County Fire warns of funding cliff, dispatch dependency tied to CAL FIRE contract

Shasta County County Fire Chief Sean O’Hare told supervisors during budget hearings that the department’s current model is being buoyed by this year’s contract savings and settlement-funded equipment, but that the underlying CAL FIRE arrangement still leaves a major long-term gap.

O’Hare said the department is using about $2.4 million in contract savings this year and has relied on restricted money, including Zogg settlement funds, to cover equipment and staffing needs. But he said the county still faces a shortfall in the 2029-30 budget year and a larger one in 2030-31, when he described the funding cliff as a “reality of today’s budget.”

He told the board that the county’s fire side and CAL FIRE contract are closely linked, and that any future move away from the agreement would not be as simple as ending a service contract. “Currently, all dispatching for all fire departments besides the City of Redding are done through the CAL FIRE agreement,” he said, adding that if the county were no longer part of the cooperative agreement, it would not have a way to dispatch fire departments without entering a new arrangement.

O’Hare said the dispatch center relies on CAL FIRE infrastructure and county-funded dispatch personnel, and he described a worst-case scenario in which ending the contract would leave the county without dispatching services unless it built a replacement system. He said the county pays for one captain and four communications operators in that arrangement, while CAL FIRE provides the infrastructure.

Supervisor Kevin Crye said the county should look at future collaboration with the City of Redding and other options, calling the current model “not sustainable.” Supervisor Tom Long also pressed O’Hare on the SAFE grant and whether the county could use a longer contract window to show a funding need and support new staffing.

O’Hare said the County Fire Master Plan is in its final stages and that a grant writer position is planned for the new fiscal year, but he did not outline a formal dispatch contingency plan or a timeline for a replacement system.