Yuba City clarifies fire protection capabilities
Sep. 30—Yuba City officials released information Wednesday to calm community fears about fire protection in relation to a Sutter County one cent sales tax ballot measure that will be up for a vote in the upcoming Nov. 8 general election.
Sutter County is asking voters to approve a one cent retail sales tax increase because of rising costs and its limitations in expanding its tax base. If the increase is approved by voters, the new county retail sales tax would be 8.25%. A one cent increase is an additional cent on each dollar spent.
The county contends that the additional money is needed so that it can properly fund existing county services, including public safety, the Appeal previously reported.
Sutter County Administrator Steve Smith has said that because of the county's strong commitment to public safety, other costs and services provided by the county have been affected. Of particular focus is the county's ability to properly fund its fire services. Smith previously said that if the tax measure doesn't pass or more revenue can't be generated, then those full-time positions could potentially be transformed into voluntary ones.
Because of public concern regarding potential cuts to the county's fire services, officials with Yuba City are attempting to assure residents that they should "feel safe" with the current level of fire protection within the city.
"Yuba City residents should feel safe with the city fire protection," the city said in a statement on Wednesday. "There has been a lot of recent comments around the level of support that Yuba City Fire Department gives and receives. First and foremost, the safety of the residents of Yuba City is our top priority. Mutual aid is a common practice among fire agencies to protect the residents of the jurisdictions."
The city said that as of Sept. 22, the city has provided aid to Sutter County 61 times and Sutter County has provided aid 64 times during 2022.
"As you can see, no one agency over burdens the other as our firefighters do their job and do it well," city officials said. "While some recent comments reflect that the city could be impacted greatly, YCFD (Yuba City Fire Department) is on pace to respond to close to 12,000 incidents this year. We expect that aid provided and received will be approximately 100+ calls in this calendar year for each agency. This is a typical year for mutual aid."
The city said it also is under contract to cover fire and emergency medical calls outside of city limits, but within the city's sphere of influence. The city contends that these calls outside of city limits are being subsidized by the residents of Yuba City through the normal operational budget.
"There are two types of aid, mutual aid and auto aid," the city said. "Mutual aid is actual aid requested and auto aid is based upon preplanned operations. The aid received by YCFD from Sutter County is mostly auto aid. Sutter County provides more auto aid than mutual Aid, which primarily occurs with Station 8 on Barry Road that responds to vegetation fires in the River Bottoms and Highway 99 accidents."
The city said its fire department provides more mutual aid than auto aid to the county to supplement structure and vegetation fire responses.
"Both fire chiefs agree that neither agency feels adversely impacted by the current mutual and auto aid responses," the city said. "To our 72,000+ residents of Yuba City, your YCFD is fully staffed and prepared to handle any situation that should arise and is prepared to provide mutual and auto aid to our partners in Sutter County."
