Home Brentwood Brentwood Set to Replace Appointed Fire Board Members With Council Members

Brentwood Set to Replace Appointed Fire Board Members With Council Members

by ECT

The Brentwood City Council will take up the idea at their next city council meeting of replacing East Contra Costa Fire Protection District Directors Stephen Smith and Greg Cooper with two city council members.

The move comes as Directors Smith and Cooper were appointed in January of 2013 and their terms are expiring on December 31. The recommendation to replace them with city council members came from an ad-hoc committee composed of Council Members Erick Stonebarger and Steve Barr.

ECCFPD-BoardAccording to the staff report, the ad-hoc committee met and decided that with the recent approvals of the recommendation from the multi-jurisdictional task force and Brentwood’s commitment to providing $666,000 to the fire District over 18-months, the city’s appointments should be the current elected members of the city council.

The current Fire District Board consists of nine members: four from the City of Brentwood, three from the City of Oakley and two from the unincorporated County area, each residing within the District and the respective City limits being represented.

If You Go:

Brentwood City Council Meeting
December 15, 2015 at 7:00 pm
150 City Park Way, Brentwood

Editors Notes:

It appears the Brentwood City Council ad-hoc committee after interviewing three applicants decided that council members would be much more appropriate to oversee the fire district’s influx of funds as they implement a 4th fire station re-opening, hiring, and move the process along through another potential tax measure.

The District has strict timelines moving forward as part of the task force recommendations are to look at a district name change while moving towards and elected board.

There has been some backroom chatter that if the Fire District ballot measure does fail, the District will not be able to survive long term because it needs more firefighters on its books. It could cost the City of Brentwood $15-18 million to build out its own fire department for less service–even if they miraculously received all approvals required. It’s important to note, Brentwood would not get any ECCFPD assets or equipment, they would start from scratch meaning purchase its own fire stations, engines, equipment, etc.

For Brentwood residents, it would become an automatic $500-800 tax per home.  Hypothetically, if ECCFPD ran a $500 tax per parcel, they could get at least 7-stations open.

Quick History of the Fire Board appointments:

  • In mid-2012, the East Contra Costa Fire Board decided to move away from City Council members being placed on the Board. Oakley left Kevin Romick while Brentwood left Joel Bryant on the Board to oversee the transitional period from elected officials to citizens. The idea was to give the community more control over their fire board.
  • Romick eventual dropped from the Fire Board in the Spring of 2013 while Bryant who stated he would stay on for just a year has never left his seat.
  • In August of 2014, with Kevin Bouillon resigning from the position, Oakley councilman Randy Pope replaced him giving Oakley city council representation.

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10 comments

Honest John Dec 11, 2015 - 7:23 am

ECT did you just pull the figures out of your ass on how much it would cost Brentwood? $15 million? The East Contra Costa Fire is running at $12 million for the entire district. Get your facts right.

Honest John Dec 11, 2015 - 7:25 am

ECT, did you pull these numbers out of your butt? $15 million to run a city department when the East Contra Costa fire is running it for $12 million? Get your facts right.

Hillbilly John Dec 11, 2015 - 8:34 am

What, you don’t understand the difference between the words “run” and “build”? Stations and equipment belong to ECCFPD. One or two exceptions. If you want to go it alone, you have to build it from scratch. Then after you spend all that money building it you still don’t have enough equipment to handle a structure fire so you have to rely on your neighbors who you just turned your back on.

EastCountyToday Dec 11, 2015 - 9:15 am

@John,

No, the numbers were not made up. Using simple logic, here is the assumptions using a 5-station model.

$2 million per station x 5 = $10 million to run min each year.
Purchase fire engines anywhere from $100k to $300k x 5 = $500k – $1.5 million (Most stations need more than 1 engine such as a tender)
Fire Stations being built – Oakley’s Station 93 opened in 2011 and costs $3.15 million. That math is straight forward on station costs ($15.6 million)
Dispatch – unknown
Fire Chief Salary – unknown
Fire BC Salary – unknown
Equipment – unknown
Misc – unknown

Honest Answer Dec 11, 2015 - 9:08 am

Honest John, pay attention! There is a HUGE difference between running stations and starting up a department from scratch. One is simply day to day operation and the other has to encompass purchase of all equipment, land, building construction and contents, structured staffing, incidentals from pots and pans to office equipment and the list goes on. “Honestly” I would estimate 15 million is on the low side. Even at 15 million Brentwood wouldn’t have enough resources and fire trucks to fight their own fires. As my pappy used to say: “Thems the facts.”

Stan Dec 11, 2015 - 9:35 am

As more info comes to light, it looks like a parcel tax to make up the tax shortfall is the cheapest and most permanent solution. If not -any other solution is goinging to make a parcel tax look like a big bargain. The rise in insurance costs alone is going to be staggering. If the department fails, we will get instant increases there and then a larger bill in start up costs for a new department. Not happy about a tax but it looks like the best option right now. Scratch that…..it appears to be the only option.

Local Dec 11, 2015 - 10:09 am

I think Brentwood could easily go on its own. It did with the garbage and is doing quite well. As far as fire, The equipment would be a good size investment but you do not have to buy new. Also the existing engines would have no use and be bought for a fraction of new. As far as the stations are concerned, unless Brentwood gave the stations to the district for free, the city owns them already. The city is already building it own dispatch center. I seriously doubt a $500 annual assessment is even close. Easily less than $100. And a bond for seed money.They could very well go on their own. I do feel unless something doesn’t interfere with another ECCFPD ballot ( like how they handle the name change and elected board model) it could also pass for over $ 125. Annual this time. The public is watching and needs to be listen to. We shall see.

Former Knightsen Wannabe Dec 13, 2015 - 9:40 pm

Local, what the hell are you basing your opinion on? You definitely don’t know what the —- you are talking about. All of the fire stations from Byron to Brentwood were turned over to the district which includes the property. All of it gets sold off to the highest bidder, no special deals for anyone-Brentwood included. 15 million is a conservative estimate and that only buys them a couple of fire stations- not enough to fight a single structure fire on their own.

You really think a 15 million dollar start up cost only equals 100 bucks a household. Now that’s funny. It’s no wonder why no one takes you seriously here. You just make your own stuff up as you go along don’t you? Your right about 500.00 a year not being close. It’s probably going to cost the citizens double that when you factor in all the labor costs, pension liability and increases in residential property insurance. All to save you a buck, or at least you though you were saving a buck. I’ll bet used car salesmen have a field day with you………..

Vince Wells Dec 12, 2015 - 5:18 pm

So I see we will have 2 new potential decoraters of the Titanic! Welcome aboard! Yes those chairs look nice there! We never thought of that.

Former Knightsen Wannabe Dec 13, 2015 - 12:32 am

Good for you Brentwood City Council.

It’s time to take control and right this sinking ship. The tough decisions will continue to bring critism. It must be done if we are to change things for the better. Don’t let a few icebergs get you down.

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