Oxnard — The Community Services, Public Safety, Housing and Development Committee on Oct. 28 recommended that the City Council approve a "closest resource" automatic aid agreement allowing the geographically nearest fire resources from the City of Oxnard, the City of Ventura and the Ventura County Fire Protection District to respond to emergency and nonemergency calls across jurisdictional boundaries.

Assistant Fire Chief John Calaverino, operations, told the committee the agreement formalizes a practice the three agencies have operated informally since about 2016 and is intended to ensure the quickest possible response when an incident occurs near a jurisdictional line. "The number of resources and personnel that respond outside of the city . . . is dependent on the call type," Calaverino said, giving examples ranging from a single engine with three or four firefighters for an emergency medical call to multiple engines, ladder trucks and battalion chiefs for a large structure fire. He added that when Oxnard resources respond under the agreement, the jurisdiction where the incident occurs will ultimately take command.

The committee voted 3-0 to recommend council approval and to authorize the fire chief to execute the agreement. Committee members recorded yes votes for Perallo, Perez and Chair MacArthur.

Why it matters: By dispatching the closest appropriate unit regardless of municipal boundary, committee members and staff said the agreement is meant to reduce response times and improve public safety across the region. Calaverino said the agencies have an agreement to prioritize releasing outside resources as incidents stabilize.

Details and discussion: Calaverino said typical response configurations vary by call type and location. He described the Edison cooling channel and harbor areas as places where multiple water sources can complicate incidents and emphasized that the agreement governs initial dispatch and mutual aid but leaves incident command to the jurisdiction of occurrence once on scene.

Committee Chair MacArthur said he supported formalizing the arrangement: "The duty to respond and help and protect anyone who needs our help ... is from me. You're the experts and you make that call when necessary. So I fully support this." A committee member moved to adopt the recommendation and the motion was seconded; the clerk then called the vote.

Next steps: The committee forwarded its recommendation to the full City Council for final approval and authorized the fire chief to execute the agreement if council concurs.