Costa Mesa’s Metro fire station to stay open with help of new staff positions
After more than three years in limbo, Costa Mesa’s South Coast Metro fire station will remain open and be fully staffed following a City Council vote this week.
With a 3-2 vote at their meeting Tuesday, council members scrapped plans to shutter Fire Station No. 6 at 3350 Sakioka Drive.
Council members Allan Mansoor and Jim Righeimer voted against the proposal.
In May 2013, the council voted to close the station as part of a reorganization of the city’s Fire & Rescue Department.
The station remained open, however, even as the department trimmed its staffing. Costa Mesa Fire Chief Dan Stefano said the department has used personnel working overtime to fill the gaps.
Staffing at the station is typically three or four people, Stefano said.
Council members Tuesday approved funding for six additional full-time positions in the department — three firefighters and three fire captains — which is expected to enable the department to staff Station 6 without relying on overtime.
“It has taken its toll,” Stefano said of the overtime demands. “Certainly by creating these budgeted positions, it will mitigate that.”
Mayor Katrina Foley thanked Stefano on Tuesday “for enduring several years of managing a department that’s understaffed and overworked and still providing great service to our community.”
Fire Station No. 6, also known as the Metro station, opened in 1993 to cover South Coast Metro and the adjacent freeways.
The station’s resources also have been used when needed for calls elsewhere in Costa Mesa as well as in the neighboring cities of Fountain Valley, Irvine, Newport Beach and Santa Ana.
Stefano told the council that it makes sense to keep the station open because the department’s calls for service have increased in recent years as staffing has declined.
From 2009 to 2015, the department’s annual responses grew from 9,406 to 12,955, according to Stefano. During that period, the number of authorized full-time positions in the department fell from 111 to 84.
Righeimer balked at the potential pension costs associated with hiring new fire personnel.
“When we hire somebody, it is a lifelong hire,” he said. “The day we hire them, we pay them for the rest of their lives. This isn’t a 30-year job.”
Stefano said the council’s move likely will save money by reducing overtime pay. According to a city analysis included in Tuesday’s meeting documents, annual overtime costs total $128,273 per firefighter position, while the compensation for a newly hired firefighter could be tens of thousands of dollars less, depending on experience and certification.
Righeimer and Mansoor said they support keeping the station open but would have liked to explore other ways of doing it. Mansoor said he thought the council should have held a study session on the matter.
“This is way too big of an issue to be voting on at midnight or after midnight,” he said as the council meeting crept into the early morning Wednesday.
Foley said different plans for keeping the station open could have been brought forward at any point in recent years.
“There’s been three years of opportunity to bring forward some other, alternative ideas,” she said. “We haven’t heard it — so now’s the time to fix it.”
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