The East County Voters for Equal Protection (ECVEP), a group of residents who are working to find ways to fund the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District without a tax increase, have endorsed Oakley Councilman Doug Hardcastle in his race for Supervisor in District 3, for his support of their efforts.
The group supports reallocation of funds that other local agencies within the district boundaries, currently receive in property tax revenue. The fire protection district includes Oakley, Brentwood, Discovery Bay, Bethel Island, Byron and Knightsen, as well as the unincorporated areas of Clayton along Marsh Creek and Morgan Territory Roads.
“This can has been kicked down the road too many times,” said Rob Broocker, the group’s leader. “Doug recognizes that it’s time the local officials sat down and worked things out.”
At a recent meeting with Hardcastle at a closed fire station, in Discovery Bay, Broocker, a Santa Clara firefighter, painting contractor and Discovery Bay resident said, “Of two Discovery Bay Fire Stations one is closed. Even with a tax increase the second one can’t be guaranteed to be open, according to County Assessor Gus Kramer.
At the same Discovery Bay Town Council meeting David Piepho said it will never be open due to the lack of funding.
The group has met with board members and spoken before their meetings, as well communicated with other community leaders like Hardcastle, to get them to consider a reallocation plan instead of a third attempt at a tax increase.
“I appreciate the support of the East County Voters and look forward to continuing to work with them to find a solution to improving fire protection, without another tax increase,” Hardcastle said. “Our number one priority is safety of our families. You have to take this personal. You have to ask yourself, what if it was my house on fire or one of my family members in an accident? We deserve quicker response times for all of us.”
Speaking of the only current ECCFP board member who is also a candidate in the District 3 Supervisor’s race, Broocker stated “Steve Barr is not ready to step up and be a Supervisor if he can’t handle the job on the fire district board.”
At a candidates’ forum in Discovery Bay, Wednesday night, Barr said, “There is a task force that’s been formed. The first step the fire board has taken is do a study to find out what is the adequate number of fire stations in this district. That study, came in with a nine-station model. I think we’re on the right track. I’m hopeful this next measure or however it comes to you will be right.”
Hardcastle disagrees.
“We’ve had enough studies,” he responded. “People do not want to raise their taxes again. They tried it twice, already. It’s ridiculous they even tried it twice. We just need to learn how to spend our money properly.”
While the ECVEP is asking all the agencies within the bounds of the fire district to pitch in, Hardcastle only supports reallocating funds from the cities of Oakley and Brentwood, and the County, like was done with one-time money to re-open the fire station in Knightsen.
“I feel the only ones that have the ability to approve reallocation of money are our councils and the county,” he stated. “We just did it by funding the Knightsen fire station to get them open for 2017.”
That process was explained by another member of the group.
“When the self-appointed Task Force made their initial report to the fire board on October 21, 2015, they recommended emergency funding to open one fire station for a limited period of time,” stated Bryan Scott, a member of ECVEP. “They sought and obtained one-time funding from the cities of Brentwood and Oakley as well as the county.”
“The Task Force allocated the contributions from the cities and the county based on call volume to their respective areas,” he continued. “This came out to 49% for the city of Brentwood, 28% for the city of Oakley, and 23% for the county.”
“Using these same allocation percentages to increase fire district funding by $7.8 million would mean Brentwood would contribute $3,822,000, Oakley would contribute $2,184,000, and the county $1,794,000,” Scott explained.
Brentwood will pay a larger portion for two reasons. First, because they have a larger population than Oakley. Second, they receive a greater percentage of property tax, 16% than Oakley does at just 7%. Plus, they used part of funds set aside for fire protection on their police force, instead.
“We need the cities and county to pitch in to make this happen and in a fair way,” Hardcastle added. “It’s time to get this done.”
District 3 includes all of Oakley, Brentwood, Discovery Bay, Bethel Island, Byron, Knightsen and most of Antioch in East County, as well as Blackhawk, Diablo and Camino Tassajara in the San Ramon Valley. The election is June 7. For more information about Doug Hardcastle, visit www.doughardcastle.com or call the Campaign Headquarters at (925) 755-5053.
“We support Doug Hardcastle for Supervisor, because he’s the only one in the race willing to look at reallocating current tax dollars instead of another tax increase to provide adequate fire service in the East County Fire Protection District,” said Rob Broocker, the group’s leader.
“We need to find another way,” member Hal Bray stated. “We’ve been working with the East County Fire board and others to try and accomplish that.”
Editors Notes:
- This Press Release lists Rob Broocker as “leader”, the organization has two co-chairs in Hal Bray and Bryan Scott. It should be noted that Hal Bray is working on Doug Hardcastle’s campaign as a volunteer.
- Twice the City of Oakley has had an open seat on the Fire Board and neither time did Doug Hardcastle volunteer to sit on the fire board to find a solution.
- David Piepho clarification: Piepho blasted both plans (ECV and Task Force) saying neither plan would allow for a Discovery Bay Station to re-open because other stations would open first.
- ECV’s Plan has been deemed illegal by county officials, East Contra Costa Fire Protection District legal team, local officials, and state law. Schools are also off limits in terms of funding re-allocation.
- We have reached out to Doug Hardcastle’s campaign for clarifications on Hadcastle’s stance on this organization’s plan and have received no answers to our questions.
12 comments
The only group that is self appointed is ECV (Rob Broocker, Hal Bray and Bryan Scott). These clowns can’t seem to keep their story straight.
They have been rejected by every responsible agency and every local leader.
Their delusional effort is a needless distraction to a real and honest solution.
Doug Hardcastle demonstrated his poor judgment by aligning with this bizarre group of nut jobs.
I am confused, does Doug actually support this crazy plan or is he supported by these crazy people?
Doug is desperately looking for anything that will produce a vote. Typical used car salesman. At least he is not a home wrecker.
ECT
Please expose the East County Voters for Equal Protection (ECVEP) for continuing to lie to the public, provide misleading statements from officials, steal money from other agencies. I know in the past you have provided the actual laws that showcase this as an illegal plan, please do so again. These people and apparently Doug Hardcastle does not get it. This group is not about fire service improving, its about causing a distraction to kill any tax measure.
Please don’t insult used car salesmen.
Hardcastle is just dumb and confused. His confusion manifests in anger. He won’t go anywhere.
Is Doug a moron? He is attacking Steve Barr because he volunteers to serve on a fire board that Doug himself has passed on multiple opportunities to step up and try and find a solution. Doug has failed to step up and lead on ANY ISSUE!!!!! Doug is not supervisor material, he is now slandering another candidate, and is flip-flopping on many issues such as tax increases. This press release says it all, people should find another candidate to support.
Association with a group that has proudly made it their mission to undermine the efforts of the district to deliver appropriate coverage (AND ENDANGERS OUR LIVES & PROPERTY) is shameful.
Their solution is to take revenue from schools, cities, water districts, parks, and more. (I don’t think I have read about any of these other agencies swimming in money- have you?) If you look to the side of this comment you will see some advertisements for the upcoming election: Oakley is trying to find money to build a library and Brentwood Unified is looking for money to keep up with growth. The group that supports Doug in this article proposes to take money from those two agencies among dozens of others that don’t have the ability to take care of things the people they serve need and want. What makes Doug’s supporters think that taking the problem of one agency and making it the problem of a dozen or more other agencies is going to solve this problem? And as slow as government can be do they think that this solution expedites efforts?
Simply, the staff of ECCFPD (not the board) has done the best they could with what they have had. There is no way of truly knowing the impact that having such a skeleton staff covering our district has had. Would someone have lived if someone got there a few minutes earlier, could property have been saved if we had better coverage? We don’t know. The more troubling question is what about the future? There are times that our fire fighters are all out on calls and there is no one available to answer a call. Are you prepared to take those risks for your children, your friend, your neighbor, yourself? I am not.
The “solutions” this group is trying to deliver are not legal or doable at this time. Those that are buying this Bull are too lazy and complacent to truly understand this issues. This will only appeal to a subset of people that support obstruction of progress in the name of principle (no new taxes no matter what)
Yes Doug is a moron. Attacking people when he himself obviously doesn’t know what he is talking about is crazy.
If he wanted to shoot himself in the foot, mission accomplished. I just can’t figure what he would send it out?? You would think his campaign people would tell him he just lost a truckload of votes.
The best news is he exposed himself. Not a nice guy and certainly not very bright.
If they can reallocate current tax dollars from the two cities and the county to reopen the Knightsen fire station, why can’t it be done for the other stations in the district, as Doug Hardcastle supports doing? He doesn’t support using money from any other agency. The ECV group supports him because he’s willing to seek an alternative funding solution to the fire district, instead of another tax increase, which the voters have rejected twice.
Why don’t people understand that public safety should be funded, first as Doug supports? Special taxes should be for the other, lower priority items.
If the taxpayers don’t want to pay more taxes and there’s a need for greater public safety, whether it be fire, police and sheriff, or the District Attorney’s office, then the elected representatives need to find a way to fund those from their budgets, first. It may mean asking the voters for a special tax for parks and recreation, which aren’t a fundamental requirement of government, instead.
Listening to the people and doing what they want done with their tax dollars, in priority order, does not make Doug a moron. It makes him a responsible representative.
We need more like him in office.
While the East County Fire Protection District issue doesn’t affect me because I live in Antioch, having more money for the DA’s office so they can prosecute more criminals, does. So, I like Doug’s common sense approach.
Public safety, first. So let’s stop with all the hateful rhetoric, listen to the voters and find a solution other than another tax increase.
I write this both as a resident of Contra Costa who is looking to be served on the Board of Supes by another fiscally responsible representative like Candace Andersen and a paid consultant for Doug Hardcastle’s campaign.
Allen Payton
Allen, I’m guessing math is not your strong suit, nor is history.
For the first measure the anti-tax zealots like you clouded the issue by making it about pensions and claimed waste within the department. Neither of which is a real issue. Neither of those questions was on the ballot. But you confused enough people to get it killed.
The second time around was some convoluted argument by the Board that we didn’t really have 5 stations that were open at the time. They said we only had 3. I don’t think anyone understood that claim.
The donating entities made it clear at the time of granting the Knightsen money it was one time money. Including Candice Anderson. You can look up the Supervisor meeting on video and hear her own words. Did you bother to study the sources of the funds and why that is so? It’s obvious Doug didn’t.
Both times it was made clear to voters that if a measure didn’t pass stations would necessarily close.
Neither ballot measure had the question or the option to go raid some other agency budget for money.
Did you become a mind reader somewhere along the way? I know you’re not speaking for me and there is no evidence you’re speaking for any majority of district voters with your claims. Rather bold of you, Doug and the pretentious bunch within ECV to claim you have your finger on the pulse when you have so few supporters online or at your meetings offering their backing for your money shift.
If you take money from the County, you’re definitely taking some amount of it from the DA’s budget. They don’t grow it on trees over there in Martinez. Which is why suggesting your plan is somehow not going to take money from other agencies is flat out insane. There is no one in the 3 entities your Candidate listed sitting on an aggregate $8 million of idle money.
As for your claim that the issue doesn’t affect you, I’ll try to remember that the next time I read that a major incident drew all the fire resources out of Antioch and into east county.
Oh, but you meant it won’t affect your wallet. That’s because you haven’t figured out it already has and will only get worse.
@Allen,
Simple answer… where is Oakley going to come up with $6 million annually to throw into the pot… ask Doug what he would suggest Oakley “take away” or “give up” since they do not have a special fund for public safety as this time and it comes out of the General Fund. For Brentwood, I would like you to ask him the same question. Brentwood it’s estimated at $11 million.
The plan is ultimately doomed from the start because you have 4 other seats on the Board of Supervisors who made it clear the money currently given for the 4th Station is 1-time money.
While the public did reject the last two taxes, the last one was within margin of error of passing even after the District fumbled on two occasions and failed terribly at outreach to get people to vote.
If you recall, even after just 9,495 votes were cast out of 38,529, it had 47% support… that is hovering near 50%. In 2012 Measure S only had 43% support. I would argue the public is starting to “get it”.
Looks like ECV made another bad choice. Tisk-Tisk.
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