Politics & Government

San Mateo and Foster City Fire Departments Should Merge Top Brass, Report Finds

Dan Belville, chief of both cities' fire departments, says savings would be well over a million dollars a year.

San Mateo and Foster City have already merged their fire chief position. Now that chief, Dan Belville, is proposing to merge other leaders of the two cities’ fire departments – a plan he believes will save more than a million dollars per year.

Belville, a , presented his findings to members during Monday night's council meeting. The council members were supportive of the idea, voicing their hope that it leads to both cost savings and better fire service. No formal action was taken during the meeting.

“We’ve been working on this for about nine months now,” Belville told Patch before the meeting, referring to a city report released Friday. The report’s findings: Consolidating the fire marshal, battalion chiefs and other operations between the two cities will save San Mateo alone as much as $576,000 annually, and a similar amount for Foster City.

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“We’re looking at a little over half a million dollars for each of the cities,” Belville said, adding that more savings beyond that are a possibility.

“At this point the lion’s share of (savings) is in operations,” he said.

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

Proponents of consolidation say that although reducing the number of battalion chiefs, who oversee fire operations, puts a greater strain on the remaining command staff, it’s already being done successfully in larger cities like San Jose.

The reduction in command staff would take place at least partly through attrition. According to the report, “In upper management positions, the San Mateo Fire Department faces up to four retirements in the next three years, including two battalion chiefs and both the deputy fire marshal and fire marshal.”

Monday’s study session was “informational only,” Belville said. Although his department does propose consolidation between Foster City and San Mateo, “it doesn’t recommend full merger yet,” only elements of it, he said.

“I just want the council to get clarity with regards to where we’re at with it.”


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