[0:04] I think
[0:05] I mean I definitely used to someone that
[0:07] was around. Yeah. And um false.
[0:11] I think at least the Ravi Hickey days.
[0:13] See that.
[0:14] What was that?
[0:15] >> What? I I don't know what she was
[0:17] saying.
[0:20] » It was maybe.
[0:21] >> I said discard this.
[0:22] >> There's somebody else's in here and I
[0:24] can't
[0:26] So I just I played
[0:29] And then I was then it's false.
[0:32] So maybe you have a chance to
[0:33] >> Well, it's been a long time since I've
[0:35] been up there. I know.
[0:37] >> Good stuff.
[0:39] What would you want to say?
[0:41] >> [laughter]
[0:42] >> Well, thank you.
[0:43] Probably not, but it's cool.
[0:46] >> Call to order the Gridley City Council
[0:48] special City Council meeting
[0:50] to
[0:51] June 18th, 2026 at 2:00.
[0:57] Roll call, please.
[0:59] >> Vice Mayor Johnson.
[0:59] >> Here.
[1:00] >> Mayor Farr.
[1:01] >> Here.
[1:01] >> Council Member Calderon.
[1:02] >> Here.
[1:03] >> Council Member Sanchez and Council
[1:05] Member Roberts both absent.
[1:09] >> Uh community participation forum,
[1:11] members of the public may address City
[1:13] Council on matters not listed on the
[1:15] agenda.
[1:16] City Council may not discuss or act on
[1:19] any community participation item
[1:22] brought forward by a member of the
[1:23] community. All members of the public
[1:26] will be limited to 3 minutes.
[1:29] Uh no consent agenda. I'll move to items
[1:32] of Council consideration.
[1:36] Item number one, 2026-2027
[1:40] quality fire agreement between City of
[1:43] Gridley and Cal Fire.
[1:52] » Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Thank
[1:54] you for taking your time to be today. Uh
[1:58] I [clears throat] apologize that this
[1:59] did not make it onto the last uh
[2:02] council meeting. That was because I had
[2:03] noticed the mistake in the the numbers
[2:05] and wanted to find out exactly why
[2:08] numbers weren't matching up, and so I
[2:10] had to make that uh
[2:11] had to make that correction and
[2:12] determine what the issue was in the uh
[2:14] So, yeah, that that brings us to here,
[2:16] and that's why
[2:17] uh um
[2:18] we asked you to be here today, and so I
[2:20] appreciate you taking time out of your
[2:21] day.
[2:22] So, uh City Gridley is and Cal Fire have
[2:24] maintained a cooperative uh fire
[2:27] agreement since 1991 for all hazard
[2:29] emergency response. The There are
[2:32] numerous benefits uh that maintaining
[2:34] this cooperative agreement. Uh I'll list
[2:37] them briefly here. Being a part of
[2:39] regional fire protection offers depth of
[2:41] resources available to the city. The
[2:43] fire engine is currently county-owned
[2:46] and runs majority of the calls. The
[2:48] county funds the personnel that uh work
[2:50] on the fire engine,
[2:52] >> [clears throat]
[2:52] >> whereas the city uh um
[2:54] funds the personnel on the ladder truck.
[2:56] The county owns fire station. The city
[2:58] benefits in experience uh
[3:00] from experienced chief officers uh 7
[3:03] days a week.
[3:05] And then the city receives fire and EMS
[3:07] dispatching services. Uh state covers
[3:10] unfunded liabilities. The city gains
[3:13] revenue from rentals to the state for
[3:15] wildfires
[3:16] uh totaling $824,000
[3:18] in the last 6 years. Uh contract cost uh
[3:22] versus actual bill has always been less
[3:24] uh than originally agreed upon, uh
[3:26] estimating that we'll get back uh over
[3:29] $80,000 this year. Uh we've averaged
[3:31] $82,000 over the last
[3:34] 5 years. And the city has access to the
[3:36] prevention bureau,
[3:38] uh the shop services, and the volunteer
[3:41] firefighters uh they're part of the
[3:43] county program. Gridley currently funds
[3:45] one uh communication operator that works
[3:48] in the uh emergency dispatch, and then
[3:51] one captain and four and a half
[3:52] engineers. And the uh this new agreement
[3:55] fully funds that fifth engineer.
[3:58] That was partially funded last year, and
[4:01] this will complete funding three full
[4:03] shifts on the ladder truck, which meets
[4:06] the needs of the 66-hour work week that
[4:08] the Cal Fire switched to uh
[4:12] began switching to 2 years ago.
[4:14] Uh so that'll bring us to
[4:16] three three shifts of two people each
[4:19] day on the ladder truck with this
[4:21] agreement being signed.
[4:24] And it brings us closer to meeting
[4:25] industry staffing standards.
[4:27] Uh the existing contract expires June
[4:30] 30th. I'm recommending that the council
[4:32] adopt the updated cooperative fire
[4:34] agreement before you for fiscal year
[4:35] 2026-2027,
[4:37] uh totaling $1,578,875.
[4:42] If you have any questions, I'd be happy
[4:44] to answer.
[4:46] >> Thank you.
[4:47] Uh
[4:48] how many Is this county How many ladder
[4:51] trucks
[4:52] is there
[4:54] I guess to say in Butte County?
[4:56] >> Okay.
[4:57] Uh there so
[4:58] >> That matter with the Cal Fire?
[5:00] >> Or with So we have one under contract
[5:02] with Oroville City. So we have access to
[5:04] that.
[5:06] Uh we currently have our old ladder
[5:08] truck, which will be uh still discussing
[5:12] with them what to do with it.
[5:14] Uh we we can sell it or we can keep it
[5:15] as a reserve. There's also potential of
[5:17] selling it to Oroville City
[5:19] or another municipality nearby. If we
[5:22] sold it to Oroville City or kept it
[5:23] within Butte County, then it would be
[5:25] able to be a reserve here kind of
[5:27] between all the different agencies. So
[5:29] that's something we're looking at. Uh
[5:30] then we have our new ladder truck. So
[5:32] we'll maintain one here, one in Oroville
[5:34] City, and then Chico Fire Department has
[5:36] two that are not uh incorporated into
[5:39] our contract, but uh we can we can
[5:42] get them through mutual aid. And there's
[5:44] this There's a one staffed, one as a reserve, also.
[5:49] So, two two under the Cal Fire umbrella,
[5:52] really one under Chico Fire.
[5:55] That makes sense.
[5:56] >> So, the fire another truck is very
[5:57] essential.
[5:58] >> Yes.
[5:59] >> In this tower.
[5:59] >> Absolutely. Yes, and a lot of people
[6:01] think that like what is, you know, what
[6:03] is a small town need with a ladder
[6:05] truck, but you look at all of our all of
[6:07] our uh agricultural facilities. Like
[6:10] none of those are reachable by ground
[6:11] ladders. Those are Those are uh you
[6:13] know, our ladder reach 105 ft doesn't
[6:15] actually get 105 ft up because it has to
[6:18] have, you know, climbing angle. So, your horizontal reach might only be 70
[6:22] ft, but your vertical reach might
[6:24] actually be 70 ft cuz you have to be
[6:26] back off of the
[6:28] building. So, yeah, there's there's tons
[6:31] of application for a ladder truck. It is
[6:33] very essential.
[6:34] >> So, I guess
[6:35] you know, how a lifeline works and is
[6:38] very being very essential
[6:40] uh and and Gridley is paying for that.
[6:42] >> Right. Right.
[6:43] >> Do we get compensated for use of that?
[6:47] For example.
[6:48] >> There is There's no exchange of money
[6:50] between the city of Gridley and the um
[6:53] and the county
[6:55] on resources moving between the two
[6:57] because it's a it's a give and take. So,
[7:00] if you have a commercial structure fire
[7:02] here, let's just say
[7:03] uh
[7:04] 110 or 215 or 281, right? You're
[7:06] If If this county were to start billing
[7:10] the city for all of those, you might get
[7:12] 15 resources there and you wouldn't want
[7:15] to obviously the city wouldn't want to
[7:16] pay for that, whereas the ladder truck
[7:19] going to another municipality
[7:22] uh
[7:23] they're not going to you know, it
[7:25] wouldn't be fair to bill there, either.
[7:27] So, so you do have a very specialized
[7:28] piece of equipment, but also you're the
[7:31] city is receiving a lot of other
[7:33] resources from the county, from bigs, uh
[7:37] you know,
[7:38] >> Yeah, I'm I'm just trying to figure out
[7:39] how we can
[7:41] squeeze a little bit more out of this
[7:43] contract. Uh But that's obviously not
[7:46] how it works.
[7:47] >> On the state side of things, by by you
[7:50] have a city having a contract with Cal
[7:53] Fire,
[7:54] we can specifically target the the
[7:57] municipalities [clears throat]
[7:58] within our umbrella to hire. So, we have
[8:01] a a city bought a Type 3 fire engine,
[8:03] which is essentially like a uh
[8:06] brush rig, you know. Uh and so, the city
[8:09] owns that, and the state we specifically
[8:12] try to rent that from the city, and
[8:16] that's a that's a big money maker.
[8:17] That's That's where that $824,000,
[8:20] that's where that comes from.
[8:21] >> So, just back down to that, but just just uh normal everyday use, there
[8:27] isn't a
[8:32] um
[8:36] » You know what I'm going to go with.
[8:37] Yeah, there there's no financial benefit
[8:40] to to having it.
[8:41] Um there there could be a slight
[8:43] possibility that if Yuba City or
[8:45] Marysville or something had a fire
[8:46] engine,
[8:47] uh they would
[8:50] you could bill them, but I think in
[8:52] general we try not to bill each other
[8:53] because at some point you might ask for
[8:55] one of their ladder trucks to come
[8:56] assist one of our fires.
[8:57] >> state The state wouldn't consider
[9:01] um
[9:03] or Cal Fire wouldn't consider
[9:06] a maybe reduction in
[9:08] >> [laughter]
[9:08] >> in the Oh, I have a question. No, the um
[9:12] No, the benefit rate and the the the
[9:14] rate that we bill, that's based on all the different
[9:19] bargaining units and how they have set
[9:20] everything up. So, it's
[9:22] um yeah, that fluctuates every year, and
[9:24] that's kind of what dictates our
[9:25] contract cost. Uh
[9:27] you know, so I I I feel like
[9:31] City of Gridley's getting, you know,
[9:33] you're getting a very reasonable deal
[9:35] because
[9:36] uh this the fire engine, which is funded
[9:39] by the county it is running about
[9:42] probably 70 to 80% of the the call
[9:44] volume here in the city. The city runs
[9:46] more calls than the county out of out of
[9:47] it as far as the station is concerned.
[9:49] So so the wear and tear for to a large
[9:51] degree is on a county piece of equipment
[9:53] that's operated by personnel paid for by
[9:55] Butte County and then the city provides
[9:57] that ladder truck which is is very
[9:59] specialized but used much less.
[10:02] >> And is there a cost is there more of a
[10:04] cost personnel to run a ladder truck
[10:06] than it would be a conventional vehicle?
[10:10] >> The personnel or the the personnel cost
[10:12] is the same. The equipment is uh
[10:17] There's some specialized equipment
[10:18] that's also expensive but we the new
[10:20] ladder truck does not have uh
[10:23] you know uh
[10:25] you know as you know that the apparatus
[10:27] is very expensive and so we we tried to
[10:29] reuse a lot of the equipment from the
[10:30] old ladder truck and so we did not have
[10:33] a whole lot of equipment costs uh
[10:35] comparatively to if we bought everything
[10:37] new. So
[10:38] uh there is there would be those
[10:40] expenses but we tried to cut those as
[10:42] much as possible to save the city money.
[10:44] >> Yeah.
[10:46] Go ahead.
[10:48] >> Just a comment and
[10:50] uh
[10:51] I appreciate the fire department not
[10:53] only not only we're used to get
[10:55] experience practical experience
[10:58] I know a few kids and last one I know
[11:00] that I know
[11:02] uh
[11:03] volunteer for the fire department and
[11:05] this uh Sam Sam
[11:07] uh
[11:08] he learned a lot in Downey.
[11:10] >> [clears throat]
[11:10] >> Uh that is really a lot
[11:15] more is more
[11:17] I would say however this
[11:19] the money justifies it.
[11:21] So
[11:23] I'm glad and I hope you continue to
[11:25] provide this kind of services to Downey.
[11:28] >> Question though.
[11:31] » I had uh number one day yeah. uh
[11:35] the maintenance on the fire trucks and
[11:37] all that's all covered by the county.
[11:40] >> No, the ladder truck is fully funded by
[11:42] the city. When it goes to our shop,
[11:45] that's where you benefit on our shop as
[11:47] they they can do a lot of diagnosing and
[11:49] not bill the city.
[11:52] Uh
[11:52] so they can go over there or we have
[11:55] some like aerial specialists that can
[11:57] look at it. They they don't necessarily
[11:59] have the capacity to
[12:01] do all the work but they can do some
[12:03] diagnosing if it's something just basic
[12:05] mechanical related with motor or the
[12:08] uh chassis or something, they can make
[12:09] those those repairs and and not
[12:11] necessarily bill the city.
[12:13] Uh but if it were to get sent to a
[12:15] specialized shop like a firm truck or uh
[12:19] another large shop within the city, we'd
[12:21] have to pay for that. But we anticipate
[12:23] with the new purchase of the new ladder
[12:26] truck, the old one's 19 years old and so
[12:31] those maintenance costs were starting to accumulate and starting to
[12:35] have more issues with it. It actually
[12:36] went out of service
[12:38] last week. Uh the aerial uh
[12:43] the aerial wasn't functioning anymore so
[12:45] it had to put [clears throat] one of the
[12:47] rams had to be replaced so
[12:49] uh yeah, so those are starting to add up
[12:51] and so obviously if we're not running an
[12:53] old ladder truck anymore all the time,
[12:55] we're
[12:55] running something newer, we anticipate
[12:57] that the the maintenance costs are going
[12:59] to go down on the new ladder truck.
[13:03] » I I'm not sure if my numbers are right.
[13:06] >> I think uh
[13:08] last year your budget was somewhere
[13:09] around 1.2 million.
[13:13] >> Uh for the 1.
[13:15] for the contract itself?
[13:17] >> Yeah.
[13:17] >> Our
[13:19] total last year was 1 uh 1.42.
[13:24] The 1 million 427.
[13:27] >> What is it for year?
[13:29] >> 1,578,000
[13:32] So that's the number
[13:34] the
[13:36] rate didn't really go up
[13:38] much at all. The this is just us
[13:41] finishing what we what my understanding
[13:43] is with
[13:45] Chief Fowler, the agreement to start
[13:47] working toward filling that third shift
[13:50] for the 66-hour work week. This is just
[13:53] finishing paying for a position that we
[13:55] partially funded last year.
[13:56] >> That's what the increase of purchase
[13:58] amount too.
[13:59] >> Correct.
[14:01] >> Okay.
[14:02] That's what I was wondering, what caused
[14:03] that
[14:04] increase to come up. I forgot about
[14:05] that.
[14:07] 66-hour
[14:08] >> Yeah. I I would expect, you know, every
[14:10] year, just like everything, things are
[14:11] going to go up, but that's why this is more this year is
[14:15] because we're we're sticking with the
[14:18] plan to increase that
[14:20] position.
[14:23] >> So kind of everything is doubled since I
[14:25] first sat in this chair.
[14:27] Literally.
[14:29] >> [laughter]
[14:32] » Any other questions from council?
[14:34] >> No, sir.
[14:37] » Thank you.
[14:38] >> [clears throat]
[14:39] >> Yes.
[14:43] Hey, administrator, [clears throat] did
[14:44] you have anything to add?
[14:46] >> Yeah, um I wanted to mention um in the
[14:48] staff report, we we do have some um
[14:51] fiscal impact um
[14:54] information that we placed there, just
[14:56] um notifying and and letting for the
[14:59] record know that we are um as a city
[15:03] um ensuring and trying to ensure that we
[15:05] are continuing to look for funding
[15:07] sources for uh fire fire services and
[15:11] police services. Uh we did apply for
[15:13] safer grants. We did not we're not
[15:15] successful um this year, but we're going
[15:18] to continue to go after the the safer grants to assist with uh fire
[15:24] and police protection services.
[15:27] So, we're taking a few We're also
[15:29] reviewing um
[15:31] also what areas we could potentially
[15:34] this year we cut back a lot in the
[15:36] general fund and so
[15:38] we were successful in bringing forward a
[15:39] budget that was not at at a negative
[15:42] we're in the red on anything. So,
[15:44] but moving forward because we were
[15:47] mentioned that trajectory of this
[15:48] general fund we need to ensure that
[15:50] we're being proactive
[15:52] in monitoring that.
[15:55] >> City of Gridley definitely needs a good
[15:57] fire department. I feel like we do have
[15:58] a good fire department.
[16:00] We appreciate all your efforts.
[16:02] >> Thank you.
[16:03] >> Yeah.
[16:06] » We don't pay more than anything.
[16:10] Is there any talk about
[16:13] It's an action item.
[16:14] >> Yes.
[16:17] » I'll make a motion to accept the uh
[16:22] I'm glad we finally got between City of
[16:24] Gridley and Cal Fire. A motion to
[16:26] approve resolution 2026-R-023.
[16:32] » I'll second.
[16:33] >> Roll call, please.
[16:35] >> Councilmember Cabrera?
[16:36] >> Yes.
[16:37] >> Mayor Farr?
[16:38] >> Yes.
[16:39] >> Uh Vice Mayor Johnson?
[16:40] >> Yes.
[16:43] » If there's
[16:44] nothing else