One Man Show

The annual Special Joint Meeting of the three Lamorinda civic councils was held at Saint Mary's College April 7, and there was little doubt as to who was the showstopper.

Moraga-Orinda Fire District chief Stephen Healy opened with an update on the increased number of community emergency response teams in Lamorinda, but the Soda Center audience did not let him off that easily. Healy fielded a wide range of fire questions from the public and officials for nearly three quarters of the two-hour meeting.

He relayed the history of proposed fire station 46, from the directive of prior chief Randall Bradley to check out the possibilities, to the use of software in determining resultant overall response times that he confirmed will be improved because of the new station. "Some will be positively impacted and some negatively," said Healy. "But I'm looking at the big picture, over 4,400 properties. Overall (station 46) will be a benefit to the community."

The jointly operated station between MOFD and the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District has been in discussion for over one year. "It's the right thing to do, and I hope it is successful," said the chief.

The recent murmurs of replacing firefighters with civilians to operate ambulances in both fire districts concerned Moraga resident and past MOFD director Dick Olsen. Healy made no bones about the reason: cost. And he said that yes, the districts have been exploring the idea, and that the public will soon be hearing more about it.

"And as long as I'm talking about how expensive firefighters are, I want to stress that they are worth it," said Healy. "And they do not deserve the blame for the high district retirement costs." He explained that the majority of those costs accrue to the benefit of retired firefighters.

Moraga Town Council member Dave Trotter asked if the elimination of firefighters will make the communities vulnerable. "It's always been 'value added' to have firefighters on all of our calls, as 63 percent of our calls are medical," said Healy. "Because of our low call volume, we are nowhere near an unreasonable situation with our deployment model."



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