With the Contra Costa Fire Protection District talking about closing additional fire stations, it will have a ripple effect that will soon effect East County as response times in aided calls will be delayed.
Station #87 in Pittsburg is on the chopping block which means during a major incident in East County, residents from Bay Point to Byron will be stuck with very thin services. In some cases, it may be as few as three engines available for service.
Supervisor Mary Piepho recently had a fire occur just a few minutes away from her Discovery Bay home which required 10-engines, six being from CONFIRE. Had the assistance not been available, the argument could be made a second and even a third home could have been lost in the blaze due to the location of the fire.
I had the chance to sit down with District III Contra Costa County Supervisor Mary Piepho and ask some questions regarding future fire services in East County.
While she appears to be gravely concerned about future coverage, she is not allowing her personal opinion effect what actions the voters requested the Board perform which was “live within our means” in terms of keeping stations open. I believe we both agree this is a bad idea, but the voters spoke and were told what would happen, therefore, no one should be surprised by the closures or cry foul.
It’s her hope that in the near future, voters will change their mind and decide to approve a revenue enhancement once they see how dangerous and life threatening it is when first responder services are reduced.
Below are our questions in bold, followed by her answers.
With stations closing in CONFIRE, how concerned are you about how this will affect East Contra Costa County when major incidents like this (Edgeview Court) occur?
The recession and lowering of property values, therefore tax revenues to East County Fire and Contra Costa Fire Protection Districts are having a significant impact on our communities. I have been directly affected by a station closure in my neighborhood. No matter where you live in these districts though, a closure negatively effects everybody.
With our engines in Discovery Bay, it left the rest of East County uncovered until CONFIRE moved up. If auto/mutual aid is reduced or eliminated, how dire of a situation is it for Discovery Bay and East County in situations like last week?
Very dire. East County Fire has already been put on notice by CONFIRE Chief Louder that “backfill” or move-ups are not guaranteed and cannot put CONFIRE communities at risk.
Should the ECCFPD be looking at another revenue enhancement and are they behind in that debate?
This is not my decision. The local governing board needs to make that determination. But when the transition to local governance occurred years ago, from the Board of Supervisors acting as the East County Fire Protection District governing board to the local leadership, the intent and mission was to increase revenue to the District. That is both the short and long-term solution for East County Fire.
You made the statement last Tuesday that votes have consequences, is it the boards responsibility to sometimes correct the voters who say “live within your means” when its public safety?
These are Special District departments, not dependent on revenue from the county or cities within the district boundaries.
In policy decisions, we may have the luxury to alter action based on our knowledge and experiences. In the case of these two fire districts, the problems are based on reduced levels of revenue due to the significant losses in property tax revenue from the lowering of property values.
The voters in both districts were asked if they wanted to protect communities and provide the revenue needed to achieve/maintain basic levels of public safety. The majority of voters said no. Without any additional source of revenue to fill these budget gaps, that is a message to live within our means. Specifically, to meet budget constraints. In District’s with very lean overhead and administration costs, that means closing fire stations and laying off personnel.
If stations do close, how will you help East County and our ECCFPD Board of Directors in finding a long-term solution
If the East County Fire District’s governing board wish assistance, I’m happy to work with them both as a leader and resident of East County. But the governing board have been selected to lead this district and they will work hard to do that. They have a very tough job. We knew the failure of these measures would have a direct and negative affect on communities, lives and property. Hopefully we can work with residents to find solutions that protect us all.
14 comments
At least she is honest, it’s the voters fault. What a joke!!! Until they fix the service model on medical calls and unfunded liabilities nothing will change financially for the District.
Bro! The service model isn’t broken it works fine, just like it does all over the State and Nation.
What is broken is the whack job reporter at the CC times and the loudmouth (Kris Hunt) at the CCTax that have been making this crap up as they worry about everything and anything but your safety. They purposely ignore the lack of revenue and play loosely with the facts hoping that shallow thinkers will buy what they are selling. Your post puts you in that camp.
Grow a brain and think on your own. Only fools buy into the broken service model argument which is nothing more than a red herring presented by those lacking solutions.
Can any one of you people who repeat that lie explain yourself?
What is broken about the service model? Are you going to give up medical response? If not, who’s going to replace that service?
AMR has told you, repeatedly, that they are not a cheaper option. Maybe it’s time the naysayer camp get their hearing checked, for starters.
Clearly you voted “no” at the ballot box. You were told there would be negative consequences and now you act surprised. That’s the joke.
Great questions, especially number 4. This comes down to voter ignorance on how a ballot measure works and the consequences of a “no vote”. The District is forced to close stations. Can’t blame local 1230, supervisors, fire board or the firefighters. They said this would happen and now it is.
I say great job to the Board of Supervisors for using self-restraint and obeying voter wishes instead of throwing more money for a band aid approach. We now get the type of services a majority of people asked for. Only then will people change their mind next go around
Is it possible the fire chief was originally budgeting too high base on the fact that he wanted all of his engines and trucks I be ALS. When a 3rd party already operates under those guidelines? Why do we new more ALS medics on scene? How about bringing the department up to par (ie all stations running at least at a bld level) and having all your calls made on time before using tax payers dollars to UPGRADE an dept that was already financially failing… At this point the community is at risk and she is gonna blame it on the voters??? Hogwash this is a community full of first responders fire ugh terms police officers and service men and women how come volunteer programs aren’t being brought up o protect us?? Cause money is involved and so is piepho.
Jesse,
Dude, quit cutting your meds in half.
Your post makes no sense!
@ Jesse
I can’t understand what you are trying to say. Not sure I understand any of your points.
ALS is good for the community, but we all know that nothing is free. I doubt the fire department will have quicker response times with more cuts rather than adequate funding, so what are you suggesting? Volunteers? That program fell short a long time ago. It may work in desolate regions, but not in populated areas like the one we live in.
Funding for service comes from taxes. The voters here chose not to vote to fund the service. That is where the “blame” begins and ends. Blaming anyone else is childish.
We collectively shot ourselves in the foot. End of story.
The Supervisor should have been asked if the county was going to step up to the plate and pay the fire district for county medical call financial responsibilities. Jesse actually has some good points. As for my Bro, drinking from the public well as he does, I didn’t expect any different of an answer. The truth is Piepho and her board was the seed that put the fire district in the position it is here. She and her board need to step up to the plate and take responsibility for those actions on the fire issue. Proposition 13 was for fire service not medical services. The district was short changed by Piepho and the board when they spun off. As for the amount of fires this past few years, nothing has really changed just like the crime in Discovery Bay. Fires will happen with a tax or without. The only difference is the sky is falling threats have increased and the volunteers have been fired from their volunteer jobs. Another fact is that the previous proposed tax would not fix the problem at all. It would only put band aid on a severed artery bleeding cash because of the current service model costs and liability debt to the pension system. this happened the very first couple years after the Piepho sell out.
So for those of you who can’t handle the real truth that home values have come back. Building permits are being pulled meaning more revenue for the fire district. Finally, for those of you who feel the fire district needs more money, why don’t you send the district a check just like Frasier handed to the Chief. The truth is sometimes hard to take but this is what it is.
Baby Bro,
Drinking from the public well? Now that is comical! When it comes to “drinking”, you have demonstrated time and time again that you gulp the kool aid. You really are a screwed up individual that cannot handle reality. It’s no wonder that you are so frustrated. I pity you.
You have the mind of an child.
Sooner or later you will have to face your own demons. How many times do you have to be told, you are a fool? I can’t imagine how you constantly brush that off. Maybe because you, yourself are used to being brushed off?
As for the rest of your post, it doesn’t even merit a response. Sound familiar? LOL!!!
See, that’s the beauty of the internet. You can completely make crap up like ECVsbrother here and never have to answer to anybody. Clearly one of the small group from Disco Bay with PDS(Piepho Derangement Syndrome) which narrows the possible author to one of a few usual suspects.
This is a backwards planning individual who doesn’t understand that the district with its population density and geography won’t work with a volunteer model. Response times would skyrocket, with corresponding loss of life and property. But when you put saving a buck before public safety, this is the kind of stuff that dribbles out. Again, like the confused Mr. Smith, he obviously has no clue about the incremental cost of BLS medical responses. But he’s purty dern sure someone from County owes him a handout anyway. Nevermind that others in the County have recognized the value, stepped up and properly funded their departments. Apparently on tightwad avenue where this guy lives somebody else is supposed to pay your way or people are supposed to wait on you hand and foot for free.
Proposition 13 was for fire service? Wow. I’ll be there are a ton of people in Sacramento surprised by that news. Perhaps ECV Bro should review the tax rate area breakdown so that he might learn that 55-60% of that pie goes to education.
But the real kicker is the claim home values have come back. This, my friends, is a person living in Fantasyland, not East County.
Very well stated Jigs. I read the posts from ECVs Brother and had to wonder, are people really that dysfunctional? (Thanks for injecting a little sanity back into this topic).
I came across this passage that is ideal to summarize ECVs Brother;
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”…Martin Luther King, Jr.
“ECVs Brother” has demonstrated both.
Sky is falling threats? You can’t change history because this site has provided many photos of fires from large home fires to small grass fires. The only thing that changes going forward was up until yesterday, East County had reduced services.
Please explain the East County pension liability. I’d love to hear it. Please give me real numbers as well as how the current service model is bleeding district funds. Such the blanket statement with no facts behind it.
Also, as for the building permits, please share with us those figures. How many have been pulled in Brentwood, Discovery Bay and Oakley.
Finally, it’s “Frazier”, not “Frasier”
Don’t forget–Stations 95 Bethel Island, 57 Byron and 58 Discovery Bay are still closed. Until those stations re-open we are still behind. And I think once we get those stations re-opened (or relocated), we still need a couple of new stations to get even close to the numbers that we need.
Burk,
The only “sky is falling threats” appear to be coming from the likes of ECV’s Brother (or whatever the name of the day he is posting under-usually something attached to “voter”) and others like Kris Hunt, Dave Roberts, and Dan “Boring”stein. They think by properly funding emergency services for our district that all hell is going to break loose. I’m sick of hearing how they want everyone else under the sun to pay for service that they feel entitled to. I am sick of hearing about pension reform and some magical new super-secret service model in a district that doesn’t have issues with either.
That my friend is their dirty little threat. They love to throw meaningless innuendos out with no accountability with their opinions. It is time to start calling them out on the carpet. It’s time to make “stupid” accountable!
Enough is enough.
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