A large group of volunteers, Santee firefighters, friends and family successfully submitted more than 6,000 signatures for the Protect Santee Initiative, now officially qualifying for the November ballot as Measure S.
Santee is a growing community facing rising demands for fire safety services. With only 17 on-call firefighters and 2 outdated fire stations, response times have extended beyond the crucial 4-minute National Fire Safety Response Standard.
Friends of the Santee Firefighters Association are advocating for a half-cent sales tax for 15 years to fund two new fire stations, renovate an existing dilapidated station, and augment firefighter personnel. This tax is the only solution that does burden our citizens with ongoing income or property tax hikes, say supporters.
“But even a small and temporary tax dedicated to public safety will be difficult to pass in an election year like this,” said Tony Romero, Protect Santee volunteer captain in a statement. “We need the people of Santee to understand the gravity of the situation.”
As the International Association of Firefighters warned in 2021, the people of Santee face an increasingly high safety risk due to a lack of resources for emergency services. Beyond the risks to safety, insurance companies are likely to increase rates or even refuse coverage altogether like they have done elsewhere in California. Home values could be compromised. And people who rely more on emergency services, like the elderly, may start looking for other places to live.
“Over the next 20 years, our fire department will be tasked with responding to up to 30,000 additional incidents per year,” said Santee Fire Captain Patrick Henry. “We’re already substantially under-resourced and, although the population of Santee is likely to grow another 50 percent, there are no additional resources for our fire department to grow along with it.”
“The national standard for emergency response time is 4 minutes. With the resources we have, our response times are nearly double in many parts of Santee. Lives are literally at stake. The Protect Santee initiative will help us protect all of Santee.”
