I think
I mean I definitely used to someone that
was around. Yeah. And um false.
I think at least the Ravi Hickey days.
See that.
What was that?
>> What? I I don't know what she was
saying.
» It was maybe.
>> I said discard this.
>> There's somebody else's in here and I
can't
So I just I played
And then I was then it's false.
So maybe you have a chance to
>> Well, it's been a long time since I've
been up there. I know.
>> Good stuff.
What would you want to say?
>> [laughter]
>> Well, thank you.
Probably not, but it's cool.
>> Call to order the Gridley City Council
special City Council meeting
to
June 18th, 2026 at 2:00.
Roll call, please.
>> Vice Mayor Johnson.
>> Here.
>> Mayor Farr.
>> Here.
>> Council Member Calderon.
>> Here.
>> Council Member Sanchez and Council
Member Roberts both absent.
>> Uh community participation forum,
members of the public may address City
Council on matters not listed on the
agenda.
City Council may not discuss or act on
any community participation item
brought forward by a member of the
community. All members of the public
will be limited to 3 minutes.
Uh no consent agenda. I'll move to items
of Council consideration.
Item number one, 2026-2027
quality fire agreement between City of
Gridley and Cal Fire.
» Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Thank
you for taking your time to be today. Uh
I [clears throat] apologize that this
did not make it onto the last uh
council meeting. That was because I had
noticed the mistake in the the numbers
and wanted to find out exactly why
numbers weren't matching up, and so I
had to make that uh
had to make that correction and
determine what the issue was in the uh
So, yeah, that that brings us to here,
and that's why
uh um
we asked you to be here today, and so I
appreciate you taking time out of your
day.
So, uh City Gridley is and Cal Fire have
maintained a cooperative uh fire
agreement since 1991 for all hazard
emergency response. The There are
numerous benefits uh that maintaining
this cooperative agreement. Uh I'll list
them briefly here. Being a part of
regional fire protection offers depth of
resources available to the city. The
fire engine is currently county-owned
and runs majority of the calls. The
county funds the personnel that uh work
on the fire engine,
>> [clears throat]
>> whereas the city uh um
funds the personnel on the ladder truck.
The county owns fire station. The city
benefits in experience uh
from experienced chief officers uh 7
days a week.
And then the city receives fire and EMS
dispatching services. Uh state covers
unfunded liabilities. The city gains
revenue from rentals to the state for
wildfires
uh totaling $824,000
in the last 6 years. Uh contract cost uh
versus actual bill has always been less
uh than originally agreed upon, uh
estimating that we'll get back uh over
$80,000 this year. Uh we've averaged
$82,000 over the last
5 years. And the city has access to the
prevention bureau,
uh the shop services, and the volunteer
firefighters uh they're part of the
county program. Gridley currently funds
one uh communication operator that works
in the uh emergency dispatch, and then
one captain and four and a half
engineers. And the uh this new agreement
fully funds that fifth engineer.
That was partially funded last year, and
this will complete funding three full
shifts on the ladder truck, which meets
the needs of the 66-hour work week that
the Cal Fire switched to uh
began switching to 2 years ago.
Uh so that'll bring us to
three three shifts of two people each
day on the ladder truck with this
agreement being signed.
And it brings us closer to meeting
industry staffing standards.
Uh the existing contract expires June
30th. I'm recommending that the council
adopt the updated cooperative fire
agreement before you for fiscal year
2026-2027,
uh totaling $1,578,875.
If you have any questions, I'd be happy
to answer.
>> Thank you.
Uh
how many Is this county How many ladder
trucks
is there
I guess to say in Butte County?
>> Okay.
Uh there so
>> That matter with the Cal Fire?
>> Or with So we have one under contract
with Oroville City. So we have access to
that.
Uh we currently have our old ladder
truck, which will be uh still discussing
with them what to do with it.
Uh we we can sell it or we can keep it
as a reserve. There's also potential of
selling it to Oroville City
or another municipality nearby. If we
sold it to Oroville City or kept it
within Butte County, then it would be
able to be a reserve here kind of
between all the different agencies. So
that's something we're looking at. Uh
then we have our new ladder truck. So
we'll maintain one here, one in Oroville
City, and then Chico Fire Department has
two that are not uh incorporated into
our contract, but uh we can we can
get them through mutual aid. And there's
this There's a one staffed, one as a reserve, also.
So, two two under the Cal Fire umbrella,
really one under Chico Fire.
That makes sense.
>> So, the fire another truck is very
essential.
>> Yes.
>> In this tower.
>> Absolutely. Yes, and a lot of people
think that like what is, you know, what
is a small town need with a ladder
truck, but you look at all of our all of
our uh agricultural facilities. Like
none of those are reachable by ground
ladders. Those are Those are uh you
know, our ladder reach 105 ft doesn't
actually get 105 ft up because it has to
have, you know, climbing angle. So, your horizontal reach might only be 70
ft, but your vertical reach might
actually be 70 ft cuz you have to be
back off of the
building. So, yeah, there's there's tons
of application for a ladder truck. It is
very essential.
>> So, I guess
you know, how a lifeline works and is
very being very essential
uh and and Gridley is paying for that.
>> Right. Right.
>> Do we get compensated for use of that?
For example.
>> There is There's no exchange of money
between the city of Gridley and the um
and the county
on resources moving between the two
because it's a it's a give and take. So,
if you have a commercial structure fire
here, let's just say
uh
110 or 215 or 281, right? You're
If If this county were to start billing
the city for all of those, you might get
15 resources there and you wouldn't want
to obviously the city wouldn't want to
pay for that, whereas the ladder truck
going to another municipality
uh
they're not going to you know, it
wouldn't be fair to bill there, either.
So, so you do have a very specialized
piece of equipment, but also you're the
city is receiving a lot of other
resources from the county, from bigs, uh
you know,
>> Yeah, I'm I'm just trying to figure out
how we can
squeeze a little bit more out of this
contract. Uh But that's obviously not
how it works.
>> On the state side of things, by by you
have a city having a contract with Cal
Fire,
we can specifically target the the
municipalities [clears throat]
within our umbrella to hire. So, we have
a a city bought a Type 3 fire engine,
which is essentially like a uh
brush rig, you know. Uh and so, the city
owns that, and the state we specifically
try to rent that from the city, and
that's a that's a big money maker.
That's That's where that $824,000,
that's where that comes from.
>> So, just back down to that, but just just uh normal everyday use, there
isn't a
um
» You know what I'm going to go with.
Yeah, there there's no financial benefit
to to having it.
Um there there could be a slight
possibility that if Yuba City or
Marysville or something had a fire
engine,
uh they would
you could bill them, but I think in
general we try not to bill each other
because at some point you might ask for
one of their ladder trucks to come
assist one of our fires.
>> state The state wouldn't consider
um
or Cal Fire wouldn't consider
a maybe reduction in
>> [laughter]
>> in the Oh, I have a question. No, the um
No, the benefit rate and the the the
rate that we bill, that's based on all the different
bargaining units and how they have set
everything up. So, it's
um yeah, that fluctuates every year, and
that's kind of what dictates our
contract cost. Uh
you know, so I I I feel like
City of Gridley's getting, you know,
you're getting a very reasonable deal
because
uh this the fire engine, which is funded
by the county it is running about
probably 70 to 80% of the the call
volume here in the city. The city runs
more calls than the county out of out of
it as far as the station is concerned.
So so the wear and tear for to a large
degree is on a county piece of equipment
that's operated by personnel paid for by
Butte County and then the city provides
that ladder truck which is is very
specialized but used much less.
>> And is there a cost is there more of a
cost personnel to run a ladder truck
than it would be a conventional vehicle?
>> The personnel or the the personnel cost
is the same. The equipment is uh
There's some specialized equipment
that's also expensive but we the new
ladder truck does not have uh
you know uh
you know as you know that the apparatus
is very expensive and so we we tried to
reuse a lot of the equipment from the
old ladder truck and so we did not have
a whole lot of equipment costs uh
comparatively to if we bought everything
new. So
uh there is there would be those
expenses but we tried to cut those as
much as possible to save the city money.
>> Yeah.
Go ahead.
>> Just a comment and
uh
I appreciate the fire department not
only not only we're used to get
experience practical experience
I know a few kids and last one I know
that I know
uh
volunteer for the fire department and
this uh Sam Sam
uh
he learned a lot in Downey.
>> [clears throat]
>> Uh that is really a lot
more is more
I would say however this
the money justifies it.
So
I'm glad and I hope you continue to
provide this kind of services to Downey.
>> Question though.
» I had uh number one day yeah. uh
the maintenance on the fire trucks and
all that's all covered by the county.
>> No, the ladder truck is fully funded by
the city. When it goes to our shop,
that's where you benefit on our shop as
they they can do a lot of diagnosing and
not bill the city.
Uh
so they can go over there or we have
some like aerial specialists that can
look at it. They they don't necessarily
have the capacity to
do all the work but they can do some
diagnosing if it's something just basic
mechanical related with motor or the
uh chassis or something, they can make
those those repairs and and not
necessarily bill the city.
Uh but if it were to get sent to a
specialized shop like a firm truck or uh
another large shop within the city, we'd
have to pay for that. But we anticipate
with the new purchase of the new ladder
truck, the old one's 19 years old and so
those maintenance costs were starting to accumulate and starting to
have more issues with it. It actually
went out of service
last week. Uh the aerial uh
the aerial wasn't functioning anymore so
it had to put [clears throat] one of the
rams had to be replaced so
uh yeah, so those are starting to add up
and so obviously if we're not running an
old ladder truck anymore all the time,
we're
running something newer, we anticipate
that the the maintenance costs are going
to go down on the new ladder truck.
» I I'm not sure if my numbers are right.
>> I think uh
last year your budget was somewhere
around 1.2 million.
>> Uh for the 1.
for the contract itself?
>> Yeah.
>> Our
total last year was 1 uh 1.42.
The 1 million 427.
>> What is it for year?
>> 1,578,000
So that's the number
the
rate didn't really go up
much at all. The this is just us
finishing what we what my understanding
is with
Chief Fowler, the agreement to start
working toward filling that third shift
for the 66-hour work week. This is just
finishing paying for a position that we
partially funded last year.
>> That's what the increase of purchase
amount too.
>> Correct.
>> Okay.
That's what I was wondering, what caused
that
increase to come up. I forgot about
that.
66-hour
>> Yeah. I I would expect, you know, every
year, just like everything, things are
going to go up, but that's why this is more this year is
because we're we're sticking with the
plan to increase that
position.
>> So kind of everything is doubled since I
first sat in this chair.
Literally.
>> [laughter]
» Any other questions from council?
>> No, sir.
» Thank you.
>> [clears throat]
>> Yes.
Hey, administrator, [clears throat] did
you have anything to add?
>> Yeah, um I wanted to mention um in the
staff report, we we do have some um
fiscal impact um
information that we placed there, just
um notifying and and letting for the
record know that we are um as a city
um ensuring and trying to ensure that we
are continuing to look for funding
sources for uh fire fire services and
police services. Uh we did apply for
safer grants. We did not we're not
successful um this year, but we're going
to continue to go after the the safer grants to assist with uh fire
and police protection services.
So, we're taking a few We're also
reviewing um
also what areas we could potentially
this year we cut back a lot in the
general fund and so
we were successful in bringing forward a
budget that was not at at a negative
we're in the red on anything. So,
but moving forward because we were
mentioned that trajectory of this
general fund we need to ensure that
we're being proactive
in monitoring that.
>> City of Gridley definitely needs a good
fire department. I feel like we do have
a good fire department.
We appreciate all your efforts.
>> Thank you.
>> Yeah.
» We don't pay more than anything.
Is there any talk about
It's an action item.
>> Yes.
» I'll make a motion to accept the uh
I'm glad we finally got between City of
Gridley and Cal Fire. A motion to
approve resolution 2026-R-023.
» I'll second.
>> Roll call, please.
>> Councilmember Cabrera?
>> Yes.
>> Mayor Farr?
>> Yes.
>> Uh Vice Mayor Johnson?
>> Yes.
» If there's
nothing else