Guest Column by Steven Hayes: Firefighters demand fully staffed Santa Teresa Fire Station

City has made little progress and has yet to transition to a fully-staffed fourth fire station.

By Steven Hayes

Stephen Hayes

In 2019 the Gilroy City Council received a third-party consultant report that detailed the response capabilities of the Gilroy Fire Department. Multiple recommendations were made in that report including the needed staffing of a fourth fire station located in the Santa Teresa Response District.

This district is in the southwest portion of Gilroy. A trial project began with partial staffing of an engine for about 12 hours a day. The city has made little progress and has yet to transition to a fully staffed fourth fire station.

This year during the months of March, April, and May, the station was completely down-staffed on almost a daily basis 82 percent of the time. This concerning lack of staffing was not communicated to the community or elected officials.

Subsequently, the Gilroy Firefighters Association (Local 2805) requested that the Gilroy City Council direct city staff to meet and confer regarding minimum daily staffing levels. The intent of this request was to solidify mandatory staffing levels necessary to staff Santa Teresa Fire Station 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The Gilroy City Administrator and Fire Chief issued an open letter to the community identifying call responses in the Santa Teresa District. The letter indicated that there were only 446 calls for service and that equated to 6 percent of the total call volume for the city. The letter went on to state that “with only 6 percent of the city’s service demand, it would not be prudent to mandate that the Fire Chief staff the Santa Teresa Station full-time.”

Recently, the Gilroy Fire Fighters Association has identified inconsistencies with the city’s data analysis. City staff was advised of this oversight and given documentation that proves the call volume in the Santa Teresa District during FY2023 was at least 13.5 percent of the city’s total call volume. Most responses in the Santa Teresa District during fiscal year 2023 have been provided by outlying stations, inevitably resulting in delayed response times. This is directly due to the lack of consistent staffing of the Santa Teresa Fire Station.

Local 2805 requests that residents continue to write their council members in support of a fully staffed fourth fire station. We also request that residents show up on Nov. 20 to the regularly scheduled city council meeting and demand they receive fair and equitable services regardless of where they live.

The Gilroy Firefighters Association wants to thank our beloved community for the outpouring of appreciation and support we have received, which is humbling to say the least.

Gilroy firefighters remain committed to providing the highest level of service to the community. However, without a fully-staffed fourth fire station, we will continue to fall short of the standard response capabilities our community deserves.

Steven Hayes is the president of the Gilroy Firefighter Association local 2805.