Two major decisions were made during last night’s Oakley City Council meeting which the Council voted 4-1 to terminate its lease with Homeless Animals Lifeline Organization (HALO) while it interviewed and selected replacements for the East Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.
Update on Oakley Library
Jenna Skinner provided an update on the library activities where she stated they are fully staffed for the first time. They have implemented a “Family Story Time” which is on Thursdays where they are getting 25 people each time—300 plus each month. The main challenge continues to be space as they have 37,000 items with no room for more. They want to provide e-books, but there are challenges with that. In the future, the library will be implementing a kid’s craft club for older children—sounded like middle school. They also will begin a “kids movie Saturdays” in October.
Public Comments:
Cindy Tumin: The Library Commission is asking the council to consider looking into moving the library to the CentroMart building which is more than five times the amount of space of the current location. She made the statement they do not believe the Sheriff’s office is a good location and would prefer to be downtown. “Moving it downtown would allow staff to better serve the community”.
Holly Occhipinti: Expressed support of a Library moved to downtown stating “it would really benefit the community”. She thanked Councilman Jim Frazier for donating half his city council salary to the library.
Michelle Jones: To see the library move to a larger location would be beneficial. “Our city is growing and technology continues to get better. Everyone needs access”.
Angela Lowry: “Perhaps what we need to do is look at the big picture. It’s not library, but it’s a community downtown,” as she urged support for a move to the CentroMart Building. She explained the intangible benefits that this would bring downtown.
Diane Burgis: Announced that creek cleanup will occur this Saturday and thanked staff and the council for the start of a restoration project along Marsh Creek.
Consent Calendar
The consent calendar was approved, but I want to bring attention to Item 3.10 where this was continued from the last council meeting because Councilman Randy Pope provided incorrect information while challenging Chief Bani Kollo on his decision to purchase the bikes. Most importantly, the Kawasaki bikes are unavailable even if Councilman Pope got his way because the company suspended its shipments.
Interim urgency ordinance placing a moratorium on approval of Computer Gaming and Internet Access Businesses
This item was a no-brainer and was approved 5-0 by the council. This policy was drawn up based off recent Antioch and Pittsburg policies which banned the use of these types of establishments which is essentially “illegal gambling” which has increased crime in the areas around the facilities. You can view the staff report which gives all the background.
HALO Lease Terminated
Note – since the CC Times decided to screw up this story with their recap published today, I’ll spend some additional time on it while yet again attacking Renee Franceschini and throwing a minor under the bus. For the record, that minor has been a family friend for years.
Bryan Montgomery began the discussion by explaining this situation has HALO having a re-organization with two-grounds having two separate views on what happened—probably the best and easiest way to explain the firing of Tamera Reed and the volunteers leaving over the Boards decision. For the full background, the staff report provides a nice description.
Treasure Carlson provided an update of the HALO members who broke away after the firing of Tamera Reed by stating they have begun a new group called Animal Rescue Recon and are in the process of gaining their own non-profit status. They already have had their first adoption.
Lamar Pugh stated he was the teen in question and stated he was under scrutiny by the Board and newspaper which was untrue. He will be supporting the new group.
Marcello Susan Moser stated she believes in Tamera Reed and what the group was doing. Explained she knows Tamera will make this happen again, it’s just a matter of “where”.
Lynn Peterson: Opposes HALO staying at the old firehouse because while they have a good mission, its not a good fit for the neighborhood and area. It’s noisy, the residents can’t use the park because HALO uses it most of the day and the access is not good.
Verlene Leonardo stated she was past HALO president and wanted to correct information about who deserves credit—she went down a laundry list of items which she took credit for and claims she is the reason HALO was successful.
Wayne Sanderson explained his new position as President of HALO and explained the accusations against him breaking laws only lasted about an hour. Went onto attack the Tamera Reed for hiring her sister while stating Renee Franceschini turned HALO into a haircut salon. The council then cut him off stating they are not here for that.
Norma Jean Kone explained that those who left claim they love animals but what they are doing is hurting the animals. She stated it was hard to believe that these were friends doing this. Urged the council to go with the conscious instead of listening to the mudslinging.
Tamera Reed stated she was not going to get into the details, but stated they met all the requirements under the lease and exceeded it. Those requirements are no longer being met after she left.
Note, there were a few more comments of support towards Tamera Reed and the HALO group who left, it would get repetitive. Moving onto Board Comments.
Pat Anderson: “This is difficult. This isn’t about politics but rather about personalities and we do not deal with personalities. We will deal with the lease and intent of the facility.” She explained HALO has an obligation based on its lease. “My concern is what HALO exists under the new group and what is really going on.” Anderson called back up Mr. Sanderson to explain what is going on in search of answers. They went through a laundry list of items which were “yes” or “no” answers—some were not being met.
Carol Rios: Needed more information before I can make a decision. She asked about the rent going up to $500 in March and if that would be a problem. Wayne Sanderson stated that they had $150,000 in the bank and it wouldn’t be a problem.
Jim Frazier: explained the original process of HALO wanting to be housed at the Oakley Recreation Building and decided the old firehouse would be a better location so they worked on a solution.
“I am offended that you put us in the middle of this personality conflict. We can’t win in this situation and it’s not fair because we will offend one side of this. Councilwoman Anderson paid $1,100 of her own money (towards rent), it’s not fair! We have to look at another use, Right now, I just want to put all the seniors in charge of the dogs and cats”. —he stated he was being facetious after a round of applause.
“You were a force to be reckoned with. I highly suggest you talk and mend fences. I don’t like the position you have put the council in”.
Randy Pope Asked Montgomery about the lease and what it could bring in market value. Montgomery stated due to the location, probably 50 cents per square foot which would equate to $2,500. Pope stated that we have a responsibility to the taxpayer to utilize the facility to its full potential and wanted the building to go to an RFP process.
Kevin Romick stated that he agreed with the rest of the council in picking between two groups who broke apart is unfair and agreed with Frazier and Pope to put it out to bid.
Frazier suggested a 30-day delay to allow the two groups to talk and see if they can work out their differences.
Carol Rios suggested the City hold off until March because she would hate to put an organization in a position to relocate during the holidays.
Pat Anderson stated she disagreed with Rios because 120 days they can still talk and work things out or move on. She stated she is not confortable leaving this open because they are in default of the lease agreement and they need to decide what to do.
Council voted 4-1 (Rios the lone no vote)to terminate the lease and give 120-day notice.
After the vote, Frazier asked about a conditional use permit on Wayne Sanderson. I believe the city will be looking into this.
Thoughts:
Wayne Sanderson clearly has some additional explaining to do. He stated HALO has $150k in the bank, yet a group that basically cried poor at the start of the process and is paying just $100 a month (jumps to $500 in March). More to the point, Councilman Anderson paid $1,100 of her own money—she should be refunded, not that she asked.
Sanderson also admitted on record (without realizing it) that he did hold three positions at one time (even if he says it was for about an hour). The point is, he held three positions which is a no-no under California Law and when the video is released later this week online, you can view it for yourself. He also has animals at his home and its unknown by the public whether or not he has a conditional use permit to even have the animals there for the purpose of HALO.
As for Ms. Leonardo, kudos to your volunteerism but this was not the time or place to go through your accomplishments and self-proclaimed success. HALO is a group and it takes more than one person for an organization to be successful. To take that much credit is arrogant and delusional.
With this going to an RFP, Bryan Montgomery should not have given the assumption rent would be just 50 cents per square foot or $2,500—it should at least be $1 per square foot at the very worst. He basically said he would expect a group like AMR to pay $2,500 per month as he just tipped Oakley’s hand in what the rent should be.
As for Carol Rios giving the reason for not making the decision until after the Holidays, that highlights how out of touch this woman is. She is advocating for this situation that has turned into a disaster to continue for another six months. Kudos to Anderson, Frazier, Romick and Pope for making the tough decision to end it now and put it towards an RFP.
It’s a shame that HALO made a mockery of the City Council meeting. Unfortunately, the best thing for Oakley is to vote the way it did and hopefully HALO or Animal Rescue Recon can find another location. It shouldn’t be a problem for HALO considering their deep pockets.
Interviews for ECCFPD Board
I am not going to spend a lot of time going through each person’s interview because each candidate was given about 15-minutes to answer a series of questions. You can view each finalist resume on the staff report and can watch their interviews when the video is put online later this week. Note, all the candidates gave similar answers in a variety of different ways.
Here is the scoring for the five finalists with the lowest score is best. Pat Anderson excused herself as she had to leave because of her back.
- Kevin Bouillon – 10 pts
- Ronald Johansen -11 pts
- Jonathan Michaelson – 11 pts
- Alan Hartford – 13 pts
- Meghan Bell – 15 pts
Kevin Bouillon and Ronald Johansen will begin serving on the ECCFPD immediately while Jonathan Michaelson will take over for Kevin Romick next spring.
A couple of thoughts as I really think the council had a difficult decision to make when it came time to rank. You really couldn’t have gone wrong with any of the candidates.
I actually liked Jonathan Michaelson the best, maybe it was his nerves, but it was his personality that likely won me over. He has a very strong resume and he gave very solid answers once he got comfortable.
Kevin Bouillion is very solid and direct. He nailed his interview and will do well on the Board. He did state that he wanted to use the Board to expand his skills having served on the other side as a Fire Chief. He has a lot of knowledge and should be an asset to the District. My only beef with him was he referred to Oakley to much rather in his answers instead of “the district”.
With Meghan Bell being the only finalist who does not have the background in fire, I thought she gave the best overall interview. She was real, knew the answers, and communicated her positions the best. I felt like she is someone who could help change the perception of the ECCFPD to the residents going forward. I had her ranked 3 and the person to take over for Romick in the spring after the implementation of the grant begins.
I had Ronald Johansen ranked just behind Ms. Bell due to the fact he was answering questions from an academic standpoint and serving on the board should not be a college classroom atmosphere. Now don’t get me wrong, he is a fabulous choice and gave the best answers out of everyone, but it just took him a while to explain it and get to the point. Maybe I am being picky, but this is how close the interviews were.
On paper, I had Alan Hartford ranked No. 1 and probably still the best qualified to serve on the board based on his position with CONFIRE. Unfortunately, he shot himself in the foot during the interview by stating he only wanted the job if there were no better candidates and he would prefer he not be picked if that was the case. He also talked about his potential conflict of interest during negotiations with Local 1230 due to his position at CONFIRE.
The dynamics of the ECCFPD has just changed as Oakley has now loaded up the Board with Board Members with actual fire experience and will be interesting to see how that plays out on Board decisions with members who have no background in fire services.
28 comments
I am so glad that the city moved forward so fast on the fire board. One of my complaints from day one was that nobody on the board had any public safety experience. Now we have totally changed the board with people who know the in and out of the job, understand the staffing requirements that lead to OT, equipment, etc. Now if we can get Brentwood to stop dragging their feet, we can get this thing moving forward. Remember its not pensions its a revenue issue. Everyone that has followed this issue know that the only solution is to find a way to provide more revenue– another tax that has to pass. Go ahead, beat me up for that comment but its the truth.
I agree Barbara, Brentwood needs to rethink its process. I am happy with the selections for the fire board replacements because we now have fire experience making decisions. Until the four stooges (Barr, Brockman, Bryant and Stonebarger) over in Brentwood are off the board, consider the board a car without gas in it. I think Burk raised a good point that is being overlooked, you now have two, soon to be three, with experience while the rest do not. Do they trump those without? Does their arrogance cause a problem because they actually know what they are talking about. The dynamics will be interesting.
I am very disappointed in the decision to remove HALO from the firehouse. I do not believe the council acted in the best interest of the City. HALO is still the same, it’s just Tamera Reed and her sister are no longer a part of it.
If everything that Halo claims is true it and it is the same since Tamara and Renee have been ousted it should have no problem writing a new proposal and retaining the fire house after the 120 days is up. I suggest that certain members of halo step back and take a look at their actions and reflect upon where their interests really lie because it certainly doesn’t appear to be with the animals.
you all need to think about something….a board of directors is not a ‘management committee’. if management is not capable of running the enterprise then you need new management. a board of directors must be capable of assimilating a range of information, making critical strategic decisions and forward thinking. I do not know of a single successful public enterprises that has a board loaded only with individuals from within the same field. the biggest problems facing the FD’s in CCC have nothing/little to do with technical matters. in fact I could argue that those entrenched in the status quo could do more harm than good.
my comments are based on the way I have experienced and run boards for more than 30 years and have noting to do with the individuals chosen or not chosen by oakley.
The flaw in your logic is thinking government services should be run like for profit business. They aren’t. There is no profit to be made in putting out fires or giving CPR to a heart attack victim. Nor is there profit to be made answering a call for smoke or a gas leak or a water main break or to help amr get the 350 lb guy down from the 3rd floor of an apartment building via the stairs. Keep your bean counter mentality in the private sector. You’ll kill fewer citizens in need of emergency care that away.
if there is any ‘flaw’ in any logic maybe it is that those responsible for government services have not had the ‘mentality’ that those services must be paid for with real dollars. who said anything about profit? but I will say the same general principals that would lead an enterprise to profit can be used to achieve sustainable solvency.
The fact is you are not going to have sufficient staff to be putting out fires or doing cpr unless major changes are made during the time the fed $$ are bridging the gap.
you all talk like ‘bean counting’ is a bad thing…I could argue that better and more creative planning/structuring (bean management) could lead to ‘beans’ going to more folks who we want on the street providing public safety services.
I can’t post on this website without pointing out the obvious….con fire and eccfpd both need to be eliminated. a new county FD structured from the ground up needs to be developed. everyday the eccfpd board does not call on the county bos to establish a joint working group to this end is a terribly wasted day. This could be done in 2 years (or less) so when the fed $$ runs out the new FD is in place. This would not be easy and not everyone will like it but I must say that I have never seen a high level problem solved in a simple way. Tough problems call for tough solutions.
Just hoping and praying for more tax money to appear two years down the road is not solution. A board put in place with a primary focus on operations is destine to fail just like the bos has done for all these years by ignoring the obvious.
Wow you seem to have little clue how government works. The “everyone” in your comments includes about half a million people served by the 2 combined agencies. Suggesting it can be done in 2 years or less is pure fantasy. Why would the people of central county vote(because they will get an actual vote) to dilute their services for the benefit of east county? Private industry with corporate boards get to decide that kind of policy with about 5 to 11 votes in a board room. Doesn’t work like that in public services. Maybe you are overlooking that massive fly in your ointment? The solution to the funding shortage is not to expect or demand those providing services take a 50% plus hit to their standard of living. That is what you propose here. If you can’t cough up six bucks a month and see the value, then you probably should do without and suffer the consequences of the stupidity.
The other day on the news I watched 2 women attempt to load a gurney in an ambulance. 2 fire fighters had to help. Yep, don’t need fire on medical calls.
@ Jeff B,
Oh the irony!! This is exactly why you were bought out. However YOU never quite figured that out.
We love how you always self-proclaim all kinds of knowledge, but never offer anything remotely credible. It is rather amusing and almost as stunning as your ignorance.
Do you just get used to denial or is it something you are born with?
Cheers!
So, I see that you are assuming that the individuals that are in the fire service do not know this already or are incapable of looking at the big picture. That is a pretty low opinion of the people that were just appointed to the board.(Regardless of your little disclaimer at the bottom) Looking at the qualifications and resumes all of the candidates seem to have a good understanding of what a board members responsibility is. There is experience enough there that I believe they can be impartial and not want to get involved operationally. There are 9 spots on the board. Most likely they will not all be public safety personnel. It will be great to have a mix on the board. It will help those people who don’t understand the fire service to be educated about it. Look at some of the fire boards around the area and you will see there is a mix. You are taking the narrow view..Open you mind to the possibilities. Lets wait and see…I bet the board does the best they can do with what they have to work with.
Thank you Michael for another well stated article. The facts speak for themselves. We did not attack the character of Halo members at the meeting, but they felt it necessary to slander us hoping it would sway the City Council, which apparently did not work. We have a mission, and we will continue to see it through. Halo has been made accountable for not continuing to do the things required in their lease for the benefit of the community and dogs. We are very anxious to review the video of the meeting this week and again listen to the false claims made my Mr Sanderson and NJ about dogs missing, money missing, hair salon in the facility, etc. and the admission of being Treasurer, President, and Board member at the same time.. I think what really sent a message is when Mr. Sanderson stated there had been a dead dog at Halo for 4 days. He seemed confused and dishoveled and made no point other than that. It proved to me and everyone else , that yes, someone needs to be occupying the building, not just on weekends.
Pat Anderson is a hypocrite. She stated they don’t deal with personalities but that is exactly what they did. HALO has a lease because nothing has changed except a re-organization. As with any sudden turnover, not all the duties are picked up right away but with time it probably would have. The council chose the easy way out by putting it up for bid when HALO has not done anything wrong except remove two bad apples from the organization. It’s hard to attack Jim Frazier because he did the right thing in helping get us into HALO house so he gets a pass on me calling him out on this fiasco.
Mr. Burkholder, much like Randy Pope, in bringing up the rent are hypocrites for making the assumption just because we have $150k in the bank we should be charged more. This was built up over time and the City could have asked for more but wanted to help us get our feet off the ground. Do you want the city to collect $2,500 a month or do you want that money used to protect more animals and run programs?
Common Sense, if you have $150k in the bank, you obviously are not using enough of it to save animals. That is what you call an irresponsible reserve for a non-profit who basically pays less than 1% of its budget towards rent.
How quickly they forget how they got that $150K in the bank……Maddie’s Fund, which was introduced to HALO via the former president. And while most everyone worked that one weekend in June, it was all spearheaded by one individual…..preparing prior to the event, gathering specific data requested by Maddie’s Fund regarding prior year’s dogs stats (which the primary record keeper couldn’t provide & I had to step in to make sense of the numbers they had in order to file the report with Maddie’s), working her tail off during the weekend event, and finalizing all of the documentation necessary to submit to Maddie’s Fund after the event.
Funny how the current board didn’t move to vote her off until AFTER they were assured that everything was completed in regards to Maddie’s Fund, making sure they would received the $100K+ from the event. The additional funds in their account came from not only adoptions, but grant $$ that the former president worked tirelessly to apply for. One of the grants was requesting a budget – the Treasurer was unable to provide and I was asked to try and put something together that made sense so we could finalize the grant application.
In fact, at the meeting on July 5th they were singing their praises for all of the financial success she had brought to the organization. The volunteers and shift leaders that walked were at both meetings – they heard if first-hand, that’s why they left – they were not encouraged or forced by anyone other than the current HALO members.
And yet they insist “we” have tarnished their good name. They can’t get volunteers because of what “we’ve” done, yadayadayada….. Then they have the nerve to accuse “us” of stealing money, dogs & files. Maybe their incompetent record keeping took those things because I know for a fact “we” don’t have them.
Halo has had a month and a half to begin recruiting new volunteers by reaching out to Oakley and surrounding communities. If it is operating as it always has why is it so difficult to recruit and retain volunteers at this point? I was unable to find any slanderous accusations towards halo in any public forum or print so i’m not sure how Halo’s reputation has been damaged by outside sources. It seems to me that the remaining members of halo have done enough damage to themselves by the way they have handled this sad situation.
“WE” have $150k…Halo… You are so right when you say nothing has changed…You can’t change the facts…you weren’t running programs at the Firehouse…only from you living rooms.Thank you for your comment, ‘ She stated they don’t deal with personalities but that is exactly what they did.”., if it was based.on personalities, you lost again..”‘ Common sense.’.you should have used some of that at the meeting last night instead of using all your energy to lie… The two bad apples you are referring to proved again, you cannot slander them and win. They have won, much more than you know, the support of the community and city council. Facts are facts…
As much a fan as I am of libraries, why is no one mentioning how poor of an idea this is? You essentially have a group working to take tax dollars out of the hands of Oakley which would be generated from whoever rents out the CentroMart location. These are smart people, I know most of the well, they should be looking at the bigger picture instead of their tunnel vision of thinking about only the library. Some of the comments reported back are very short sided.
Well since you opened that can of worms, I will say that I thought the same thing. My personal opinion is that the city and many of the residents want the “extras” before getting the nuts and bolts in place. There are way too many other issues that need to be addressed and fixed. Getting a solid sales tax base in place to help provide the money for the fluff is a priority.
Someone was blowing his own self-important horn when he stated they had $150,000 in the bank. Their books need some serious investigation and their non=profit status perhaps removed. This is very bad.
Councilwoman Anderson should ask for a refund of the $1100 she paid for their 1st year’s rent. I’ve seen their tax returns…..they have plenty.
Agreed…I need to share this with her
Julio you are so right. The accusations made by Norma Jean Kohn said money was missing. And on record, Wayne Sanderson admitingly said in his first sentence to the council, that he was President and Treasurer for only an hour. I agree an investigation should occur. What perfect timing it is for them to blame someone else, and who better than the former Halo group.
There is no need to attack the non-profit status of HALO. As much as I disagree with the way they handled removing Tamara as President, they are still a good organization. They too, in my opinion, have a few “bad apples” who have seriously impacted the way HALO functions. It used to be that even if people didn’t agree with each other, we all at least could work together. As far as I can see, it wasn’t Tamara who caused the strife, but the addition of one or two people onto the Board who created a dynamic of deceit and backstabbing. HALO as an organization should retain it’s non-profit status. It remains to be seen if it will regain it’s reputation. For the sake of the animals in East County, I hope it does.
I was a long time volunteer of HALO before and after Tamara was President.I had recently stopped for a while due to work schedule. I saw both sides . I never knew the true reason they voted Karin Kobs off .She seemed to be doing a good job It was something to do w/ issues between her an Joyce. I knew Tamara started out as a foster then I would see her at Joyce’s home a lot taking care of the dogs. I thought they made a good decision when they asked her to be President she seemed to always work hard and truly care for the animals. I never saw or heard anything about misgoings on at The fire house location until they voted to have Tamara removed and Wayne put on as president. It seems to me this has been a fabrication to justify their reason . I was appalled to see how the new HALO staff used the city council meeting as a bashing post . So unprofessional. They other group stayed very composed under the circumstance . This is the second time HALO felt it necessary to dismiss a President when the rescue was doing an outstanding job I find this a bit odd, maybe they need to be looked into. I had really enjoyed my time volunteering at HALO and at the firehouse when I could. If my schedule ever goes back to where I can volunteer again I think I would have to choose the new group and that is where my donations will now go. Former old time volunteer
First, I’d like to respond to the characterization of Verlene Leonardo as arrogant and delusional. Verlene led HALO through a very difficult time and did a wonderful job of turning a small, fractured and stumbling organization into a very successful organization. Her leadership is unquestionably the reason HALO was a success. For some reason totally incomprehensible to me, she and Tamara do not see eye to eye on things. I respect them both. Their leadership style differs in many ways, but both are dedicated and driven to do the best they can. Both have a core group of volunteers who are loyal to them. Both should be commended for their leadership of HALO.
The bickering of these two organizations really should stop. Nothing further will be gained by publicly smearing each other. Both sides had some blame in this mess. HALO is continuing to take personal potshots at Tamara, and these potshots belittle HALO. They should be careful of accusing Tamara of committing crimes, they may have insurance to protect them against a lawsuit, but there isn’t insurance enough to protect their reputation. The HALO board member posting here under “Common Sense” seems to want to keep this whole mess alive, when nothing will be gained by it, except driving a larger wedge between the groups– when the two groups may very well need to work together in the future.
I put in seven years on the HALO board. I left in January, disillusioned by the personality conflicts that were occurring within HALO. I will help Animal Rescue Recon as I can in the future, as will I HALO from time to time. There are people within HALO I would like to see leave, but I think the mission is still important. Tamara and Treasure are people who I admire and personally like, so I’ll spend some time there. I know from speaking to several HALO volunteers that they feel the same. If this fight continues, I’m not sure that either of these groups will hold on to their volunteers. There are a lot of great organizations out there for animal lovers to volunteer with, and personally, I’d prefer one without the side dish of drama.
HALO as an animal rescue organization did a lot of good for homeless animals . i think the more mature Board members of HALO got lost along the way and possible felt threatened by the younger up and coming ,and seemed to loose focus of the real picture. Hopefully they will be able to get the focus back to where it needs to be. and move forward instead of trying to put blame where it isn’t deserved. As for any new group no matter what it may be . Use this to your advantage and learn from it . Treat people w/ respect and honor your volunteers for this is the backbone of any organization
Well said. We wish HALO the best in pulling together and once again becoming a respected asset to the community. In the meantime, Animal Recue Recon is working diligently to move past all this negativity and forging forward in establishing a reputable rescue organization. We hope to experience the same success that once was and remain focused on helping the innocent animals.
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