Coming in HOT! We've just signed with the Central Fire District of Santa Cruz County - our first special district partner. This new collaboration grew out of an energizing week at CALPELRA and a whirlwind, 600-mile day that brought our team onsite with both the outgoing and incoming Fire Chiefs to map the work ahead.

This partnership holds a special place with Holly because cofounder Brendan started his career in Baltimore City government riding around in ambulances. His time alongside FIRE and EMS showed him first hand how they are the catch-all safety net, bringing urgency, skill, and empathy to every call. (One of his favorite memories: a deputy chief pulled him aside with a stern look and asked, "What is it in water that puts out fire?" Brendan started stammering about heat conductivity before the chief grinned—"No, it's the fire boat.") That mission alignment makes our collaboration with Central Fire especially meaningful.

Central Fire serves approximately 90,000 residents across 55 square miles from seven fire stations, responding to over 8,000 annual calls for fire, EMS, and rescue. The District operates at the wildland–urban interface and along a dynamic coastline, balancing seasonal population surges, severe weather, and complex mutual-aid coordination.

Holly will help the team:

• Streamline job classification work following their 2019 consolidation of two fire agencies - a merger that nearly doubled their workforce overnight and left them untangling mismatched titles and pay structures years later
• Support upcoming negotiations with MOU comparison and salary benchmarking that used to take weeks of manual research
• Build HR capacity for a lean team managing 100+ employees across complex public safety classifications

In fact, during an early demo, the team uploaded a neighboring district's MOU and Holly surfaced a buried clause tying COLAs to a 4% revenue threshold—a detail the neighbor district didn't even know was in their own contract. That's the kind of discovery that changes negotiations.

We're excited to work alongside Central Fire and help power the people and processes that keep Santa Cruz County safe.