Officials revived the program\u00a0after this news outlet revealed<\/a>\u00a0officials knew about firefighter narcotics thefts and tampering for longer than was publicly let on \u2014 and never told the public about internal reports of patients receiving drugs from damaged paramedic vials.<\/p>\n \u201cJust one year after the Palisades and Eden fires (in Southern California) \u2014 when elected officials and the city manager stood in our fire stations and thanked firefighters for holding the line \u2014 this same administration has chosen to eliminate a critical, lifesaving resource that firefighters have repeatedly said we need,\u201d Jerry May, president of the city firefighters union, told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.<\/p>\n Maguire\u2019s office \u2014 which responded to questions from this news outlet on behalf of Chief Sapien \u2014 said she\u2019ll ask councilmembers to sign off on the deactivation of Med 30 during the city\u2019s mid-year budget review in February. But the decision has already taken effect without approval from councilmembers.<\/p>\n \u2018Not financially sustainable\u2019<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Maguire called the firefighter oversight program fiscally unsustainable.<\/p>\n \u201cThe city manager has taken necessary steps to address anticipated revenue shortfalls in FY 2025\u20132026, including recommending the suspension of the Med 30 program,\u201d spokesperson Carolina Camarena told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cMed 30 was authorized on a one-time basis and is not financially sustainable given current fiscal constraints.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s the same argument Sapien made when he originally\u00a0requested the dissolution of Med 30<\/a>\u00a0in 2023. Councilmembers approved that request, which didn\u2019t take effect until 2024. But in late 2023, firefighters began raising alarms about narcotics discrepancies at fire stations \u2014 and reported giving patients morphine from tampered vials.<\/p>\n \u201cJust one year after the Palisades and Eden fires (in Southern California) \u2026 this same administration has chosen to eliminate a critical, lifesaving resource that firefighters have repeatedly said we need.\u201d<\/p>\n Jerry May, firefighters union president<\/p>\n The public didn\u2019t learn about the fire department\u2019s narcotics crisis until more than a year later, when officials last April announced the arrest of a fire captain suspected of stealing paramedic narcotics from potentially\u00a017 fire stations. But the city at the time made no public mention of firefighters\u2019 2023 reports about patient exposure,\u00a0until San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight obtained and published them<\/a>\u00a0last May.<\/p>\n Following publication of the emails, Santa Clara County\u2019s emergency medical services chief\u00a0blasted Sapien<\/a>\u00a0for sitting on those warnings and not making the county aware of them when they were received.<\/p>\n Sapien has previously argued eliminating Med 30 didn\u2019t result in decreased oversight. He said controlled substance inventory duties moved to the emergency medical services continuous quality improvement fire captain, which is the same fire captain formerly assigned to Med 30 and whose expertise provides consistency and continuity in this area.<\/p>\n Union says safety at risk<\/p>\n May questions the city\u2019s argument about Med 30\u2019s sustainability. He said the fire department has begun implementing its controversial\u00a0first responder fee,<\/a>\u00a0which allows the city to bill patients $427 for emergency medical care as of Jan. 1. May also notes the fire department has begun billing for ambulance transports for the first time. He said these new charges \u2014 plus a wave of expected retirements this month \u2014 open up substantial cost savings to cover the Med 30 program.<\/p>\n \u201cCutting Med 30 now, especially ahead of major global events like the\u00a0Super Bowl and FIFA<\/a>, puts residents, visitors and firefighters at risk,\u201d May told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768190788_795_LNM-20250616-SJSPOTLIGHTLOGO-01.jpg\")
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