Home Antioch Board of Supervisors Blast Antioch Leadership on Failing to Address Fire Services

Board of Supervisors Blast Antioch Leadership on Failing to Address Fire Services

by ECT

During the February 12 Conta Costa County Fire Protection District Board meeting, Chief Carman provided his report which discussed resources being used by both the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District and the City of Antioch.

The District provides aid to East Contra Costa Fire which Chief Carman called untenable which then turned into a discussion on the City of Antioch and the impact they have on Contra Costa County Fire.

The discussion resulted in the Board requesting an agenda item to come back to discuss the City of Antioch and fire service.

Here is the recap:

During the meeting (see below), Carman said that the Districts administrative staff have reviewed the numbers for 2018 with ECCFPD.

“As I’ve told you a multitude of times over the last several years, we are providing an inurement amount of aid to the East Contra Costa fire. It is just a result of them being so grossly understaffed for the size of their jurisdiction and the number of calls they have and they really have a difficult time getting aid from any other organization except Contra Costa Fire and unfortunately the Battalion they get aid from Battalion 8 in East County, is under resourced as well and very busy,” stated Carman. “All those things add up to an untenable situation.”

Carman further highlighted that over the past few years, they have played around with the mutual aid and auto aid agreement and tried to come up with a solution that is reciprocal.

“So far, we have been unable to do that,” said Carman. “This year I would say those numbers are worse than I thought they were going to be and worse than what we have seen over the years.”

Carman further said two things stood out.

The first was that they are spending 4-to-5 hours on a task and only receiving 1-hour of time which he called unsustainable.  The second, the aid agreement that 66% of the units ECCFPD requests (1100 units over a year) only 370 units actually arrive on scene, the others are cancelled while in response.

Carman said that he wanted to bring it to the Boards attention and they will be making recommendations to Chief Brian Helmick and his staff later this month.

“Its an ongoing issue for us and certainly an ongoing issue for them,” said Carman.

Carman then highlighted they are beginning to get feedback from the City of Antioch and other cities as they begin to grow.

“As we begin to ask them for additional revenue as they develop because we know ahead of time the property tax revenue in their development areas isn’t near the 14% we rely on to survive, its much lower in the 9% range, they are pushing back saying they don’t want to pay additional revenue if our resources are being used in another fire district,” said Carman. “So it is beginning to create some issues for us.”

Supervisor Federal Glover asked for clarification.

“So Antioch is saying because we are providing so much aid to East County that they don’t want to participate anymore. Is anyone else joining in on the model that is set in Pittsburg with new development,” asked Glover.

Carman replied “no” saying they were trying to follow the same model that was implemented in Pittsburg.

“We think it’s a responsible way to develop and add revenue,” said Carman who further explained that one of the issues facing Antioch is because they have a lower property tax per parcel, they would have to pay a higher tax than Pittsburg based on the delta.

Glover then asked about P-6 zones, if there was anything in fire that could create zones.

Carman explained they didn’t have any right now but they could create fire service zones.

Glover then replied that was something they need to take a look at and do a study.

“I would be interested in looking at the feasibility of that for Contra Costa,” said Carman.

Supervisor Karen Mitchoff also asked for clarification saying Antioch wanted to add “x houses” and Contra Costa Fire wants them to pay more so we could add a station.

Supervisor Diane Burgis explained that when the permits were in process for development, fire services was not considered and now it has progressed to a point where the developers are not required and has not been any political will to do anything about it.

Chief Carman clarified saying that a lot of that approval for that development was passed through an initiative that the city council voted on and approved that development without fires involvement regardless of the fact we told them we needed additional revenue to serve that development.

Mitchoff stated that was what she was trying to get to that regardless of East County Fire, they still need a fire station to serve new residents.

“That area now requires a new station. Forget East County Fire, it needs a station… if they never went anywhere else they need a station,” said Mitchoff. “If Antioch is listening, why I’ve been so frustrated that they keep saying well why should we have people pay for a fire station where they are going to go to East County more than servicing us. That just isn’t true.”

Carman confirmed saying although they are sending an enormous mount of services to East County, this development geographically needs additional station because of the travel time and distance is just to far.

“If Antioch wants to grow that much and they would require a fire station whether we had mutual auto aid to another district or not, I find their argument, to me, it’s rather spurious, it doesn’t hold water,” said Mitchoff.

Burgis further highlighted how East Contra Costa Fire went before LAFCO last year who was very complimentary of the changes they have made over the past few years such as moving from an appointed 9-member Board to a 5-member elected Board, they have a new fire chief, working on a strategic plan showcasing how new development would fund future stations.

Mitchoff stated she felt for Burgis because she represents both areas

“By not building a fire station in an area that our fire people think needs to, its drawing resources from the rest of us. It is not fair and Antioch is getting an unfair advantage because we will respond to their fires but they wont take care of themselves,” said Mitchoff. “East County is doing their part with the fire station, but I am focusing my ire on the City of Antioch because they are not willing to step up but want East County to come help them and the rest of Contra Costa Fire to help them and that is just not right.”

Supervisor John Gioia requested they hold a separate meeting that is on an agenda about what they could do to encourage the City of Antioch to attach a fee on new development that pays a tax similar to P-6 zone.

Burgis replied that the developers are watching this and aware of the issue and working on it.

Gioia replied that it will only get done by an act of the City Council and as a Board for Contra Costa County they should get involved to get the City of Antioch to impose this fee rather than rely on the developers to make that decision or end Auto Aid.

At that point, Burgis and Mitchoff stopped Gioia saying they couldn’t end auto-aid.

Gioia stopped the conversation and will hold this conversation under a future agenda item since this was going into a discussion on the fire chiefs report.

“That will allow for a more robust discussion,” said Gioia.

Glover added “I want this brought back, we have a public safety issue here and if our response time are thrown way off in being able to get to people, we have an issue. This should have been done before this discussion and some agreement should have been agreement prior to any development agreement.”

Burgis added.

“Besides the East County fire situation, Antioch itself uses more resources as a city area compared to the rest of Contra Costa Fire and they have a lower apportionment. So they are getting less with smaller property tax values and using more resources,” said Burgs. “So that area is pressured plus with the East Contra Costa Fire.”

Mitchoff responded.

“That speaks to the leadership in Antioch and I know you (Chief Carman) have been working with Antioch, but is it time to bring in our County Administrator to sit down with their city manager and have a real heart to heart talk on resolving this issue,” said Mitchoff. “No offense to you as the fire department, but its not going anywhere. This has been going on for 4-to-5-to-6 months and we are not going anywhere, so I am just wondering if you talked to Mr. Twa and perhaps its time to bring David Twa in to address what Supervisor Burgis is saying. We understand you don’t have the finances like the rest of the area does, however, you are using more of our resources and you guys are going to have to step up to the plate a little bit.”

At a future meeting, the Board will hold an agenda item on the Antioch fire situation stated Supervisor Gioia.

For the full agenda of the Board of Supervisors: click here.

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7 comments

Bill Feb 20, 2019 - 7:26 am

I guess Ron Bernal earned his 10% raise the city council just gave him, nice job never reporting that ECT. Antioch is a failure under Bernal and 2020 cannot come soon enough for these incompetent city council members. But hey lets throw $500k at marketing lipstick on a pig of how antioch is the land of oppertunity.

Don Wagner Feb 20, 2019 - 8:12 am

We should take advice on fire safety from Lord Trump and simply “rake the leaves”. That prevents fires. Fire science is fake news.

Rivertown Rat Feb 20, 2019 - 8:41 am

Antioch has officially been put on notice of how incompetent they are. Mr. Wright has quickly become Mayor Wrong. This guy is full of crap and is nothing more than a used car sales man. Anyone watch the news last night? A bank lost a customer because of the homeless? More like business keeps shuttering because of the homeless, people are not going to stores in Antioch because of crime and homeless you big doofus.

Now ECT is reporting a week later a fire district meeting where Antioch all of a sudden is on notice it doesn’t have enough fire stations and its been in discussions for 6 months and are just now hearing about this? INCOMPETENCE!!!!!!

Simonpure Feb 20, 2019 - 10:43 am

@ECT. Ya just cant please everyone. Thank you!!!

Jg Feb 20, 2019 - 11:32 am

Burgis stated the problem that occurred before her time. Development was rubber stamped without including the needs of fire. Benefit assessments for fire should have and should be a condition of development. The cities and BOSupervisors continue to ignore this need. Well, with Antioch changing to a more dependent type amount of residents and EC fire barely hanging on we are on the edge of crisis again. The politicians created the mess and they need to pay attention and fix it. Stop blaming others, politicians created the problem when they sold out to developers.

Marty Fernandez Feb 20, 2019 - 6:29 pm

This is very disappointing since they have known about it a while but I am not really surprised. This new election should be eye opening.

Ben Kellogg Feb 21, 2019 - 4:43 pm

If Antioch wants to complain about East County then by all means, take us under the COCO umbrella and consolidate. But they won’t be were are a money sucker and they just want to complain.

Comments are closed.