This week, Town of Moraga City Manager Scott Mitnick confirmed rumors of possible reduced ambulance services provided by the Moraga-Orinda Fire District.
At the May 14 Moraga City Council Meeting, Mitnick confirmed the rumors that should the fire board vote a certain way, ambulance services in Moraga would be reduced from 24-hours a day, to just 10-hours per day with the ambulance unit coming from downtown Orinda. (note: this would remove firefighters off ambulances and they would simply become transport units)
Mitnick, shared that on May 1, he was made aware of the concern over potential decreased staffing and ambulance services to Moraga residents.
“That was news to me, I’ve been serving as your town manager for over two years now,” stated Mitnick. “Mr. Olson brought to my attention concerns about changes in the budget that were coming up for the fire district and potential impacts in the community. That was the first I’ve heard about it.”
Mitnick then stated he spoke with the city manager from Orinda and she was also unaware.
“There were some alleged gains for Orinda and alleged loses for Moraga. That was what was in front of me,” in which Mitnick then confirmed with Moraga-Orinda Fire District Chief Jeff Issacs the information was true.
Mitnick acknowledged it was his responsibility to be aware and follow the district which he said he monitored their agenda but did not read the fine print of what was going on because the topic was in context of the budget and labor negotiations—a lot of it was in closed session.
“I just didn’t see it, it was not communicated to me,” shared Mitnick. “The fire chief did articulate to me what was going on.”
He then explained he and the mayor, vice mayor, along with the fire chief all met to bring everyone up to speed and it will be on the fire district May 21 agenda. He proposed an ad-hoc committee, replicating what Orinda has, a joint MOFD-town of Moraga Fire Prevention Ad-hoc committee or send over a letter of concern regarding upcoming paramedic staffing changes.
Mitnick also shared there were some changes with staffing, including firefighters which he said he was not worried about and they would have firefighters available to respond to fires – thanks to mutual aid agreements.
“Their proposed changes and so on in terms of firefighters has zero impact in my professional opinion to deal with fires. Fires are very infrequent in our community and the response times are very good, that is not the issue,” said Mitnick. “The issue is ambulance service, paramedic service and that kind of thing. So it is true that the proposed changes will result in ambulance availability dropping in Moraga, in our town, dropping from 24-hours a day to 10-hours a day. During the other 14-hours, we would rely on an ambulance coming from Orinda in the downtown station. Orinda would get more hours available, we would get less with this proposal.”
He added the fire district would likely argue about calls, hours, statistics and exposure to Moraga and due to financial. He was quick to point out while true, Moraga has assisted living facilities along with the college. The Police Department would also be exposed if they are involved in an accident or incident not having an ambulance available.
“We are not crying wolf here, we can argue all day long about the right mix, its not just my opinion as your town manager, this current fire chief and his number two concur 100%. They can make this work mathematically, they don’t have to add staff, they would deal with it through overtime and have the staff to do it… the fire chief is prepared to go to his board on May 21 to resolve this,” explained Mitnick. “If it goes the way he would like, and we would like, we would continue to have 24-hour ambulance care. Public safety is our number one responsibility.”
Mitnick also shared he believes the agreement with the fire chief is that they would stay with that commitment, however, he cautioned the fire district board may have another opinion which is their role as an independent district.
He closed by calling it “perplexing” to be kept in the dark for so long and no one reaching out to Moraga about what was going on within the Fire District or on the political level to make people aware.
Upon questions from the council, Mitnick shared he believed the Fire District had away to make it “equal” coverage in terms of ambulance services.
Councilmember Brian Dolan questioned why they would only send a letter of concern versus a demand or something strong.
Mitnick shared the council can do whatever it liked based on the information he had but council could revere to it anyway it wanted.
Mayor Steve Woehleke shared the reason they were not moving in a full blown “demand” was because they want to partner with the fire district.
Dolan then conceded the letter should be somewhere between “demand” and “concern” noting the item was buried in their agenda and there was no discussion or heads up.
Mitnick said in 2022, there was a public meeting or study session talking about paramedic service, which was talked about in public, but in the past two years, no one from the fire district brought it to their attention that this could be a concern to them—or make the case it was a good thing so they could understand it. He added if one looked deeply for the information, it was there.
Olsen responded they shouldn’t have to look deeply for the information. He called it an issue in itself which needed at least a paragraph itself.
Vice Mayor Kerry Hillis said his first reaction upon hearing this was “are they insane” in the backdrop of what transpired of what had happened in Southern California and concerns raised by this council in terms of wildfire response.
“This seems to be a truly insane proposal,” stated Hillis. “The fact that they did not commit to basic outreach to ensure that all jurisdictions impacted were properly informed is equally insane.”
He said the proposal that came to them was to eliminate two firefighter positions and add insane an EMT and paramedic for 10-hours shift. If no ambulance was available, firefighters would get there and stabilize someone on site until an ambulance could arrive. If no ambulance was available, they would have to wait for AMR (county) to respond. He urged in the strongest terms the council was willing to put forward, that they have a strongly worded letter voicing opposition to this move.
“The diminishment of the available ambulance services for the residents of Moraga is insane and it needs to be spoken out as loud as possible by this council,” stated Hillis. “Following this meeting I will be blasting it out to all of my sources that I have at my disposal to encourage Moraga residents to be present at next weeks MOFD meeting to make their voices heard that this is insane. While I believe the mayor and myself have soft commitments that the MOFD board is changing course, to quote Ronald Reagan, trust but verify, while I understand this is a board that we will have to work with in the future, my paramount responsibility as a member of the Moraga Town Council is to the residents of Moraga.”
Hill closed by supporting a strongly worded letter and having the mayor present their position at the meeting.
Woehleke shared what is proposed now is 3 firefighters per station throughout Moraga and Orinda and 2 ambulances staffed with the single role certified EMT/Paramedic. If they go with 10-hour limitation, their logic was if there was a major emergency, they send the fire truck out, the firefighter/paramedic provides life saving service, ambulance comes (or AMR) what they are really losing is transportation and time. He supported advocating for 24-hour service. But did not want to create an adversarial relationship with the fire board and instead take a professional approach.
Councilmember Lisa Maglio called it “unacceptable” as many people who live in Moraga pride themselves is the ambulance service. She agreed with sending a letter of “great concern” that was also strongly worded.
The council opted to direct staff to write a firm letter expressing their concerns but short of a demand.
Staff Report: Ad-hoc committee
