Firefighters of Contra Costa County are trying to get the word out early about the next round of station closures as they are placing signs to alert the public. This is the second informational release as earlier this week the firefighters put out a very in depth Frequently Asked Questions to help educate the public.
While the focus appears to be in Central County, it would be nice if one of these signs was placed in downtown Brentwood, Oakley and Discovery Bay to also alert the public that two-stations will close next November should another revenue enhancement not be approved by voters.
Here is the official press lease from the Professional Firefighters of Contra Costa County, Local 1230.
SIGNS PLACED NEAR LOCAL FIRE STATIONS TO BRING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF POTENTIAL FOR ADDITIONAL FIRE STATION CLOSURES IN JANUARY 2014
Martinez, CA – The prior closures this past year of 5 fire stations and 7 engine companies has placed the Contra Costa County Fire District and the communities protected by it, at great risks. Response times have increased significantly, and the ability to mitigate major or multiple incidents has been significantly impaired. We have seen this occur numerous times since fire station closures began in January and we cannot allow any further fire stations to be closed.
The Fire District has stated that to the Board of Supervisors that a 6th fire station and 8th engine company may be closed in January 2014 but that location has yet to be identified. Another one of your local fire stations may be closed and it may be in your neighborhood this time.
Response times will continue to increase, calls may be delayed until a fire engine becomes available, and more fire loss and property damage will occur if less resources are available in a timely manner to mitigate a fire.
Signs like these have been placed at local fire stations in an effort to bring awareness to the community that further cuts may be made by the Board of Supervisors and that another fire station may be closed in less than 4 months.
If you are concerned about your local fire department please contact one of your local Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors and express your concerns. In Contra Costa County, the Board of Supervisors act as the governing Fire Board to the Fire District and ultimately make the final decision on any recommendations from the Fire Chief.
You may contact any County Supervisor at one of the following numbers or email addresses:
- District 1 / San Pablo, El Sobrante – John Gioia:
(510) 231-8686
[email protected]
- District 2 / Lafayette, Rossmoor, Walnut Creek – Candace Anderson:
(925) 646-6067
[email protected]
- District 3 – Mary Piepho:
(925) 252-4500
[email protected]
- District 4 / Clayton, Concord, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill – Karen Mitchoff:
(925) 521-7100
[email protected]
- District 5 / Martinez, Pittsburg, Antioch, Bay Point, Pacheco, Clyde – Federal Glover:
(925) 427-8138
[email protected]
30 comments
Did you see the truck on 10th St in Antioch? If Station 81 closes, Everything from the Freeway North to the river and West to Auto Mall will be unprotected!!!!!
Its simple, if they don’t have the money or spend within their means, bring back volunteers. Problem solved.
BY NO MEANS is it that simple. The training requirements are considerable, even for basic structure fire fighting, not to mention Technical Rescue, Hazmat, Multi-casualty Incidents, Wildland Fires, etc. So are contemporary physical and background check requirements.
This doesn’t even take into effect the question of whether the residents of a fairly urban district would stand for the extended response times characteristic of Volunteer departments. Let us also remember that many Contra Costa residents in the necessary age group work out of county.
Before we were given a reprieve by receiving the Federal SAFER grant. ECCFPD put out a call for volunteers following the June 2012 defeat of the last Parcel Tax measure. With the exception of the Bethel Island area, the response was not encouraging. Even with the grant, it took 10 months to reopen Station 54 in Downtown Brentwood.
By now, the ECCFPD website has the agenda and packet up for Monday’s Fire Board Meeting, at which the Board, among other things, will discuss a Parcel Tax measure for next June’s Ballot. It is our intention to make clear to the voters of the district what is at stake, namely the preservation of a bare-bones Fire District with the capability to adequately fight one structure fire. At some appropriate time, I hope the Firefighters and/or a more broadly-based advocacy group will wage a spirited campaign. It is a bit premature at present.
Burk, with regard to an ECCFPD FAQ, it is in the works and was being discussed even before Local 1230 posted theirs. The trucks placed at CONFIRE stations are in response to the anticipated closure of another (unknown, as yet) CONFIRE station at the beginning of next year. The ECCFPD Board Standing Committee on Education and Public Outreach (Chaired by Director Morgan, and on which I sit) meets at Station 93 at 7 P.M. on the third Monday of each month. The Budget and Finance Committee (which I chair) meets at Station 93 at 10 A.M. on the second Thursday of each month. The Ad Hoc Committee on Service Models (Chaired by Director Young) has been meeting as needed to look at our current 5-station Service Model and the 3-station Service Model we would be forced into by November of next year if the Parcel Tax fails. We have had good participation by representatives of the FireFighters as well as members of the public.
There is an EXTREMELY bright line between education (which the District may do), and advocacy (which the District emphatically must not). One step over that line plus an individual or group willing to file the resulting lawsuit could effectively negate a victory at the polls.
Steve Smith,
Where does your overpriced outreach consultant fit in? Before you go for a tax, might want to terminate that contract.
He hasn’t been part of these discussions at all. He maintains the District’s Facebook page.
A consultant for Facebook? Where do I sign up? Surely a district who is hard pressed for money should not be paying someone for Facebook.
Hey bobby maybe we could have volly police officers, volly plumbers, volly electricians, volly (fill in your occupation) too. Think of the savings! Lets actual provide realistic solutions.
lay off 50% from the top down, and replace with volunteers. it’s that simple.
Karl (dietzel) is it that simple? I think we just heard from one of the directors of the fire board who reported that they put out a request for volunteers and the response was “not encouraging”. I understand it is a real dangerous job with huge physical demands and extremely odd hours. Are you volunteering? I wasn’t aware how simple it is to arbitrarily lay off 50 percent of a union (contract) workforce and replace them with unqualified, inexperienced individuals that would be willing to provide uninterrupted professional level services for free. Karl, you are a genius! Aren’t you the same guy that is aiming to fix Antioch with equally brilliant solutions? You rock Karl. Whoop, whoop!
Not sure why these people even engage you. You have NO idea what you are talking about. Volunteers would not work for too many reasons. But to sum it up quick.. 1 reason it would not work is all you volunteers work other jobs and would most likely be out of the area when a call comes in. Second Contra Costa County is WAY too busy and finally to try and put it in a better way for you to understand… Think of the problems you would have in your house if you hired a plumber to re-wire the Electricial in ur house. Forget about the whole back round check and knowledge of the job issues you would have.
This response is intended for Karl Dietzel
hello mike
as ridiculous my solution sound to you, or others…there are NO solution coming from you, or others. i just think we need to stop throwing money in the same direction. over 90 % of the fire department runs, are medical. no more. let the medical service do their job. look at your own statistics. cuts have to be made. so lets talk about it seriously.
Karl, once again you are good at repeating talking points. Explaining any level of detail……not so much.
Medical calls are a value add to an existing first responder service. Proper 21st century fire suppression services in a modern country mean staff is in station and on duty 24/7. It was a natural extension to make use of their downtime for medical responses. That is what we have evolved to over the last 40 years.
Medicals are not simply pulling out the med bag or administering CPR. They many times involve extractions, as in car accidents, or movement of an immobile patient from a difficult location(ie. the obese person on the third floor with no elevators in the building). These are not just just hypothetical. These are real life examples of what they do every day.
To replace that service would require a ground up reinvention of the wheel. AMR has been pointed to by the anti-tax club as an alternative. AMR has several times stated they are not equipped or prepared to take on that task within their current structure. To ramp up capabilities like that in a private company would cost millions. Who do you think would ultimately pay for that?
Representatives of AMR, over the past year, have repeatedly gone on record as stating they are not equipped to take on this added responsibility you are trying to put on them. What is the reason you are ignoring them or suggesting they don’t know what they are talking about?
I would also like to understand why you think the savings in fuel costs, which is really the only difference here, is somehow going to result in millions in costs savings for the fire department. Because if you can’t save about 15 million per year in fuel costs, your “idea” isn’t really a serious attempt to address the ConFire’s shortfall.
Do you know the potential savings in eliminating medical calls by the FD? Since you promote it and promote yourself as an insightful and researched citizen, I’m going to assume you do.
Could you share that with the rest of us? Could you also share how that need is then covered either through another public agency or through a private one? What’s the cost to the taxpayer for that transition? What are the downsides, if any, to making this service model change? Is longer response times one of them? Has the loss of life from any longer response time been factored into your plan and is it identified either specifically or generally?
Since you have self promoted yourself on this topic, I will assume these questions all have fairly simple and straight forward answers at the ready. I look forward to your reply.
The solution is to find more revenue for the fire department. The amount of square miles and call volume that this fire department runs with the amount of staffing they have Compared to the national standard it’s ridiculous.
I believe the fire department personnel is 220 positions but when OSHA came and did their Investigation they said something about 4 to 500 personnel is needed For the specific call volume, square miles covered and population When they had a line of duty death five years
ago their staffing was short then. And now they’ve closed six stations what do
you think the levels are now?
The solution is stop the county funded services.
By the way your numbers are wrong it’s not 90% medically more like 75.
People don’t think they’re ever going to
use the fire department until the time comes that you do need them and you needed them five minutes ago.
Just my 2 cents
hello jigsup,
thanks, great post, but…again no solution offered. there is NO “shortfall” i guess you’re right, there needs to be a “re-invention” of the wheel, because we can’t afford the wheel the way it’s turning anymore.
same thing over and over “gimme more..gimme more” or stations has to be closed. i am NOT talking about fuel cost, i am talking about 50% cuts from the top down, instal volunteers. as a start.
your message is clear. can’t do it, need more money to do the same thing over.
And your point is what? The public deserves to know why it took 15 minutes for a fire engine to come for a chest pain call. Or the fact that your house caught on fire because your neighbors house caught on fire first and the fire department didn’t get there put it out,
How would you feel if your house caught on fire because
your neighbors house was on fire and there was no fire department to put the fire out? Answer that??
So you really don’t have a solution then, do you Karl? Just repeating talking points.
I’ve stated my solutions here previously. My goal is to #1 maintain adequate services in both fire suppression and medical response. I recognize that the rigid funding formulas put in place by Prop 13 do not properly track with costs and do not properly fund services in this day and age. Particularly in light of the recent gutting of property tax revenues due to the housing market collapse.
That is not a “gimme more” situation. It is a revenue problem that is outside the control of the fire district or elected officials. There are ways to address that, but they don’t come as a free lunch. Nothing does.
I see NONE of those factors mentioned in anything you or your group complain about. Just “government spends too much”. That’s not an intellectual response, Karl. It does nothing to properly outline the problem. Until you properly frame the problem, you can’t offer any meaningful solutions.
You aren’t helping your brand with this simplistic commentary of yours. What are the downsides to a volunteer department in Contra Costa County in 2013? If you can’t address that concern, you can’t be taken seriously here.
Karl,
I have read the solution many times; over: proper funding.
Are you deaf or just against the solution?
Volunteers are not a viable solution. Volunteers are not a viable option. The explanation of why volunteers don’t work in a urban areas has been offered up and explained many times over. Why do you continue to point to others to work for free as your suggestion? It has been looked at and dismissed as not viable. Repeating it over and over doesn’t work.
Are you deaf or just not listening?
Great exchange of information and I have really enjoyed following it.
Karl, it is simple. There is and has been a revenue problem-not a service model or service delivery problem. The answer is equally as simple. Proper funding for expected service. This means the district needs an increased revenue stream to fund the service. What does that mean to you and I? We need to pay for the service via adequate (increased) taxes because we have not been paying enough in the first place. This is why the district has been burning through their financial reserves for years. It’s economics 101. Sorry Karl, but it appears that you are the one without a solution or realistic plan.
If you want adequate service you must properly fund it. You cannot keep demanding that the deck be reshuffled. It’s simple, so why are you (Karl) attempting to make it more complex?
hello tim,
just for the record: i am NOT demanding anything, just because something is implemented by the fire district, does not mean, i as the tax payer wanted that.?
economics 101 is also…lets put all the cards on the table. lets talk about salaries, benefits, retirement, medical, dental vision etc.
why is the fire district not looking within their district and come up with solutions? while i agree the economy has had an impact, so has it impacted me, you, our neighbors etc. there are clearly spending problems.
the very scary part is (your own statement) “This is why the district has been burning through their financial reserves for years.” and nobody has taken any action?
Karl,
To answer your question points out that you have not followed this issue. The fire district has taken steps. In fact, so many “steps” that they have exhausted any further areas in which to trim. They have taken pay cuts, forgone wage increases and experienced overall compensation decreases. They pay the most into the retirement system than any other fire department. They are not replacing worn-out equipment. They are deferring maintenance on fire stations. They are not filling staffing vacancies and are indeed doing more with less. There is no more room to adjust. Now it is down to closing stations. You asked for simple right?
Yeah let’s put all of the cards on the table. I hope some of the firefighters will chime in here because from what I have heard, they are cut to the bone. Are you suggesting that they make substandard wages to work Ina county where the cannot afford to live? Are you suggesting that we change to retirement so that the majority of the work force goes out on tax free disability or works until they are in their 70’s to retire? Let’s not forget here Karl that you can’t force them to retire, but you can entice them. You really want 70 year old firefighters responding to your emergency? I don’t.
Where you are dead wrong is when you suggest spending problems. This has never been about spending problems. It has always been about revenue problems.
You asked why haven’t they looked within their district and come up with solutions? Well Karl, they have. There is only one solution, but for whatever reason you want to continue to run on a hamster-wheel by asking the same dead end questions over and over. It was your own misstatement “…and nobody has taken any action” that demonstrates you’re either not paying attention or just disagreeing with the solutions.
Karl continues to ask questions that have been asked and answered loooooong ago. This is like Groundhog Day for the last ballot measure.
When someone insists the district hasn’t done anything internally to resolve this, it becomes clear you are conversing with someone who has not paid attention.
Karl, the analogy was brought up earlier. What product or service are you paying for in the private sector that has not gone up in cost in the last 10 years? Because at this point in time, you are effectively paying the same(through property taxes) for fire services that you did 10 years ago. That’s a fact.
So how does this work? In what unicorns and rainbows world does a public service somehow escape the same upward cost pressures that private services are exposed to? Because in essence that is what you, the anti-tax club and the Contra Costa Times are expecting, if not demanding.
It’s time the lot of you step forward to explain that. Because your antics are putting the rest of us in grave danger through your ignorance of the fiscal dynamics here.
Lots of mumbo jumbo by the lobby artists and friends of my big bro on this one.
POINT ONE: The truth is as it relates to the volunteer side is the previous existing Volunteers are at the beginning of suing the county for not allowing them to continue to assist the citizens of Contra Costa as it relates to fire.
POINT TWO: The ECCFPD advertised for volunteers and said if they received less than thirty applications it would probably not be feasible. The received over 60 apps and did nothing. That is endangering the public. ( Tim and Steve are incorrect and probably lobbying for the union)
POINT THREE: As I listen to the scanner and watch Mt Diablo smoke, the fire district calls off duty personnel to cover stations. An over expensive cost that can be easily removed by volunteers.
POINT FOUR: Benefits and Pension reform would allow the adding of many more fire fighters at the same salary and re-open stations if implemented.
Now watch as the real problem people attack me.
Another day, another conspiracy theory from our resident pathological liar.
The figure to properly staff the district for volunteers was 150. Not 60 and certainly not 30. I was there when the Chief was asked and subsequently answered the question.
You butt hurt weekend warrior wannabes need to at least keep your lies consistent.
Jigsup,
I remember that too.
Can you imagine that the people these fools expect to volunteer, would be stuck volunteering all night long on a night like tonight. What do you think of the odds, that tomorrow morning when the volunteers are expected to go to their real jobs, their full time employers will give them the day off (with pay)?
I think the odds are slim and none. Slim just left town.
There is a reason we pay people to fight fires and respond to emergencies at all hours of the day and night.
Honesti Injun, (ECV’s Brother)
Which name are you going by that name now lil bro? Once again you outed yourself dipshit! You really are that dumb huh? Its hard to fathom someone like you exists in the world. If you only knew how much your stupidity, jealousy and rage gave you away you would hang up your key board and get the fuck out if east county. I often have to hold back because it is just too damn easy to poke fun at you. But yet you just keep asking for it. It is like you have a sign taped to your back that says kick me. What a tool.
Denial may be your strongest trait but it is not your only one. Your hypocrisy often overshadows your limited ability to reconcile with reality.
Lets review again;
1. The Volunteers are suing the county? I say prove it or STFU. It would be public record ‘lil brother. What could they possibly sue for? Common sense dictates they were performing their volunteer work, at will. Your statement on this is laughable and yet I think you actually believe it.
2. ECCCFPD may have received over 30 apps, but that is only half the story. Typical of your half truths. How many were qualified, disqualified or were realistically suited to actually perform? Do you think everyone is qualified to enter our homes under emergency circumstances? Hobos? Convicts? Or worse, YOU?? (now that’s a scary thought!). Are we to believe that Steve (Tim?) and the rest of the board did a cover up? Im thinking they acted responsible. You think we would believe a freakshow like you over the directors, chief and public? Keep trying to convince someone with your wackhadoodle bullshit.
Why is it always about the union with you? Man up and clarify. Like someone else said, you couldn’t make the cut, so your cowardly nature tells you it must be someone else’s fault-in this case the union (which happens to be real firefighters). What a fucking loser you are.
3. You sit at home and listen to a scanner. OMG, why am I not surprised? Does you mommy know you are locked in your room fixated on emergency calls you can’t go to? Little brother, you fit the profile of a distraught volunteer and wannabe fireman. Wouldn’t be surprised to see you on America’s most wanted at some point. The signs are all there…..the wheels are coming off the train. Get help and stop your mental masturbation.
4. Benefits and pension reform? I’m no lawyer but something tells me if it were that easy or more importantly legal, that would have been tried by now. Or are you so fucking warped that you think you are the only one with the answers. Hasn’t that already landed you in trouble? I thought so.
Don’t you know that our firefighters are already the lowest paid (by far) in the greater Bay Area? It’s been published a number of times, but you still think it would be responsible to lower their wages, pension, and benefits even more? I’m sure they would be lining up to sue you if you were in a position to do that. You’re an expert on lawsuits right?
Love the pre-emptive sign off “watch the real problem people attack me”. Really? Once again you lower the bar on yourself. Thanks for providing me another opportunity to expose you in front of everyone.
You are a fool.
Reasoning with you would be like talking to a 3 year old
Mike,
I’m thinking you are referring to honestinjun? He does come across to me as a person with a child’s mentality.
Honestinjun
Yeah it’s a no brainier that tons and tons of people would rather risk their lives fighting a fire on the poison oak infested slopes of Mt. Diablo then spend time with their friends and families on a 100 degree weekend. Not to mention that many of them could care less about catching/watching either a 49er or Raider game. I’ll bet they are dying to risk losing their real (paying) jobs so that they can go train and play fireman. Yeah, that’s it.
Seriously honestinjun, what the —- are you smoking?
Speaking of mambo jumbo, are you choking on yours? Are you one of the former weekened warriors that can’t play dress up anymore? Couldn’t make the grade as a professional? Could you please point us to any real proof? For starters, any documentation (proof) of a lawsuit against the county? You realize that suggesting such a ridiculous idea (volunteers suing the county over loss of a “volunteer” gig is insanity right? My goodness I hope you realize how dumb you sound. Even old Karl got a chuckle out of that.
Comments are closed.