Fire response times on docket for Wednesday council meeting

By: PAUL SISSON - Staff Writer | Monday, November 7, 2005 9:05 PM PST ∞

OCEANSIDE ---- Fire response times will be front and center at City Hall Wednesday.

At the request of Councilman Rocky Chavez, Oceanside interim Chief of Police Jerry Lance is scheduled to highlight changes he has already made to the city's emergency dispatch system. Lance will also discuss pending changes to the dispatching system and will also include updated and corrected calculations of response times for the Oceanside Fire Department.

Response times have recently been in the spotlight after Robert Dunham, Oceanside's interim fire chief, stated in a presentation to the mayor's Public Safety Committee last month that it took 3 1/2 minutes for police department dispatchers to pass emergency fire calls to firefighters in the field.

The police department has disputed Dunham's claim, stating that a computer program used to calculate average response times was flawed. Lance has declined to release any details of his presentation for publication before Wednesday's meeting, scheduled for 5 p.m. in council chambers at 300 N. Coast Highway.

Immediately after Lance's presentation, the council will discuss, and possibly act on, recommendations from Mayor Jim Wood's public safety committee.

It's unclear what those recommendations will be ---- the council's agenda for Wednesday's meeting includes no supporting information on specific recommendations and committee members could not be reached Monday.

In September, the Council voted to adopt a goal of establishing five-minute average response times for fire department 911 emergency calls and to phase out the department's emergency medical technicians and replace them with firefighter paramedics.

Also Wednesday, the City Council will consider transferring $150,000 from its parks fund to begin building the city's first off-leash dog park on a property behind the North County Humane Society's animal shelter on Jones Road.

At Wednesday's meeting the council will also hold two public hearings regarding two ongoing downtown developments. The hearings, which affect the 164-unit Oceanside Pier Resort building under construction at Pacific and Meyers streets and the 38-unit Oceanside Terraces condominium project under construction at Mission Avenue and Cleveland Street, will focus on whether either or both projects can begin construction before the city has finished processing a final zoning map.

Jerry Hittleman, a senior planner with the Oceanside Planning Department, said proposed changes would allow developers to begin building their projects now but would not allow them to be occupied until the parcel maps were formally recorded.

"They can't sell any units at either site until the final map is approved," Hittleman said. "The final maps are in process, but we wanted them to be able to begin building once the grading is finished.

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.

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