Gilroy Fire Department faces staffing shortage, but quick solutions are scarce

For years, Gilroy has experienced a chronic firefighter staffing shortage – leading to slower response times that many say is a risk to their safety and homes.

Now, residents and firefighters have had enough, and are urging the city to address the problem — an issue city officials readily acknowledge while pointing to funding shortages that they say make it difficult to resolve.

“Right now we’re gambling with the lives of our residents, with our firefighters, with their health, with their safety, with that of their property,” said Gilroy Councilmember Rebeca Armendariz at a City Council meeting this week where residents and local firefighters rallied to draw attention to the shortage. “What are we going to do in the immediate?”

The city currently has three fully-staffed fire stations. In 2020, they established a fourth temporary station housed in a building formerly used for children’s nature classes and located in the Santa Teresa area due to increased growth in that part of the city. However, it is not fully staffed and residents implored the city to change that.

Monday, the city council voted 4-3 to move towards an agreement formally requiring the city to staff the Santa Teresa station to the greatest extent possible. “We need this in writing,” said Councilmember Zach Hilton, who proposed the motion. “That way, there’s accountability.”

While city officials have known for more than two decades Gilroy would need a fourth permanent station, a 2019 study showed slow response times by firefighters and affirmed the need for another station. Hence, they created the interim station in Santa Teresa.

The interim station did improve response times across the city and for surrounding residents, when it was open and staffed. However, it was mostly operated at reduced hours and with fewer personnel than other stations, and at times was even left empty. When left unstaffed, response times for the surrounding Santa Teresa area rose higher than those of any other fire district in the city.

Given these issues, residents, council members, and firefighters from around the county are calling for full staffing at the Santa Teresa station. “That’s what we’re asking for tonight … to ensure adequate and equitable services for all,” said Jeff MacPhail, the Director of Gilroy Fire Fighters Association at the meeting.

Jeff UnaDia, a Gilroy resident and former San Jose firefighter recalled failing to revive an infant after waiting too long for support on a call. “What dollar amount do you place on a human life?” he asked as his voice cracked.

However, City Administrator Jimmy Forbis said that with current firefighter shortages, staffing the Santa Teresa station around the clock would be “mathematically impossible” until the city is able to hire more.

The empty station is emblematic of a larger problem in the department: firefighting staff has remained stagnant, even as the need has grown. Firefighters in Gilroy respond to 77% more calls than a decade ago. But over the same time period, the number of firefighters has remained around the same and is now at 38. Of those, at least four are currently on leave for illness or injury and another three are still in training.

This tightening demand on staff has led to more overtime, which many in the city and the fire department say has led to increased chances of illness and injury.

To shore up staffing shortages and adequately operate the fourth station, city staff recommended adding seven more positions over the coming years for a total of 45 fire fighting staff. Officials say that would allow all four stations to be fully staffed without needing excessive overtime.

At the same time, city staff cautioned that Gilroy’s budget margin is small and may shrink in coming years. Meanwhile, the ballooning cost of overtime — up threefold over the last decade — has squeezed the city’s coffers further, making it even more difficult to find the funds to fill the positions.

Potential proposals to pay for the staff include ballot tax measures and cutting other city workers. Some council members floated cutting into the city’s reserve funds, though Forbis warned that such a move could have “catastrophic” financial consequences, and even if funding was found immediately, the staffing increase would take years.

“There’s no argument that this needs to be figured out somehow,” Forbis said. “I think where you’re going to see the disagreement is what that solution is. Because when you don’t have money, you either got to find it, or you’ve got to take it from someone else, and that’s gonna be a tough, tough road to go down.”