11/02/2024
We, your Los Banos firefighters, are discouraged that your elected city officials have decided to remain silent with our request to fix our daily staffing levels. Out of the 5 city council members, city manager, and mayor, only councilwoman Deborah Lewis reached out and asked questions relevant to our request.
Currently our chief has been instructed to only fill vacancies when daily staffing levels fall below 4 personnel. That’s 2 staff members for each of the city’s two fire stations. For a city with 50k residents you have 1 firefighter per 12.5k residents. For comparison, Gilroy has 55k residents and 1 firefighter per 5k residents.
We are asking the council to allow the fire chief to increase minimal daily staffing levels to 6 personnel, 3 per station. This adjustment would improve our capacity to serve our community effectively.
We’ve included our monthly stats for the month of October and the letters sent to your elected officials. Also a link to industry standards in relation to staffing levels. We encourage you to reach out to us with any questions or concerns. We would love to discuss our situation and the importance of having these positions filled.
As always, we are proud to serve the residents and City of Los Banos and appreciate your continued support.
https://youtu.be/G9qmMhtNGEs
