Menifee City Council members at the August 21st meeting questioned why Menifee Fire Department has been responding to numerous calls each month in the City of Perris for mutual aid while Perris Fire responded much fewer times to Menifee.
As a response, Menifee City Manager Armando Villa and staff will be meeting with the Riverside County Fire Chief Bill Weiser this week to discuss the issue.
The Menifee Fire Department is contracted with Riverside County Fire and Cal Fire for fire and rescue services that have mutual aid agreements with other county and city fire departments,
In past meetings the council members have often questioned why Menifee Fire, one of the best equipt under contract, is spending so much of its time answering out of city calls when those out of city departments are called into the city far fewer times.
Such is the case, particularly with the City of Perris, as was reported by Brian Jones, assistant city manager at the meeting. “We are going into Perris and being the first responders, or often the first responding engine along Ethanac and the southern part of their city 436 times compared to them coming into our city 104 times.. It’s almost a 4 to 1 trend over the last year.”
Council Mayor Pro Tem Deines in questioning that report said he saw the residents of Menifee subsidizing other city’s fire services with their taxpayer monies. “I think mutual aid is great, but I don’t think this is a definition of mutual aid.”
Council Member Lesa Sobek, in questioning the city fire service response time which, while already very good, might even be better with fewer out of city calls.
Deines agreed, “I can’t help but believe that our response time can be better as well.” He asked, “What can we do to make it more equitable?” for the city residents.
Mayor Bill Zimmerman expressed his concern with the number of out of city fire and rescue responses as well, and was joined by Councilmembers Ricky Estrada and Bob Karwin.
Menifee’s fire chief Mark Scoville was out on a call and could not respond immediately.
Asst. City Mgr. Jones said, “We are going to look into this a bit more about the disparity of us going into their city (Perris) and our engines being out of the city ,..and really dive into it.”
The council resolved to adopt a Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Villagio Villas Apartments Project located south of McCall Blvd. and east of Interstate 215 at the southern end of Encanto Drive. The project is an expansion of the already existing apartment complex with 24 more units and 235 parking spaces. It approved the zone change for the project. The apartments are two stories in height and indicated they were okay with dedicating some of the units (six) for those renters 62 or over or of lower income.
The council further discussed forming a Veterans and Military Families Advisory Committee and voted 5-0 to approve of its formation. It will have five active or former members of the military and their families to serve on the committee.
A Central Park Amphitheater Ad Hoc Committee was also approved for formation. Council members Sobek and Karwing will be the city members of the committee.
The Council approved the continued service of City Manager Villa until December 31, 2029 with a salary of $322,358 with an annual employment review and COLA increases.
The council recognized High school student Anthony Cordero for his gold medals won in international Taekwondo martial arts competitions and Amy Frahn, youth baseball coordinator, as the Citizen of the Month.
Tony Ault can be reached at tault@reedermedia.com.
