The City of Brentwood has two agenda items set for next week which deals with the East Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. The Council will hopefully finalize what exactly they plan on doing with the number of appointments as right now they are undecided whether or not it will be two appointments or three. Currently, Brentwood holds four spots (Steve Barr, Erick Stonebarger, Joel Bryant, Robert Brockman) on the board which are all City Council members.
While I believe Brentwood should appoint three residents as the goal is to move away from the city council serving on the board, they likely will decide on a 2 council/2 resident representation. With Robert Brockman losing his bid for re-election, it will be interesting to see if he applies along with Carissa Pillow who inserted herself into the fire debate. This may be a nice opportunity for her to get some public experience under her belt if she intends to run again in 2-years. Steve Barr has indicated he would like to remain on the Board.
The second agenda item deals with an Appointment of an alternate to the ad-hoc Fire Subcommittee.
On 10/31, they opened up the applicant process:
East Contra Costa Fire Protection District (ECCFPD) Board: The East Contra Costa Fire Protection District was established in 2002 with the consolidation of the Bethel Island, East Diablo, and Oakley-Knightsen Fire Protection Districts. The District serves the cities of Oakley and Brentwood as well as the unincorporated areas of east Contra Costa County, including Bethel Island, Byron, Discovery Bay and Knightsen. Pursuant to the Fire Protection District Law of 1987, the District operates as an independent public agency and the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors initially served as the District’s governing board. In late 2009, the cities of Brentwood and Oakley, the County and ECCFPD consented to local governance of the District. The newly formed Board of Directors includes nine members: four from Brentwood, three from Oakley and two from the unincorporated County area, each residing within the District. The County solicited applications for its Board seats; however the cities of Brentwood and Oakley appointed Councilmembers to serve on the board. The ECCFPD Board meets the first Monday of each month in the evening. There is no compensation provided for Board Members. Applications must be received by Friday, November 16, 2012 at 5:00 p.m.
Discussion of Fire Service in the City of Brentwood
PREVIOUS ACTIONS
On October 27, 2009, the Cities of Brentwood and Oakley and the Contra Costa County (“County”) Board of Supervisors consented to the creation of an appointed governing board for
the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District based on proportional representation.
On November 10, 2009, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, acting as the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District Board of Directors, consented to the creation of an
appointed governing board for the District based on proportional representation.
On December 8, 2009, the City Council adopted Resolution 2009-242 appointing City of Brentwood representatives to the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District Board of Directors;
authorized the Mayor to appoint an alternate Director; and authorized the appointees to act as Fire District Board Directors on behalf of the City of Brentwood.
On December 14, 2010, the City Council adopted Resolution 2010-165 appointing Council Members Barr and Bryant as representatives, and Mayor Taylor as alternate, to the East Contra
Costa Fire Protection District Board of Directors and authorizing the appointees to act as Fire District Board Directors on behalf of the City of Brentwood.
On March 8, 2011, the City Council, by motion, appointed Vice Mayor Barr and Council Member Stonebarger to an ad-hoc Fire Subcommittee.
On May 10, 2011, the City Council, by motion, adopted the ad-hoc Fire Subcommittee recommendation and directed staff to prepare the necessary paperwork and City Council
resolutions for an application to LAFCO for a Brentwood only fire service option and bring them back to the May 24th Council meeting for the Council’s consideration.
On June 28, 2011, the City Council, by motion, Directed staff to prepare the necessary paperwork and City Council resolutions for a Detachment/Formation LAFCO application for a
Brentwood only fire service option and return to Council with the necessary documents for approval.
On August 23, 2011, the City Council, by motion and as recommended by the Ad-Hoc Committee, agreed to put Plan B on hold and support the District’s efforts in finding additional revenue sources. Should the Fire Board deviate or delay their approach to finding additional revenue sources, the Ad-Hoc Subcommittee indicated they would seek Council direction for
moving forward with the Brentwood Plan B option.
On March 13, 2012, the City Council, by motion, directed staff to prepare a resolution in support of the East Contra Costa County Fire Protection District’s parcel tax ballot measure.
On March 27, 2012, the City Council adopted Resolution 2012-38 Supporting the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District’s June 5, 2012 Special Parcel Tax Ballot Measure.
On July 24, 2012, there was Council consensus to direct staff to move forward with an application process to appoint residents to the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District, with a
closing date around November 15, 2012 for a minimum of two positions and up to three positions.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this agenda item is to allow a verbal update from staff and the Fire Ad-Hoc
subcommittee on fire service in the City.
Appointment of an alternate to the ad-hoc Fire Subcommittee
BACKGROUND
Staff has been accepting applications from residents for positions on the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District Board. The applications are due to the City Clerk’s office by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, November 16, 2012. As of the agenda’s publication, five applications had been received.
It is staff’s understanding that, pursuant to the direction provided at the July 24, 2012 meeting, Council preferred to have potential appointments made as close to January 1, 2013, as
possible. For appointments to be made prior to January 1, 2013 the applications and subsequent interviews would need to take place prior to the December 11, 2012 Council
meeting to facilitate the ad-hoc subcommittees recommendation to the City Council. In order to expedite the application review and interview process, staff requests that an alternate to the adhoc
Fire Subcommittee be appointed in the event that one of the ad-hoc members is not available during this time.
Source: City Council Agenda
By Michael Burkholder
4 comments
Steve Barr should get off the board. For his sake i hope he has figured out that his pandering with a laundry list of wasteful, time consuming issues (many which have been either previously vetted and dismissed by industry experts as non starters) showed a lack of credibility & lost him a lot of votes. All he has done so far is waste time…..time that East Co. fire cannot afford. The clock is ticking and they are re arranging chairs on the Titanic. Oakley and the county got it right by making appointments as was recommended. Is it time for Brentwood to do the right thing and get over their failed attempts at controlling a district that is not theirs. What happens from here is going to be interesting, very interesting.
The City of Brentwood needs to get with the program here. they are not as important as they would like to think and many of their city staff is totally out of touch. AS I have said numerous times–its the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District NOT The City of Brentwood Fire District. We need to get the fire board settled down and start working to a solution to the funding issue. The life-line grant money will run out before we know it.
On another note–Has Station 94 re-opened yet? Or are we still short enough FF to open it?
The bigger issue is what are the current Board members doing NOW to push towards a long term solution. They are going need to push another revenue enhancement and that needs to begin now and turning the public’s opinion around. They need better marketing and outreach and highlight the incidents that occur so people can fully understand what goes into responding to call. There were some major accidents over the last few weeks and they should be highlighting them with resources used and pictures.
I agree. Barr needs to go based on his actions over the last several months. Didn’t he give a list of 9 items that already were discussed that he claims came from the public. Then their was the BOS incident where he spoke out as a Board Member instead of a resident. The guy undermines everyone which is probably why he got spanked by Taylor who would have likely lost against anyone else.
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