Four Brentwood councilmembers currently serve on the nine-person ECCFPD board, along with three councilmembers from Oakley and two from the unincorporated areas of the 250-square-mile district. Brentwood’s decision is similar to that made by Oakley earlier this month, when that city decided to replace two of its representatives with appointments from its citizenry.
Appointed in 2010, the current ECCFPD board has intended all along to shift to an elected board as soon as possible, Brentwood Councilman Bob Brockman said at Tuesday’s Brentwood Council meting. To do so, however, would run about $300,000 in election costs, money the cash-strapped fire district cannot afford, he said.
The district also cannot afford to lose all of its current members, said Mayor Bob Taylor.
“We don’t want to start over,” he said. “We have some pretty seasoned members on that fire board.”
Councilman Bob Brockman agreed with the need to begin the process, but wanted to wait until after the November elections, since changes that could result from City Council contests might impact the pool of applicants. Winners of the council races might want to serve on the fire board, or at least offer input on who gets appointed. Council members who are voted off city councils might also wish to apply for a fire seat once their responsibilities to their city end.
The changes at the ECCFPD come in the wake of the failure of Measure S fire tax last month. The loss forced ECCFPD to slash its service, closing three of its six stations and laying off 15 firefighters. Taylor wants Brentwood residents to know that the planned departure of City Council members from the fire board did not amount to bailing out of a difficult situation.
“Your council is not walking away,” he said, adding that the council should take the time needed to assure that well-qualified people are appointed.
The council instructed city staff to begin preparing the application process, with the goal of appointing at least two and a maximum of three board members, depending on the applicant pool. The appointments would be for one year, while a staggered-term process similar to City Council seats is worked out to guide future changes on the fire board.
The application deadline for Brentwood will be in mid-November, with the goal of seating the new representatives at the ECCFPD’s January meeting. As only one council meeting is scheduled in November and one in December, however, it could be February before the new Brentwood representatives take their seats at the helm of the ECCFPD.
Here is the pitfall. If the district does become independent then we as the taxpayers will be directly responsible for the 30 million dollar debt that continues to grow. Today that debt is part of the entire county as it is a county dependant district. The next pitfall is that the Cities will have a more difficult time creating their own city fire departments until the ECCFPD (if independent) declares bankruptcy.
Frankly, LAFCO should not allow this district to go independent unless the county of who has created the 30 million dollar debt brings the debt to a zero balance. The district should begin with a zero balance it it is going to go truly independent. The county should also fund the election to turn it over should it want to free itself from the debt it accumulated due to non action by the BOS for the past seven years.
Therefore, be careful of this independent thing and this citizen appointment. This is a two edge sword. The only entity that can afford to bring this district out of financial ruin is the same one that put it there. If it goes bankrupt those firefighters that expect to receive pensions may find themselves negotiating with a bankruptcy court. The firefighters also have much to lose if the district goes independent before the county turns it over with a zero debt. Do your homework. If you do not believe anything if have commented, contact LAFCO to verify it. The City of Brentwood and Oakley should hold at least one city councilperson seat on ECCFPPD until they weigh in on the huge debt east county is about to assume from the BOS lack of managing ECCFPD. I’m just sayin…
The fireboard should be elected and the council members should not have control over the process.
When the district was formed in 2002 it was to be governed temporarily by CCC-BOS. LAFCO mandated that CCC-BOS be required to go to the voters before December 2004 to determine the ongoing board representation. Why hasn’t that happened yet?
The CCC-BOS refused (without comment) to abide by the formation requirement for governance and did NOTHING AT ALL until 2009 when it decided to change the composition of the fireboard to an appointed board. They had no right to violate the formation requirement of an election to start with, and even less right to circumvent the spirit of the requirement seven years later.
Everyone agrees that the expense of electing members is more than the district can afford at this time. However, this should not be the district’s expense. The CCC-BOS mismanaged -in violation of LAFCO’s requirements- the entire board composition issue; all the while patting themselves on the back for bring about local control. Thanks for ignoring our right to elect real leaders while running OUR district into the ground for all those years.
One of the results of the mismanagement described above is that LAFCO continues to find the district to be “dependent” of the CCC-BOS. So while the BOS may want to wash their hands of the mess, they are still in it with us.
The County should be required to fund the district’s election based on their failure to abide by LAFCO requirements of formation. The fault rests solely with the CCC-BOS and so should the cost of this election.
Keep in mind that the county would bear the costs of the election IF the district collected enough signatures on petitions. The CCC-BOS should pass a resolution to act in accordance with a successful petition drive without requiring the district actually undergo the expense of collecting the signatures. The Supervisors are ABLE to do that if they wish.