Home Brentwood Barr, Rarey to Serve on Brentwood Fire and Medical Services Ad-Hoc Committee

Barr, Rarey to Serve on Brentwood Fire and Medical Services Ad-Hoc Committee

by ECT

During Tuesday nights Brentwood City Council meeting, Brentwood Vice Mayor Steve Barr and Councilwoman Karen Rarey were selected to serve on a Fire and Medical Services Ad-Hoc Committee.

The move came after Brentwood Mayor Bob Taylor requested the item be placed on the agenda in early 2017 after the failed User Utility Tax (UUT) and lack of fire services. His concern is Brentwood should be looking at all options since they have 1-fire station within city limits for 60,000 people with additional engines coming from the City of Oakley and the Town of Discovery Bay and Knightsen.

With the failure of all the various revenue measures proposed, the levels of service for fire and medical services in the District, and specifically in the City of Brentwood, continue to be inadequate. The formation of the Fire and Medical Services Ad Hoc committee would allow the City Council to discuss and consider the level of service issues and to evaluate possible options, both short and long term, for the City of Brentwood.

The ad-hoc committee will be tasked with answering several questions:

  1. what would it cost and process to fund own fire department?
  2. What resources does Brentwood have available for fire & medical resources?
  3. Options to improve fire and medical services?
  4. Is the tax reallocation plan by ECV feasible and if so how would it work?

During public comments, a woman offered to volunteer her services to serve on the committee.

During council discussions, Councilwoman Claudette Staton asked if citizens could serve on the ad-hoc committee. Mayor Bob Taylor stated he could have 10 residents volunteer tomorrow.

City Manager Gus Vina stated that would be up to the two members of the ad-hoc committee in how they set up the committee and the direction they set.

Taylor noted his main goal was complete transparency through the process because this was an issue that impact the entire community, as well as East Contra Costa County.

“I want to leave no stones unturned, the scope is anything that comes up from ambulance to fire services to opening a station,” said Taylor. “We must have total transparency to the public.”

Barr highlighted fire services have been on all of their minds and says this is Brentwood next step because the fire district is not getting additional revenue.

“We need to look at how we can explore our options that maybe we didn’t in the past. Some our options are by the public that we need to investigate and see if it’s viable,” said Barr. “We all know it’s a revenue issue and there is no waste. We need to figure this out.”

Calling it a “county problem”, Staton said its clear Brentwood does not want to be taxed anymore for fire service.

“We need to resolve the lack of fire and medical out here. I keep a close eye on what is going on here, so many times we see three or four engines from Antioch to service our fire out here. The medical is constant and it is something we need to do and look into our own station or contracting for service at fire house or downtown or for a fire house on Shady Willow or contracting out for those. We need to look into it,” explained Staton.

Barr highlighted he would go into this with an open mind but highlighted there is no need for public input at this time.

“I would want public input but quite honestly its nuts and bolts and see what revenues and look at our budget and see where they can find money,” explained Barr.

Barr suggested they pass on placing members of the public on the two-person ad-hoc committee and solicit public input in the future once the councilmembers dig through the budget and come up with options for the public to weigh in on.

“I don’t know what an ad-hoc brings back but bring back some possible solutions for funding. That is where we have to start. We are going to have to make hard choices,” said Barr.

Both Rarey and Barr volunteered to serve on the ad-hoc committee.

Barr was told by city legal that although there is no conflict of interest that Barr serve on the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District, it would give an appearance of a conflict.

At that point, Barr stated he would resign from the fire board to serve on the ad-hoc committee.

The council voted 5-0 to approve Barr and Rarey to serve on the ad-hoc committee.

No timeline was given as to how long the committee will meet or when meetings will begin.

 

 

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1 comment

Realtor Tom Jan 25, 2017 - 7:42 am

Brentwood is letting a fool lead them in barr who is failed businessman, failed mayor run, failed supervisor run, failed 3x for revenue on eccfpd. Now he doesn’t want public input on a future Brentwood fire department until he and rarey come up with a solution with staff? Gee, I wonder why. That plan will be a failure to. there is a conflict apparently so he resigns from eccfpd after proclaiming for months during campaign mode he cared about the county as a whole. his colors have now shown.

Brentwood makes little sense after bob taylor wants full transparency but they push the public out in the ad hoc process. This council has become anything but working for the public.

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