AgdaPkt 2020-10-26 Joint SA PFA - Laserfiche WebLink

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From: Tony Ciardella To: GRP -City Council Subject: Are you seriously cutting our fire service again? Date: Monday, October 26, 2020 1:12:56 PM Hello, I have lived in Redwood City for over 20 years. I have a wife and three young daughters that are at home when I am away at work. It gives me great comfort knowing that my local firefighters are just minutes away in case there is an emergency. I have called them for myself and I see them responding to calls in my neighborhood daily. Our community emergency needs are increasing. As I was writing this email, I received an SMC alert on my phone for a red flag warning in San Mateo County. I track the citizen app and there are fires almost everyday. Downtown, Veterans Blvd, etc., trash fires, fence fires, homeless encampments. What is going to happen if you remove the fire engine that puts those fires out? Now, more than ever, we need our fire service. I understand how our fire service works. If you brown out one engine, the other engines in our community absorb those calls and are less likely to be available to serve the area they protect. Redwood City has done this before replacing our busy downtown fire engine with an EMS truck. Now the city is proposing to take that engine away again and have a busy ladder truck, with no water, run it's calls and take on EMS and fire calls that an engine should be responding to. This is going to take fire engines away from their districts. The districts that protect my family's neighborhood. And as we send fire engines out to the ever increasing wild fires across the state and in our backyard, this will only strain the whole system even more than it already is. I also understand the constraints of a budget. If you have to cut, then cut from the top down. Chiefs, managers and elected officials don't come to our homes to provide the first hand help that we need and pay for, the firefighters do. We need fire engines on the streets and boots on the ground to respond to our community's calls for help. As a reminder, here is the fire departments mission statement and commitment to our community from your website: Mission Statement To protect life, property, and the environment from fire, medical, disaster, and hazardous materials related incidents through emergency mitigation, public education and code enforcement. Commitment To deliver high quality, professional and effective customer service. How can the fire department uphold it's commitment to the community and maintain it's prestigious ISO rating if you cut jobs and remove fire engines? The 911 system should not be run like a typical company where the executives have more than they can eat while the workers starve. Dispatchers and firefighters are what this community needs and expects! They are the people that provide the service we pay for. What is your plan to maintain response times if you take away your busiest fire engine? Respectfully, A concerned citizen