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The San Juan Bautista City Council approved funding to study the creation of a fire protection and life safety services special district at its Jan. 21 meeting. The new district would include the city of Hollister, the city of San Juan Bautista and San Benito County.
The city of San Juan, under former city manager Don Reynolds, was the lead agency in creating the proposal to determine the cost and service benefits to the three government agencies. The city of Hollister has provided fire services to San Juan since 2013.
Baker Tilly, an advisory, tax and assurance firm, was the sole bidder. According to the plan, San Juan would pay 10% of the total cost of the $99,000 study to create a proposal. The remainder would be split between Hollister and the County.
San Juan Public Safety Coordinator Roy A. Morales requested a town hall meeting to discuss the fire district, saying he thought residents did not understand the issue.
“I want our residents to have full disclosure as to what is happening,” he said, “and what will happen if we don’t come to a resolution with the city of Hollister, or if the county does not come to the table to negotiate this.”
Morales said the county’s unwillingness to meet with Hollister and San Juan over a contract had previously been the source of a delay in getting the issue resolved.
“I’m not going to hold my words here,” he said. “We need to have a Plan B because the calls for service from the station are higher with the county than with San Juan Bautista. A lot of people think Cal Fire is going to come to the rescue, but that’s not the way it works.”
Councilmember Scott Freels said he agreed with holding a town hall to battle some of the confusion people had over fire services. He also said he had been in contact with Cal Fire Deputy Chief Nick Ciardella, who said he would be willing to address a meeting and provided Freels with information on similar contracts.
Water deal delayed
The council also discussed an agreement with the San Benito County Water District on a term sheet that would be used to draft the contracts that would allow San Juan to receive treated water from the district’s system and for the district and the city to coordinate water and wastewater planning.
It would make San Juan an equal party in the already existing water supply and treatment agreement, which includes the aquifer storage and recovery project that will pump what would otherwise be runoff water back into the aquifer for recovery during dry years.
The agreement includes the city purchasing a yet-to-be-determined percentage of the treatment capacity of the Lessalt and West Hills Treatment plants.
The transmission pipeline to San Juan, which will be shared with the district, will be treated as a separate project. The agreement, as it stands, would leave San Juan paying 5-10% of the district’s ongoing project costs.
During his presentation, San Benito County Water District General Manager Dana Jacobson, in response to a question by Councilmember Jose Aranda, said that the terms would most likely increase water bills for residents and businesses, but said he was too unfamiliar with the city’s rate structure to say how much the increase would be.
Interim City Manager Ashely Collick said that a determination could not be made without a full analysis by her office. Jacobson asked that the uncertainties over the cost of the service not prove an obstacle to the agreement and said he would work with Collick to get the best rates possible.
Concerns over the cost expressed by members of the council led Mayor Leslie Jordan to make a friendly amendment directing Collick to review and discuss the terms with all parties to try to solidify the costs to the city.
The fire services and water district agreements are included in the council meeting agenda packet. The meeting is available on YouTube.
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