The East Contra Costa Fire Protection District board this week urged residents to weigh in on a controversial Grand Jury report calling far East County fire service “adequate” and recommending further study and public discussion before a new tax is sought.
The call for public reaction came as the fire board discussed its responses to the report, which recommends that the district also “consider other available operating structure alternatives before deciding on a ballot measure.”
“The report was meant to drive conversation amongst the residents to ask more questions, and come away with a decision they can live with and respect,” said Lloyd Bell, foreman of the 2011-12 Contra Costa Grand Jury that issued the Dec. 22 report. The report also recommends considering a possible contract with the state’s Calfire to provide services, negotiating a reduction in firefighter benefits as a cost-cutting measure, and presenting to the public alternative service models and associated costs. It also suggests the district develop a “viable service alternative” in the event a new tax measure fails and revenues remain unchanged.
On Monday, fuming fire board members, supported by comments from the public, said each of those points had been addressed in public meetings since the board was seated in 2010, or was currently being done. President Kevin Romick said the issues had also been addressed by previous reviews of ECCFPD operations, including a 2006 report by outside consulting firm Citigate, a 2009 Municipal Service Review conducted by Contra Costa County, and a 2008 Grand Jury report triggered by the loss of three homes in Bethel Island. Each of those reviews concluded the district was underfunded and required a tax increase to add manpower and improve service.
Bell said the Grand Jury had been observing the district in its monthly board meetings since July of 2011 and had conducted interviews of a number of board members. Since the earlier reports had not been publically discussed in detail during its six-month investigation, the Grand Jury did not consider those findings, he said.
The district currently operates with a $2.4 million annual deficit. Cash reserves used to make up the difference will run out in about six months, and the district is considering placing a $197-per-parcel property tax on the June ballot.
Although the final form of the ballot measure is still being finalized, the intention is to use the additional revenue to increase staffing to the industry-standard three firefighters per station, place paramedics on each engine and reopen at least one of the two stations shuttered last year to save money. The revenue would also provide funds needed to replace equipment and engines, and make improvements to provide adequate living quarters for firefighters (crew members in Bethel Island’s condemned Station 95 currently sleep in FEMA trailers).
Aside from the Grand Jury’s first finding – that without additional revenue the district can’t be sustained even as is – board members found little to agree with.
“We’re asked to agree, somewhat agree, or disagree, right?” Director Erick Stonebarger asked as the required responses to the report were being discussed Monday. “Do we have the ability to respond with an ‘absolutely ridiculous’?”
Vince Wells, president of firefighters union Local 1230, said he agreed with another of the report’s points: that a detailed service model based only on current revenue be developed. The district has determined that continuing to operate on money it now receives would result in the closure of three more of its six stations and the layoff of half its 48 firefighters, but Wells believes the public should be better informed about just what that means.
“It could mean we no longer respond for things like odor investigations or spilled gasoline,” he said. Noting that five engines and 15 firefighters are usually dispatched to structure fires, efforts to extinguish such blazes could be seriously impaired waiting for units from other districts to arrive.
“We’ll be putting out fires from the outside (of burning buildings). Those buildings will be gone,” he said. Such conditions, he added, would also put more strain on nearby districts that augment coverage through the existing automatic aid system, which could see modifications if a tax fails and ECCFPD’s needs increase due to more station closures.
ECCFPD Chief Hugh Henderson said a detailed plan for operating with only existing revenue was already in the works, and would be presented as part of the district’s ongoing series of town hall meetings being held throughout the district. The next town hall meeting takes place at Oakley City Hall next Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 6:30 p.m., followed by a meeting in Bethel Island’s Scout Hall on Jan. 19, also at 6:30 p.m.
Also on Monday, the board responded to concerns heard at earlier town hall meetings about the proposed tax’s maximum 5-percent annual increase meant to offset inflation and mounting, unfunded retirement liabilities. It directed staff to recalculate projections based on limiting any future increases to the cost-of-living index or 3 percent, whichever is lower. A report on how that would impact the district budget over the next 10 years will be brought back to the board for consideration at its February meeting.
The board will also finalize its response to the Grand Jury at February’s meeting, and has invited public comment to be submitted so it can be included. “Send us an e-mail, write a letter to the editor, post on the Internet,” Romick said. “We’ll attach the responses and send them in with ours.”
E-mails may be sent to phubbard@eccfpd.org. The full Grand Jury report can be found on the Grand Jury’s website, www.
cc-courts.org/index.cfm?nodeid=38.
NOTE…please do not get upset when you read this if you are BOS apologist or if you are solidly locked into the status quo. These are simply my observations, opinions and suggestions. If you want to say nasty things about me I guess you can do so but it would be a more productive exchange if mean spirited comments are not directed toward private citizens. If you desire to reply to my opinions, please, before doing so make sure you have carefully read my entire treatise (maybe more than once) and keep everything in proper context.
Although I do not necessarily agree with every word the GJ wrote I do believe the report is thought provoking and in that regard has done a service to the community. The following comments and opinions I have largely expressed before but in the context of challenging all involved to refocus and dig deeper I will make them again.
1, The CC BOS needs to be accountable in this whole situation. The BOS during this long and well established time of FD trouble should not have handed the ECCFPD off like they did to an unelected – conflicted board. The BOS who is also responsible for Con Fire and County EMS should have had the guts to continue with this FD and seek a functional resolution in conjunction with their two other related fire/EMS responsibilities. This was the worst possible time to toss the hot political potato. This was a chicken way out looking more to duck the issue/preserve votes in the next election cycle rather than to do the best possible job for the entire county.
The BOS members were elected to serve every person in the county…Oakley city council members were elected to only serve Oakley. Now we have Oakley elected officials making decisions, on a long-term basis, outside of their constituency. In my opinion the BOS made a big mistake in going this route. They now need to correct the mistake before it leads to dire consequences.
2, The term ‘new normal’ has, in society, quickly become overused probably because it is a very good term that fits many current situations. And I think it truly fits what we have going on in this county regarding property values, tax revenue and what is available to pay for government services.
Forget about housing bubble prices/valuations/tax flow. A bubble by definition is an anomaly that once gone is gone. Sure we might some day see appreciation but that is far different than thinking in terms of the return of outrageous bubble prices/values/tax flow.
3, Going forward everything public sector related should be done on a fiscally sustainable basis, not on a wishful thinking (historic) basis and not related to the hope for escalating revenue derived through new or massive taxation or some miracle. That goes for pensions, wages, staffing and capital spending….everything must have a sustainable formula (within the new normal reality).
Our present FD/EMS issues need to be solved only with a ‘new normal’ outlook. Simply tossing in a big tax hike does not accomplish that objective. How many new taxes and tax hikes can the typical family in CCC sustain? In CA we know more taxes are coming and we know the further up the ladder they come from the harder it is to do anything about them.
4, Those who are locked into the status quo always make compensation comparisons pointing out ECCFPD has a lesser pay scale than some other districts. But are ECCFPD employees ‘underpaid’, and if you believe in some comparative standard is that standard any longer relevant? If you consider points 2 & 3 above I think it is just as logical to say (in a new normal way of thinking) those FD’s you compare against are over paid.
Continually interjecting that this FD’s comp is some huge percent deficient is going to have to stop if there is any hope of developing a realistic & sustainable way forward. This is a tough issue but one that must be understood to really come up with a permanent solution that fits the times we are living in.
One key aspect of how the domestic auto industry was saved was the acceptance that not every union employee can expect historic wages/benefits. I think this reality needs to be strongly considered in this county’s current predicament. This tough point must be factored into every public sector scenario where there has been a big revenue shift and where there has been a pattern of wage and benefit escalation in sync with anomalies like the housing bubble.
5, Ask yourself… if the best and brightest fire/EMS service planners on earth came to this county would they devise anything that looks remotely like what exists? And would they condone two related (one being dependent) fire boards seeking to separately put temporary band aids on redundant/struggling entities, especially when you consider the ECCFPD will still have big deficiencies even with the new tax? Of course not. So why keep beating a dead horse(s)? What better time will there ever be to tackle the tough job of creating a unified fire service/EMS situation for this county that reflects financial reality and is sustainable going forward?
What should happen (and should have happened long ago) is for the BOS to construct a brand new Fire – EMS District comprised of select elements of the existing three groups. To do this successfully the wage/benefit program would need to be tiered (like they did in Detroit). There would only be so many slots in the top pay range. Reality says most/all ECCFPD employees would not be in that top range on day one but over time, as those slots open up employees in the lower tiers would be eligible to move up. All new employees would of course start in the lower tier that probably would reflect something like the current ECCFPD comp plan. Clearly a POC program would have to exist to selectively supplement full time staff and to function as a feeder.
As everyone knows most FD calls are medical so this concept of a new all encompassing FD puts all EMS under the same direct management/accountability umbrella and at the same time fully leverages management, support staff, equipment, special equipment (like aerial ladder trucks), POC and training. Lets make it an objective to virtually eliminate the in-house county EMS admin staff and overhead. To the extent possible lets put all that redundancy savings into direct (on the street) staffing that will save lives and improve public safety.
I am under no delusion that crating a new three-into-one FD/EMS entity would be easy but easy is for simple problems and this is not a simple problem.
6. Something to keep in mind when looking at station locations, closures and possible re-opening of stations. The one remaining station in DB sits right on the very western edge of DB, just feet from Brentwood address. That station is closer to many homes that have a Brentwood address (and are in a direct line of sight with the station) by 10 to 15 minuets than it is to the majority of the homes in the original sections of DB. My point is, in the discussions that I heard and read regarding the various communities that do and do not pay their fair share into this FD, the true accuracy of the revenue base for each station was never calculated by the Brentwood/Oakley dominated appointed board because it would have been counter productive to their objective of preserving service at the city fire stations. This manipulation of numbers is one more reason the BOS made a big mistake appointing this board with no mandate to go to LAFCO and to hold the proper sequence of direct elections for directors.
7. Regarding tax rates, I think accuracy and semantics are important. Some tax proponents want you to think that within the ECCFPD coverage area we pay less tax. Yes, less of our basic property tax dollar is directed toward fire but it is not as if we are keeping the difference in our pockets. We still pay the full basic rate, it is just that less of our tax dollar goes to fire and more of our tax dollar goes to other government uses.
Speaking of taxes we already pay why not call for the county to provide a full accounting of Measure H funds since the day of inception (Measure H is a supplemental EMS tax we all pay)? Why not ask the BOS to explicitly tell ECCFPD residents where every dollar they paid in on this supplemental tax went? Why has our fireboard not called for an explicit written audit/accounting? Better question…why did members of our fireboard not even know of this tax until a resident brought it to their attention?
Summary…
At this point in time I will not support any new taxation that simply pumps money into a failed status quo entity(s). I do not believe the ECCFPD should continue to exist as we know it. My strong desire is to see a new fully leveraged fire–EMS district emerge that is designed to meet the realities we now live with. A new and more stable fire-EMS entity would be better for the employees and better for the community. Any new financing a new entity would need could be compared to the financing need that is presently being considered. But no doubt due to leveraging and consolidation a new and revised district designed for the ‘new normal’ would need less new financing than the existing proposed scenarios.
But if the BOS does not have what it takes to tackle this challenge then I recommend a true effort to find a Cal Fire based solution for East County. And yes, that would include probably a different shift structure and other changes that some employees or union bosses might not want. To be clear… seeking a Cal Fire solution would entail a lot more than this fire board saying “hey how a bout a quote”. It would entail a real and true collaborative back and forth effort involving negotiations and strategic thinking …and to be sure it would involve change. But in the end it would reduce overhead, improve training opportunities and put more of our scarce tax dollars allocated to fire on the street where they belong.
To be clear if it came to seeking a Cal Fire solution it would not be a state funded bail out. It would be a solution that uses our existing tax dollars set for fire/EMS to leverage a bigger organization. Within this kind of possible solution there may indeed be some need for additional financing and if that is the case then it could be compared to the financing need that is presently being considered.
Note…prior to having a Monday night at 6:00 reoccurring commitment, I attended (and spoke out at) a good many ECCFPD meetings. I firmly believe not making the existing & ongoing audio recordings of these meetings available to the public via the district website is an attempt to keep the public uniformed. There would be virtually no cost to post these recordings. Why not post the audio recordings and let everyone who has work and family commitments listen? And for the record I never once saw a BOS member at any ECCFPD meeting I attended…If during that first crucial year of this board I found the time and desire to attend why couldn’t glover or piepho?
Jeff barber