Council continues hearing on volunteer fire‑department ordinance to clarify response definitions

At a public hearing May 5, staff presented Ordinance 2026‑07, a proposed addition to Lemoore City’s municipal code that would (1) acknowledge the city’s memorandum of understanding with the volunteer fire department and (2) explicitly allow the volunteer department discretion to decline or defer responses to priority‑three and lower calls.

The ordinance text presented would keep volunteer fire personnel expected to respond to priority‑one and priority‑two incidents but allow a discretionary response standard for less urgent calls “due to the need for efficacy and responsible use of resources,” according to the municipal staff presentation.

Council and staff discussion centered on how ‘priority 1/2/3’ would be defined and how dispatch would apply the categories in practice. The police and fire chiefs and several council members said they rely on operational definitions (code‑one/code‑two/code‑three) in department policy and dispatch protocols, and several asked that those definitions be referenced explicitly rather than embedded in code text that is hard to change. One council member said the language “should be documented somewhere,” and staff agreed the definitions could live in city policy or departmental procedures and be referenced from the municipal code.

Because the record lacked a clear, referenced definition of priority categories, council voted to continue the public hearing to the May 19 meeting to allow staff and the volunteer fire department to produce a documented list of call categories and dispatch guidance for council review.

What happened procedurally: council moved and passed a motion to continue the hearing to May 19, 2026; no ordinance reading or adoption occurred on May 5.

Next steps: staff will coordinate with police and fire to assemble the referenced definitions or policy document and return to council at the continued public hearing.