For some, Hemet Fire Department was an emotional issue

To some administrators in city hall, eliminating the fire department and contracting with Riverside County was a business decision, nothing more. But some city residents couldn’t bear to see the department, which has been around for more than 100 years, simply go away.

On the surface, it seemed like a simple financial proposition, one that a lot of cities have had to deal with, especially during the recession.

Hemet, the city of 79,000 in the San Jacinto Valley, would jettison its 106-year-old fire department as a way to save money. All that was needed was for the city council, which was looking for a way to cut costs, to approve the proposal.

Once that happened, Riverside County would provide all fire and paramedic services to the city, just as it does to 21 other cities in the county.

For awhile, it looked like the fire department was doomed. In September, the council voted 3-2 to eliminate it, although a final settlement with the Hemet Firefighters Association was needed before the city could contract with the county.

That move could save the city up to $500,000 over time depending on how the transition was structured, City Manager Wally Hill said.

“There was some reasonable disagreement over how much we would have saved,” said Hill, who, along with then-Mayor Larry Smith endorsed the move when it was first proposed two years ago. “But I don’t think there’s any question we would have saved money if we had gone in that direction.”

But the city, despite the council’s vote, did not go in that direction.

The Hemet Fire Department, two years older than the city itself, turned out to be a matter of strong civic pride, maybe more than anyone could have imagined. Getting rid of it, even if it meant adding half a million dollars to the city’s general fund, was a deeply unpopular idea among many city residents.

Supporters of the department showed up at several council meetings to voice their disapproval. One crowd was so large that the meeting had to be moved from city hall to the Hemet Public Library to accommodate the larger audience.

After the council voted to contract with the county, department backers presented more than 6,100 signatures to the city’s clerk’s office in an attempt to get the issue on the ballot.

“We stopped verifying them at 4,000 because that was all they needed,” Hill said of the petitions signed by registered voters in the city. “It was a pretty impressive effort on their part.”

Finally, Smith was voted off the council in November, while K. Paul Raver, who was making his first bid for public office, was elected. Raver’s platform: full support of preserving the Hemet Fire Department.

Faced with the petition drive, the election results and the potential cost of putting the measure on the next ballot, the council decided to revisit the matter once the new council was seated.

Last Tuesday, Raver voted to keep the department in place, staying true to his campaign pledge. Councilwoman Bonnie Wright and new Mayor Linda Krupa, both of whom supported fire department during the city’s ongoing debate, voted with him.

The 3-0 vote came after no more than five minutes of discussion. The three council members also agreed to hold a workshop to discuss how to make certain that, if the idea of transferring fire and paramedic service to Riverside County ever comes up again, the issue will be decided by the voters, and not by the city council.

That meeting could be held as early as next month, Krupa said.

Ultimately, Hemet officials bowed to public pressure and gave residents what they wanted, Hill said.

“I think [the council’s vote] reflected the public sentiment, which was that people wanted to keep the fire department because they want local control,” Hill said. “It also saved the city some money, because if that issue goes to the ballot it would have cost $60,000 to $70,000.”

Had the city shifted its fire and paramedic services to the county fire department – which is part of Cal-Fire, a state agency – the county would have used all four of the city’s functioning fire stations. The county also would have been given all of the city’s firefighting equipment, including its engines and trucks.

Even with that arrangement, there was fear among some residents that Hemet wouldn’t always get quality service from the county,

“There was a feeling that we wouldn’t be their top priority, like you are when you have your own department,” Hill said. “I think some people were a little afraid of that.”

During the signature-gathering campaign, Krupa predicted that the issue keeping or dropping the fire department ultimately would be decided by voters, if not next year then sometime later and probably during a regularly scheduled election.

Now, she says she hopes the council’s vote last week has ended the idea of Hemet dropping its fire department.

“I hope we can put this to rest because it became an emotional issue for a lot of people,” Krupa said. “Hemet is a small town, it’s a little isolated, and people feel safer with their own fire department. They didn’t want to give up that part of their life.”

Krupa, who was sworn in as mayor at the start of last Tuesday’s meeting, said she was never persuaded by the idea that Hemet would save money if its fire and paramedic services were provided by the county.

“When I voted the way I did I was making a business decision,” said Krupa, who is starting her second four-year term on the council. “To me, it’s all about having the checkbook in your hands. You have control of your own fire department. Why would you give that up?”

The department, which continued to provide fire and paramedic service while its future was being determined, must begin filling vacancies, said Steve Sandefer, president of the Hemet Firefighters Association.

“We have to rebuild from the top down, starting with hiring a new fire chief,” said Sandefer, a 21-year department veteran. “Then we [the association] has to get a new contract with the city, two, three or five years, whatever we can agree on. We’ve been around for 100 years, and we expect to be around for the next 100 years.”