Fire Department and Community Political

Fire Department and Community Political Climate

El Dorado Hills Fire Department: The influence of state and local government

Fire departments across the state of California have faced substantial challenges due to the fiscal situation in California. Because of financial restrictions, many struggling cities are shutting down fire departments altogether, in an attempt to save money. Even in the large metropolitan district of San Diego, fire department 'brownouts' have become common. These can take up to "13% of firefighters off the streets each day to save $11.5 million annually" (Cooper 2010). They are also widely blamed for leading to a delay in coming to a boy's rescue -- the fire department building was only steps away from the child's home, but a unit from far away was forced to service the area because the nearby fire department building was empty.

Because El Dorado Hills is an area that is extremely fire-prone, such brownouts could prove devastating to the community. Fortunately, the El Dorado Hills Fire Department has been able to resist cutbacks that substantially challenge its fire-fighting capacity. The Fire Department has striven to educate the community about the need for appropriate fire safety measures, and residents are sensitive to the need to have an effective fire-fighting force on call at all times.

The El Dorado local government has long taken up the responsibility for tending to the needs of the environment of the area, as well as tried to improve the quality of life for the region's human residents. The El Dorado Community Services District "owns and manages over 170 acres of land including 134 acres of park -- of which 15 are undeveloped -- and 82 acres of open space. The Promontory Community Park opened in March 2007 and includes extensive sports facilities" (About El Dorado Hills, 2010, El Dorado Hills Community Service District). As well as improving the quality of life for El Dorado residents, these parks draw important tourist revenue to the area. Despite the epidemic of budget cutbacks in California, in "the fiscal year 2009-10, [the] General Fund budget is approximately $7.7 million and the [El Dorado] District has a full time staff of over 40 park and recreation professionals and support staff in addition to over 150 part time and seasonal employees" (About El Dorado Hills, 2010, El Dorado Hills Community Service District). Maintaining an effective fire safety force an essential part of maintaining the park system.

The political climate of El Dorado is strongly pro-environment and progressive, and the Fire Department has worked with the local community to improve the appearance of the area and reduce fire hazard risks through general clean-up efforts. The El Dorado Hills Fire department has worked hard to promote activities that affect the residents in a meaningful and tangible fashion, such as teaching CPR classes and promoting children's car seat safety education, as well as cleaning up foreclosed properties that have fallen into disrepair and become potential fire hazards (About El Dorado Hills, 2010, Fire Safe Council; Minutes, 2010, El Dorado Hills). There is a strong spirit of volunteerism in El Dorado: people often volunteer to improve the parks and to facilitate the transmission of local services, including those of the Fire Department (El Dorado Hills Fire Department, 2010, Official Website).

However, while public and local governmental support for funding the Fire Department is strong, recently there has been some legal controversy regarding appointments and policies within the district. For example, legal fees for the Garden Valley Fire Protection District (GVFPD) within the county of El Dorado were found to have "increased dramatically from fiscal year 2006 to fiscal year 2009" (El Dorado County Grand Jury, 2009-2010, p.1). "The legal fees were a result of personnel and disciplinary actions by the GVFPD" and there were payroll discrepancies reported during that period (El Dorado County Grand Jury, 2009-2010, p.3). The department was criticized for importing too many outside personnel to fight fires that did not understand the unique needs of the region. Despite these findings of corruption within fire departments, support for the mission of the Fire Department itself remained strong in the region. The sentiment was that the El Dorado Hills Fire Department had to uphold high standards, not that its budget should be cut as punishment for the corruption of local fire officials.