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Big Bear Lake board approves CityGate review of fire services
Summary
The Big Bear Lake Fire Protection District board voted June 11 to hire CityGate Associates to perform a service‑level assessment of fire services, with a contract not to exceed $65,169 and an estimated 4–6 month timeline.
The Big Bear Lake Fire Protection District board voted June 11 to hire CityGate Associates to perform a service‑level assessment of the district’s fire services, with a contract not to exceed $65,169 and an estimated four to six months to complete the work.
The assessment will review current service needs, incident workload and demand, response capacity and response times, and fiscal and governance arrangements, staff said. City Manager Eric Sund told the board, “The cost is not to exceed of $65,169.”
The review, proposed by CityGate Associates, will use the district’s incident records and other fiscal documents and may draw on county dispatch data if necessary to capture out‑of‑district and mutual aid activity. Stuart Gary, project manager for CityGate Associates, said the firm brings sector experience and described the review as three components: a service needs assessment, fiscal analysis and governance review. “CityGate Associates has been in business 32 years,” Gary said.
Board members asked how granular the analysis would be and whether it could be broken down by station or by specific areas. Gary said the firm can map demand and risk using incident records and GIS tools and will tailor the level of detail to what makes business sense and what the district requests. He told the board the project timeline is an outside estimate that reflects time for data collection, stakeholder listening sessions, drafting and presenting findings, and potential scheduling delays caused by staff availability or emergency incidents.
Staff noted the district’s operational context — a resort community with overlapping jurisdiction between the City of Big Bear Lake and the county’s community service district — and said the review will try to separate resident calls from transient/tourist demand when possible. Gary said some federal incident data systems do not capture both sides of mutual‑aid flows and that the firm can seek central dispatch records to better describe the ebb and flow of responses.
A member of the public, Dan Gulbrandsen, spoke during general comment about wildfire risk and local evacuation measures, saying, “I don't want this place to be like Lahaina.” Gulbrandsen urged alarms and clearer evacuation planning for older residents and for areas including Moonridge, Sugarloaf and Summit.
The board voted to move forward with the engagement. The roll call recorded four ayes and one absent: Board Member Segovia — aye; Vice Chair Hicks — absent; Board Member Melnick — aye; Board Member Putz — aye; Chair Herrick — aye. Board members did not specify a mover or seconder on the public transcript.
No reportable action resulted from an earlier closed‑session item, and staff said there is no pending litigation arising from the closed session. Next steps include CityGate’s written questionnaire to staff, scheduled listening sessions, and a draft report to the board once analysis is complete; staff can choose the report depth and presentation format when the study concludes.
