During last week’s annual State of the City Address, Brentwood Mayor Bob Taylor suggested its city would form its own fire department if the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District financial conditions did not improve.
Mayor Bob Taylor
The East Contra Costa Fire Protection District has been a district that has been forced to close four-stations since 2011. It’s gone from a 7-station District down to 3-stations. The Fire District has tried two revenue enhancements in four-years which were both rejected by voters.
With the rejected revenue enhancements by voters, Brentwood lost one of its two fire stations on Sept. 1, 2014 and has been forced to utilize 1-station (Station 52, located at 201 John Muir Parkway, Brentwood) to cover more than 53,000 residents. Overall, the fire district has 3-stations covering 250 square miles and providing service to 100,000 people.
Mayor Taylor clarified his comments over the weekend saying if things continue to spiral downhill, the city would work to explore and form its own maniple fire department.
“Fire is a big issue,” says Taylor. “If the ECCFPD is unable to recover from its serious financial problems, we will have to put something together if not everyone can agree. We can’t sit by if Brentwood does not have appropriate fire coverage.”
In May, a fire task force was created with Brentwood taking the lead. The task force includes both city managers of Brentwood and Oakley, ECCFPD Chief Hugh Henderson, Local 1230 representatives and representatives from both Supervisor Piepho and Superior Mitchoff’s offices who are looking at both short and long term solutions.
Although the task force has met several times, a formal plan is not expected to be presented until October. However, at the Board of Supervisors meeting in July, Contra Costa County Fire District Chief Jeff Carman highlighted that although this task force has been proactive, any solution will be a temporary Band-Aid solution for East Contra Costa.
Last week, Brentwood City Manager Gus Vina reported during the fire Board Meeting that the task force had met four-times and were close to a recommendation.
According to sources, the talks in the task force involve Brentwood, Oakley and the County sharing costs in the improvement of fire services. It would then involve multiple approvals from the City Councils and County before any solution would become a reality.
Taylor explained that if the task force is unsuccessful in its efforts, Brentwood would then explore the possibility of forming its own fire district, much like they did in 2011 before they abandoned the idea. This time, given the financial problems, lack of fire coverage, and voters not supporting a revenue enhancement, he believes they could be successful in getting all the approvals required which is a long and difficult process.
“We have to put something together and if everyone cannot agree, we can’t sit by if Brentwood does not have the coverage,” said Taylor. “Hopefully all the groups will come together and accomplish some protection from the citizens of East County both in the short term and long term. If doesn’t happen, we will begin to explore our own Department. We have to look at all alternatives. Hopefully we are all going to work together because protection of the public is the main objective. This isn’t a Brentwood thing; it’s an east county thing.”
Taylor was quick to point out this will not happen overnight. There is a lot of work to do.
“We are not going to drop $12 million on a fire department tomorrow, but we have to look into the future and all options,” said Taylor. “Having our own fire department would be just one solution of many that may occur in order to ensure our residents are protected.”
19 comments
As a resident of Brentwood,this is a stupid idea. Fix the District you already have instead of creating a larger burden on Brentwood residents.
Maybe Mr. Taylor should replace some of these fire board members who are not accountable to anyone and he take one of their seats. If Brentwood formed its own district, he would then be in control of it anyway giving orders. Does Brentwood really think it could afford 5 fire stations?
Brilliant deduction Reality! Brentwood has one and anything they do for us is more than has been done. Let’s get our own Fire Department, what we have is not working.
Brilliant deduction? Are your fricken kidding? Brentwood (and Bob Taylor) has been told, not once, but twice that forming its own fire department is not an option.
NOT an OPTION.
Not only could Brentwood not muster the economic impacts but LAFCo rules do not allow it. It’s a non starter-period. I know “Mayor Bob” is a bit slow on the uptake, but promising the people of Brentwood something he cannot deliver is a great disservice. But hey, he doesn’t sweat the details- he relies on his voters not knowing any better. Ain’t that right Bob? Oh we’ll probably won’t be an issue until the Mayor is up for election. Anyone running against him would be a fool to not point out his lack of political knowledge. It’s not a secret.
FYI, Brentwood has FOUR (not one) representatives on the fire board. Mayor Bob served on the board for a short time (he should know better). He ended up running for the exit the minute he realized that it wasn’t good for “Mayor Bob”.
Figure it out…..Its Bob that’s not working.
If B Wood is correct of which I doubt and if the cities have the representative votes then close DB station and bring it to Brentwood and Oakley where the bigger need is. The many needs out weigh the few.
I believe Bwood is correct, but why would the Fire Board members want to go against the fire chief’s recommendations? The ECCFPD is a fire district, not a city department and in as much has the responsibility to protect the entire district to the best of their abilities. Putting all ones resources in one area makes no sense.
JS,
Trying your hat as a fire director and fire chief now or are you just quoting Spock?
And to think from your last rounds of posting you were doing your best to moonlight as a traffic engineer!
Don’t quit your day job.
Someone should look at the cost for your own fire department. With pensions and all it could be prohibitive. Might be looking for volunteers which I know many of you are against.
Julio, it’s been done and it doesn’t pencil out economically or politically. Trying to run a department in a single city never does– lets not forget that fire departments rely on bordering agencies. Just what type of position do you think Brentwood would be putting themselves in by thumbing their noses at their neighbors. Not to mention that they would have to start from scratch building stations, buying equipment, training, equipment maintenance, dispatch and hiring personnel–and that is just for starters. Those costs would most likely double or triple the Mayors 12 million dollar guestimate. To say its prohibitive is an understatement.
The volunteer suggestion has been brought up more times than I can remember. It’s not that “many are against it” it’s more of a situation where “a few don’t want to accept the fact that it no longer is a viable option”. Its been explained many times but some people want to keep bringing it up over and over and over and over. It isn’t a realistic solution given the demographics of the district as it is today. Being a volunteer is not the same as it was 30-40-50 years ago, nor is the response area. There is a laundry list of reasons (which I am sure you are aware of) of why volunteers are no longer an option for ECCFPD. East county outgrew the possibility for a volunteer program years ago. Time to accept the fact.
Kudos Mayor Taylor. The only solution for us Brentwood residents is take control of our own. We only have one fire station. This means we are financing other places like Discovery Bay Fire Station. Our own Fire Department like most cities have is the only way to save Brentwood from disaster. Disaster will eventually come with our dysfunctional fire district and its over priced union.
Its a great idea and should be sought after as soon as possible.
We Need our own FD,
You could not be further from the truth. Too bad Mayor Taylor fooled you, he should know better.
Actually it is communities like Discovery Bay and Bethel Island that are subsidizing cities like Brentwood when it comes to the financing of the fire district. DB and Bethel Island pay more per capita (per household) that Brentwood or Oakley. Don’t be fooled. “Most cities” do not run their own Fire departments, especially small cities like Brentwood. They cannot afford to, plus you are overlooking the initial start up costs which would run into the tens of millions. Mayor Bob Taylor should already know that LAFCO (which is the approval agency) would not allow Brentwood to opt out of the district. He just told you what he thought you wanted to hear. Now that is dysfunction coming right from the guy you wanted to give “kudos” to.
Overpriced Union? Looks like someone needs to do their homework. ECCFPD firefighters are by far, the lowest paid in the entire Bay Area.
Was there anything in your post that was factual? If so, I couldn’t find it.
You and the Mayor are not doing Brentwood any favors by painting the city as self centered.
Read what Assemblyman Jim Frazier wrote on Sept 2, 2015 and see that East County does not get its fair share of property taxes for our fire protection. The taxpayers are already paying in the form of property taxes
Linda, that is not what it said. It states that in East County your taxes are apportioned differently because of different taxing apportionments that were in place when Prop 13 was passed by the voters. It says nowhere that East County does not get its fair share. We are getting what we pay for, its just not what we have come to expect.
Jim Frazier didn’t provide any real information or solutions in his op-ed. You (and Mr. Frazier) need to have a better understanding about where your property taxes go before opining on the subject. You are paying a fraction of what the rest of the county pays for fire service and in turn you are getting exactly what you are paying for. You need to look at your TRA (Tax Rate Area) which is a 5 digit code listed on your property tax. You can start there. If you want further clarification directly from the answer from the source, contact the fire district or better yet, the county assessor (His name is Bob Campbell).
Really folks, all of you continue to complain and it was only $95.00 per year to keep two stations open.
Dinner and movies for the family, shame on all of you……….
The old sayin’ “you get what you pay for” seems to be lost on some people here. If you have been following along, then you will know with a certain, certainty that we are only paying for 3 staffed fire stations. If we want more then we have to pay for them. The excuses are getting pretty thin. In the rest of the county a higher percentage of our property taxes goes to fire services. Here in EC our property taxes go to fund other services that the rest of the county doesn’t have (namely a few school districts and special districts). Frazier and Taylor both know that and they also know those districts won’t voluntarily give up their revenue. Ladies and Gentlemen, you have been played by your local politicians.
@ Feel the pain, I would GLADLY pay 95,00 per year to keep 2 more stations open. But please, please, please, stop trying to sell it to me as the cost of a “daily a cup of starbucks” or in your example “Dinner and a movies for the family”. I already spent that money on the last 4 school bonds as they used the same tactic.
How ’bout being honest with the voters for a change? 95 bucks will open fire stations and keep your family safer. More importantly it will keep our insurance rates from going through the roof.
95 dollars is the start of many more attempts to increase our taxes. Look at your tax bill people. It is littered with liberty high and east bay parks. Time for state legislators to pass a bill that allows tax redistribution for situations like this. We all pay the same tax rate like it or not.
JS, I’m not on the same page of thinking 95.00 is the start of many more attempts to increase our taxes. The importance of this service is much to important to dismiss as an attempt to raise taxes. While our tax bills are littered with school and park bonds it is us the VOTERS that approved each and every one of them. The legislators have no inclination to touch Proposition #13 which set tax distribution (see Jim Frazier’s op-ed piece). They all know that every city and special district claws for every dime they get, and giving up any of it is a non starter. We all pay the same tax dollar but it is distributed according to the service needs of where we reside. The percentage going to the fire district was set in the 1970’s for the designation of the department (rural), but things have changed by the influx of people moving into Brentwood, Oakley and Discovery Bay transforming our communities into a urban area. Now that must be addressed. We are paying for rural service but are expecting urban service. If we want (and need) and urban fire department we have to pay for it (as you said) “like it or not”.
At Inside Outside
You say we all pay the same tax dollar but it is distributed according to the service needs of where we reside. That’s Bull.
That was true until our fire department was taken over. Now Bethel Island has nothing and we pay the most per dollar. We don’t even get what we used to have for the money we pay. If we could just have what we use to have it would be better than we have now. Brentwood has the resources to makes its own way. They should get to it before they end up like us with nothing.
Can you believe it ?
The Times article by Mathew Artz states ” Leaders are gearing up for another tax measure “.
This is unacceptable to continue to waste our tax dollars for a third time in a couple years to ask for more money when the answer is clear. A judge should put a stop to this. What is even more interesting are two facts shown. The first is all the station closures are districts represented by local 1230. Secondly, out of all nine districts that have worse response times than 2007, Only one increased response times by over a minute. That district, the only district to have a faster response time and no station closures is Crockett. A Volunteer Fire District. When ECCFPD did have volunteers there was a budget to run that division. That was cancelled due to hardships of the ECCFPD costs. Just think that wasting several hundred thousand dollars on tax measures and planning to do it again would allow the volunteer program to continue for five years. The State, LAFCO, The Courts and the People of this state must stop multiple times a district can use public funds to ask for more taxes after being told no more than once by the people. At least a three year waiting period. Maybe volunteers is the answer to increasing response times according to the 9 district study.
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