Private Equipment has been used in support of fire suppression efforts since the 1950s.  Late in the 1980s CAL FIRE and Region 5 United States Forest Service (USFS) used contract agreements called “Tripartite” for hiring private vendors. CAL FIRE and USFS shared vendor documents with each other and local cooperating agencies along with inspection and rate structure. 

After the turn of the century (2006), the USFS began using “Best Value Bid System” which ended the use of “Tripartite” agreements and terminated cooperation between agencies. After that CAL FIRE agreements were hand written on an OF-294 on the computer or using multiple carbon copies. They were then needed to be entered into a Emergency Response Directory (ERD). 

In the late 1990’s Fire Captain Jake Goetz recognized the need for a tracking system fire hired equipment. He developed a computerized program “Goetz ERD” was used by Emergency Command Centers (ECC) to help order and record vendor contact.  The system was not widely accepted and its use was inconsistent statewide. The “Goetz ERD” included a spreadsheet that had a planned need statewide list.  A copy of this was kept by North and South Region Headquarters. But when Captain Goetz retired his program was not supported and its use ended.

2001 California Govern Davis introduced executive order D-37_01 and D-43-10 mandating hiring goals for Certified Small Business (CSB) and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprises (DVBE).  This includes all state agencies.  The executive orders gave the Small Business and Disabled Veterans Business communities leverage at the congressional and legislative level of state government. Because the Department wasn’t following mandated policies, CAL FIRE was forced to defend itself and the decisions that were made mostly during resource ordering process. Because of lengthy legislative hearings, the budget process was interrupted and delayed funding for all CAL FIRE programs by the state legislature.  These actions justified the need for a resource tracking system that records details in the ordering process.

Every year the Hired Equipment program and the ECC ordering processes are subjected to numerous Public Records Act (PRA) requests. Most of the requests are generated from within the vendor community. There are “Watchdog” groups that police CAL FIRE’s adherence to our own policies.  They also police business practices within the vendor community to discourage abuse and fraud.