Home East County ECCFPD Director Steve Smith Issues Statement Refuting Hal Bray’s Letter

ECCFPD Director Steve Smith Issues Statement Refuting Hal Bray’s Letter

by ECT

On April 10th, a Letter to the Editor was printed in the Brentwood Press from Hal Bray, the Vice Chair of the Republican Party of Contra Costa County. The original letter as printed in the Brentwood Press headlined “Is a Benefit Assessment District Really Necessary?”

Steve Smith, an ECCFPD Director (but speaking for himself only) has made the following statement:

Hal Bray, in his letter of April 10th, starts with a basis in facts, moves on to unsupported inferences, and finally degenerates into the absurd. I don’t dispute the facts, but the inferences are way off the mark.

The ECCFPD Board is well aware of the split between government entities of the 1% property tax. To my knowledge, only three of the nine directors have any current or past experience as Firemen. We have dealt with pensions to the extent permitted by law.

I have no idea what Mr. Bray means by work rules, but the Board has explored all alternatives to the size and composition of the District and found none of them to be feasible.

The absurdity lies in the assumption that a little “political will” on the part of the ECCFPD Board would result in a reallocation of property tax funds within East Contra Costa. Nothing could be further from the truth. The formula for allocations is set statewide by State Law, and affects every County, City, and Special District within California. The notion that an exception could be forthcoming for East Contra Costa is laughable to anyone who understands the legislative process.

The Contra Costa Taxpayer’s Association and the Republican Party cannot find a credible challenge to the way ECCFPD is actually run, and they have been given access to any information they desired. On the subject of District finances, they have seen everything I have seen.

The true insidiousness of their approach is to hold out to the Voters some form of magical solution totally unachievable in current circumstances, and present that as the reason to vote No on any effort to increase revenue. This would only be sad if it did not put the lives and property of 105,000 District residents at severe risk.

By Steve Smith, Brentwood

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5 comments

Ben Apr 12, 2015 - 8:59 am

Thank you Director Smith. Your comments are much needed because the Brentwood Press does not fact check any of its letters to the editor, they are apparently more pleased with themselves that people actually sends them something to print every now and then. Letters should be fact checked, not just printed for the hell of it. Hal Bray has no credibility outside is little republican cult following.

Smoking Joe Apr 12, 2015 - 9:15 am

Director Smith I would like more info on why Mr. Brays idea would not work. Please better explain.

CaptainKlutz Apr 12, 2015 - 12:06 pm

While he’s busy responding to every nay-sayer in sight, perhaps Director Smith would care to explain why nobody at the district saw fit to take responsibility for the SNAFU that was the first ballot? I saw lots of finger-pointing but nobody admitting they messed up. I really would have thought that the president of the board should take responsibility and resign.

Resident Apr 12, 2015 - 5:53 pm

Mr.Smith has been bitten by the infamous union bug.There are many ways to better the ECCFPD budget bang for the buck. The first is to stand up to the union or get another union. I have found the Hal Bray is a much more credible person than Steve Smith. This fire district is dismally run by incompetent politically motivated politicos who have a conflict of interest and are breaking the law at every meeting they participate in. Thank you Hal Bray for your candor.

Anonymous Apr 13, 2015 - 11:35 am

Poor, poor Mr. Smith. Demonstrating once again that his skin is too thin for criticism.

Maybe someday soon Mr. Smith with understand that he may be a good fit with a dysfunctional non elected, obscure fire board, but he is out of whack with the sentiment of the general population.

This method of tax was chosen not because it was helpful to the district, but because it was the only one with a snowballs chance in hell to pass. Now that’s not really good leadership is it Mr. Smith?

Sorry Mr. Smith but my neighbors and I have already voted no to this stupid tax.

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