.
Sanders, reading from a prepared statement, took her fire-board counterparts to task for not having met since 2006 – adding that “the City of Sonoma can’t help but feel slighted by the JPA board,” given that a salary and personnel review were recently conducted as part of VOMFPD business, but without the city’s involvement.
That comment took VOMFPD board president Dawn Mittleman by surprise. “It’s unusual in a public forum like this to get blindsided,” she said, adding that she was “frankly offended” by Sanders’ comments.
During the next five minutes, the two did agree to work out procedural differences. Mayor Pro Tem Ken Brown reminded the remaining audience that “we’re here for the public, not for ourselves.”