Nine new firefighter positions approved for the Santa Maria Fire Department will allow the agency to fully staff its sixth station, but the City Council paused in adding an in-house economic development manager. 

During the discussion on several changes Tuesday night, the council also hesitated to approve adding a number of positions in other departments that had been funded with American Rescue Plan Act money, with members queasy about keeping slots after ARPA money runs out. 

Amid discussions on delaying approval of some items, Councilman Carlos Escobedo said the new firefighters were among positions he wanted to move forward on “because I think those are real crucially important.”

The nine new firefighting slots would allow the agency to fully staff the Station 6 at the Santa Maria Public Airport. In recent years, Station 6 had minimal staff to operate the Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle equipped with foam. The vehicle must remain on standby for some larger aircraft arriving and taking off from the airport. 

That would add $1.4 million annually to the agency’s budget starting July 1 and $323,900 to the current fiscal year since the receipts would start their academy in April. 

Boosting equipment and personnel on the southwest side of the city would improve response times to emergency calls, alleviate the need for firefighters at Station 4 to leave their response area, and take a step toward improving the city’s rating for insurance which could help cut costs for residents and business, staff said. 

While the new firefighter slots received approval, others encountered issues, including a proposal to create an economic development manager position on city staff. 

In recent years, the city has contracted with the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce to provide economic development services. 

The switch would increase the city’s costs. While now paying $222,500 for the chamber to handle the duties, a full-time city employee would cost $240,000. 

Mayor Alice Patino suggested delaying a decision on whether to create the new position. 

“I guess I’m not really sure what our expectations are going to be, what the job is going to be like, and I would be very comfortable pulling that off of this (agenda) for this evening,” Patino said. 

“I’m not opposed to it. I just want more information,” Patino said when questioned by Councilman Mike Cordero.

“I personally can agree with that, wanting more information and it gives us and others a better view of where we’re going,” Cordero said.

The slot would be a new position for the city with a focus on downtown redevelopment, an airport business park proposal, aerospace firms and more, Posada said. 

“It’s a critical position,” Posada said, adding that it would be “a different way of looking at economic development.”

Patino said she didn’t want to wait until June to approve the position, suggesting that the item return to the council in March. 

Escobedo agreed he wanted more information on how the position would fit within city staffing.

Chamber representatives did not comment on the proposed change.

Posada said he anticipated that chamber and city officials would craft a plan for moving forward on economic development projects.

Another proposal to add several new positions also raised concerns. The ARPA funds paid for two years of salaries and benefits for three full-time-equivalent confidential technician positions and two business program leader slots for Human Resources and the City Manager’s Office. 

Councilwoman Maribel Aguilera-Hernandez said she had a difficult time adding the ARPA-funded slots, which added up to $689,700 for the next two years.

“The fact that we now want the city to take on that big responsibility … I’m having heartburn over that because we saw that money come in and it was supposed to be temporary,” she said. 

The positions previously had been required in past budgets but not approved until the ARPA funding arrived.

“What we’ve learned over time has been that those positions provide a critical function in the department that they’re in, and if there’s an opportunity to bring those positions in house, that’s what we’re looking at,” Posada said, adding that staff could bring the item back during budget deliberations later this year. “These were positions that we needed before but we weren’t able to fund them in the budget so ARPA helped fill that gap. Now we’re back saying we still need those positions.”

Other new positions approved include a deputy building inspector, a senior park services officer, three new positions for the Utilities Department and a deputy city attorney.