Pleasanton fire chief gets council support to keep fire protection rating from dropping
- Roger Sims, Journal Staff
- Oct 28
- 3 min read
By Roger Sims
PLEASANTON – The city of Pleasanton will be able to keep its fire protection rating for now. However, the agency that measures the capabilities of fire departments and their ability to protect the city gave the city one year to bring its department up to a standard that would warrant that rating.
The city currently has an Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating of 5. However, in a letter to the city from the Public Protection Classification Retrogression Team (PPC), the city rating is slated to be lowered to 10.
The agency conducted a survey of the fire department on July 16. The last time the fire department was inspected was in February 2001. Several fire departments were inspected in July, including the county’s departments and La Cygne’s department.
If the fire department score increases to 10, the premiums for property insurance for private residences and businesses in the city could rise dramatically.
However, the agency will give the city up to a year to make corrections that would allow it to keep a 5 rating. In town hall meeting at the Pleasanton Community Center on May 8, the city council gave the department a year to be brought up to ISO standards in a 6-1 vote.
The late council member Angie Randall was the dissenting vote. She warned that there wasn’t enough money in the budget to bring the city fire department, which had been funded to the tune of $12,000 annually over the past few years, up to the level it needed to be.
It would be cheaper, she said, to pay the county for fire protection since the county’s department headquarters are located in Pleasanton. But the sentiment of the audience and most of the council was to give the department time to rebuild.
The PPC Retrogression team gave the 30 days to respond to the Oct. 24 letter that would signal the intent to bring the department up to the standards. Within 60 days the city must provide a realistic plan for improvements, and the must provide quarterly updates on what work is being done to meet those standards.
Wisdom indicated he wanted to move forward on the project and received support from all of the council members.
One problem that city Fire Chief Jeff Wisdom faces is that ISO report completed by analyst Rebecca Heaherington has no benchmarks of what scores should be. He said he would find out what those scores meant, what improvements were needed and develop a plan to address the inadequacies.
The council also heard from newly appointed Assistant Fire Chief Dennis Mitchell about a plan to record training sessions and make some money for the department by distributing them via the internet. He also said that social media could be used to further interaction by the public with firefighters.
Councilman Aaron Portmann said that was fine as along as a limited number of people had administrative privileges to the social media. Councilwoman Rochelle Schreckhise agreed with Mitchell's comment about not publishing many photos of the general public at the fire department events.
Wisdom took a more old fashioned approach, suggesting that the department hold a meet-and-greet in the near future.
The council also approved the purchase of six new handheld radios from KC Wireless for nearly $4,500, While Wisdom said he wanted to purchase 10 radios, one for each one of the firefighters he expects to have on board after some of the older firefighters step away from the department and some newer recruits take their place, he said that he had a couple of handheld radios plus the radio in the department’s fire truck that could be upgraded for about $100 each.
Wisdom also said he had found some less expensive bunker gear for the new firefighters. The council members urged him to buy quality gear and reminded him they had approved nearly $14,000 for that purpose in a special meeting on July 28 and the issue needed no other action by the council.
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