Fejo, Dof1a Ana County fire chief finalist, emphasizes staffing, training and community engagement

Yvonne Fejo, deputy fire chief of Dof1a County and a finalist for the county's fire chief post, presented a 45-minute vision for Dof1a Ana County Fire Rescue and answered community questions during an external stakeholder session. Fejo said the department will focus on "readiness, resilience and trust" and on strengthening prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.

Fejo told attendees the county commissioned an agency evaluation and a standards-of-coverage study to guide decisions on station placement, staffing and training. "A standards of coverage allows us to identify what those emergency call types are, how frequently they're occurring, what time of day," she said, and those results will help create heat maps and training recommendations. She said the procurement was approved in June and the consultant work has used county GIS data and internal call-volume reporting.

The presentation described recent internal work: department workshops and a community engagement day produced an updated mission, vision and values; an internal department survey and a planned strategic plan will inform priorities; and staff are preparing public-facing reports when the consultant's agency evaluation and standards-of-coverage report are complete. Fejo asked the public to watch county social media for the December release of those consultant reports.

During an extended public Q&A, residents and two in-room evaluators pressed Fejo on emergency medical services, staffing levels, recruitment and retention. On paramedic staffing Fejo said county ambulances "have not historically" been staffed at paramedic levels and reported ongoing recruitment efforts: "We are actively recruiting" and said some positions will be posted continuously. She backed exploring community paramedicine and medically integrated health teams but said the county lacks the staffing capacity to implement new programs immediately.

Fejo identified stabilization of the department as her top priority if selected as chief. "Part of stabilizing the department is to support having a support staff match the needs of the response staff," she said, citing an imbalance created by rapid operational growth. She said many fire policies and procedures for fire response were last updated in 2018 and require careful prioritization and staged updates, while EMS protocols have been refreshed more recently.

She described several operational and administrative accomplishments from her two years as deputy chief: modernizing EMS treatment guidelines into a clickable, navigable format with added procedure sections and color-coded drug references; introducing a quality-assurance approach and "just culture" training; helping justify a new EMS division chief position and a quality-assurance lieutenant (both noted as newly authorized or vacant); leading multi-month task-book updates using project charters; and securing higher EMS fund allocations and roughly $250,000 in medical-equipment grants. "We tripled our EMS fund allocation," she said, describing the process of writing a higher request and justifying needed expenditures.

Fejo addressed volunteer staffing and onboarding. She said volunteer ranks are low, that volunteer applications have not been accepted since October while human resources develops a safer onboarding process, and that the county intends to continue supporting volunteer roles once onboarding and training pathways are re-established. "The volunteer program is not going to go away," she said, but emphasized safe integration with career staff.

Fejo confirmed the agency evaluation includes recommendations to consider closing up to two stations to stabilize staffing; she said La Mesa was cited as among the lowest in call volume, but she stressed no final decision had been made and that any consolidation would be evaluated holistically. She also highlighted water-supply constraints as the department's main obstacle to improving ISO fire-protection ratings, noting that much of the county's rating is driven by hydrant and water-availability data.

On interagency work, Fejo described a recent renumbering effort adopted under an auto-aid agreement to reduce radio confusion and improve safety. She urged more regular joint training at the crew level and said operational interoperability remains a priority.

Fejo closed by reiterating a management emphasis on data-driven planning and scheduled training: "What you measure is what you get," she said, encouraging public awareness of performance measures and promising an effort to share clearer performance reporting with the community.

This session was a presentation and public Q&A; no formal decisions or votes were taken during the meeting. Several items Fejo described (the agency evaluation, standards-of-coverage report and strategic plan) are pending consultant deliverables and further county review.