Jury: Fire cutbacks essential

[Geppetto 31]

Stockton looks to close five engine companies, cut engine and truck crews

By Christian Burkin

(Stockton) Record Staff Writer

May 24, 2011

STOCKTON - The San Joaquin County civil grand jury Monday released a report saying Stockton Fire Department crews are too big and recommending cuts that it estimated would save millions of dollars....

...In its report, the grand jury recommended cutting engine and truck crews by one firefighter each and establishing a relief pool with the remainder to reduce overtime. The grand jury estimated savings from those reductions at $5 million to $7 million annually....

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110524/A_NEWS/105240319

[99subi 121]

Hah.. yea its all good until someone important house burns down. When will they learn...

[wskrayen 2]

Actually they are looking at closing 3 Engines, and 2 trucks. Engine 1, Engine 6 (the Water Rescue Company), Engine 7 are on the chopping block. Also to be closed are Truck 4 (currently temporarily closed), and Truck 3(The USAR Rescue Company). They are talking about putting a 2 person rescue squad at Station 4 to augment on-duty staffing. I'm not sure if they mean the Pierce Quantum Rescue that is the second piece of Truck 3, or pickup based light rescue. This takes the city back to pre-1957 levels, yes 1957, when the city population was 25% of what is today and the city was physically much smaller. This leaves 10 Engines and 2 trucks to cover 84 sq miles. The plan also reduces staffing from 223 to 145 sworn personnel. But then the city fathers have been waging a war on the Fire department for many years, at least from appearances.

Disclosure: Engine 7 is first due to my house.

[Geppetto 31]

City of Stockton lays off 36 firefighters

Jun 30, 2011

News10

http://www.news10.net/news/article/144012/2/City-of-Stockton-lays-off-36-firefighters

[x635 4,066]

How does a Grand Jury decide staffing? And what witness could they bring that would defend lower staffing?

[v85 212]

I don't understand what Grand Jury's are used for in California. They seem to be almost like a court of public opinion deciding issues much different from if there is enough probable cause for a felony indictiment.

[Guest mjs7fd]

this is also the same state that outsourced 7.2 billion dollars worth of bridge work to a china based company. way to go cal.