Politics & Government

Firefighters Support Shared Fire Services Between San Mateo, Foster City

San Mateo and Foster City have been consolidating fire services for more than a year already, chief says.

San Mateo and Foster City may be consolidating their fire departments, but Fire Chief Dan Belville said Wednesday firefighters remain supportive of the cities' plans to save money.

The San Mateo and Foster City city councils on Monday night each approved the next phase of sharing services between the cities' fire departments, which specifically consolodates the batallion chiefs.

San Mateo and Foster City currently each have three batallion chiefs, with one always on duty, but under the agreement approved Monday night, the cities will soon share the on-duty batallion chief, reducing their total number by half.

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There will still be 32 fire personnel on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, who respond to about 11,000 calls per year.

Belville said the idea of sharing services between the cities began in July 2010, when he was named the chief of both San Mateo and Foster City fire departments.

Find out what's happening in San Mateowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We've been spending quite a bit of time [on] how we're going to deliver these consolidated services," Belville said in an interview with San Mateo Patch Wednesday morning. "This agreement is the latest in some of the changes that are being made."

Ultimately, he said, the fire departments will also share a fire marshal and deputy marshal as well. The changes are expected to roll out over the course of the next three years, as employees retire or change positions.

"Normally these things are not easy to do," Belville said of the fire department merger. "I've had multiple discussions with many many levels of both organizations. Everybody understands the plan, everybody understands the economy."

He added, "The firefighters have been very, very supportive."

The consolidated services are expected to save the cities hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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