PART I: August Beacham, President of the Carmel Professional Firefighters, & City Council Candidate Michael LePage on the Carmel Fire Department

ABSTRACT: During Appearances at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, March 4, 2008, August Beacham, President of the Carmel Professional Firefighters, spoke about the proposed consolidation of the Carmel, Monterey and Pacific Grove Fire Departments, which the Carmel Professional Firefighters support. Beacham noted that “the contract in its current form is unsustainable due to Carmel being charged a low good faith fee by Monterey and Pacific Grove. What we need now is for the City to make a permanent commitment to the system and pay its fair share.” He urged the City to “move forward towards the merger with the Cities of Pacific Grove and Monterey and Carmel Fire Departments.” A COMMENT is made with regard to August Beacham’s remarks and our profoundly dysfunctional city government under Mayor Sue McCloud.

City Council
Regular Meeting
March 4, 2008

VI. Appearances
Anyone wishing to address the City Council on matters within the jurisdiction of the City and are not on the agenda may do so now. Matters not appearing on the City Council’s agenda will not receive action at this meeting but may be referred to staff for a future meeting. Presentations will be limited to three (3) minutes, or as otherwise established by the City Council. Persons are not required to give their names, but it is helpful for speakers to state their names in order that the City Clerk may identify them in the minutes of the meeting. Always speak into the microphone, as the meeting is recorded on tape.

"Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. My name is August Beacham and I am President of the Carmel Professional Firefighters here to discuss a possible feature of the Fire Department. Carmel Fire Department is challenged with maintaining proper staffing levels to provide the best level of service to its citizens. Because of the staffing response challenge at Carmel Fire Department, our diminished volunteer base and government standards and laws, which address staffing and response concerns, Carmel Fire Department is continuing to operate at less than minimum staffing, according to the standards of the National Fire Protection Association and OSHA laws. The volunteer firefighters, which used to augment staffing to reasonable levels, are not here anymore due to overall training and time requirements."

"The goal of the Fire Department regarding staffing and response is to develop a system which is both efficient and cost effective. The Department is currently in the third year of a process of attempting to combine fire service with the Departments of Monterey and Pacific Grove, which the Carmel Professional Firefighters support. Citizens need to know that the motivation for this proposal was based upon providing the best possible level of services to the community. Combining staffing and resources delivers the right amount of people in the right amount of time to time critical emergencies. By doing so, not only are the citizens receiving the level of service they desire and are entitled to, the emergency responders, us, are able to perform their duties more efficiently and more importantly, safer. This amount of staffing is designed to extinguish fires, rescue citizens from burning structures, treat medical needs, have back-up crews available and have a separate stand-by crew in case of the need to initiate firefighter rescue efforts. The staffing also is considered adequate to contain the fire to the area of origin, which results in a rapid positive result. Larger incidents obviously require more resources which the system can provide."

"In 2000, the City put us on a path to find something better in terms of fire and emergency service to our community. We found it and the last three years, through a contract with Monterey and Pacific Grove, have been involved in the aforementioned combined system which works in the best interests of the citizens. However, the contract in its current form is unsustainable due to Carmel being charged a low good faith fee by Monterey and Pacific Grove. What we need now is for the City to make a permanent commitment to the system and pay its fair share. In spite of having an emergency response system which is delivering the best level of service, the City of Carmel is continuing to consider other options, all of which are cost prohibitive and results in lower levels of services. This includes possibly reverting back to a single station fire department with stripped down staffing levels of years past."

"The Carmel Professional Firefighters urge you to assure that your emergency response system remains properly structured and staffed and to continue providing you with the best and most efficient levels of service which you have received for the last three years. Please continue to move forward towards the merger with the Cities of Pacific Grove and Monterey and Carmel Fire Departments."

COMMENT:
• That August Beacham, President of the Carmel Professional Firefighters, felt he had to appeal directly to Carmelites in the hope Carmelites will rally and put pressure on City Council Members to proceed with the consolidation of the Carmel, Monterey and Pacific Grove Fire Departments speaks to our profoundly dysfunctional city government under Mayor Sue McCloud.