In a document obtained by Halfway To Concord, it has come to light that Contra Costa Supervisors promised County firefighters a parcel tax in June 2011. The Fire Protection District Board meets Tuesday July 31 to vote on a proposed $75 parcel tax. However, the decision on that parcel tax may have been made a year ago according to the document that was sent to Vince Wells of IAFF Local 1230 Representative on July 28, 2011.
That letter which was signed by County Administrator David Twa reads: “On behalf of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, it is my understanding that the Board will make its best efforts to place a parcel tax proposal on the ballot prior to December 2012, relative to the Contra Costa Fire Protection District.”
The Fire Board which is comprised of the members of the Board of Supervisors has the ultimate power to place this tax on the November ballot. So without any public hearing or transparency (the letter was buried as Attachment F) from a board hearing over a year ago) the Supervisors eagerly sold out taxpayers by promising union officials clear sailing for its effort to place an egregious parcel tax before voters.
Since last year all we’ve heard from CoCo Supes like John Gioia, “Oh we are going to take a look at pensions and other budget costs,” when in fact the dirty deal was already dealt. What hooey.
Even if we use the phony pension numbers proposed by Chief Louder, pension costs are slated to rise even further, in addition to million dollar expenses looming for replacement of aging fire engines and costly building replacements and rehab. With the proposed budget AND the parcel tax revenues, the County Fire System will STILL be spending more than it will bring in by 2015-16 budget year.
Despite the feints and public pronouncement made by Supervisors over the past year, budgets and expenses, and pension reform were never really seriously considered as Supervisors and union leaders joined forces to make mince meat of taxpayers, with intimidation, cries of calamity if the parcel tax is not passed, and the full force of the County machinery invested in the passage of the tax.
SHAME ON SUPERVISORS: Gioia, Glover, Mitchoff, and Piepho who broke faith with the citizens they serve as they made their very BEST EFFORTS to purposely mislead voters for over the past year as they conspired with union officials to ignore budget shortfalls and rising costs with the sole purpose to stick it to Contra Costa taxpayers. RICO!!!!
See the letter below.
Bill Gram-Reefer is Editor & Publisher of Halfway To Concord, founded in 2004. Halfway To Concord is the leading online source for community-driven political news, events, and opinion for Contra Costa County and the San Francisco East Bay.
{ 52 comments… read them below or add one }
Open letter to EastCounty Today:
I take umbrage at you calling me a liar. Maybe, with your impaired brain, I should define umbrage for you since you probably don’t have a clue what it means – A feeling of anger caused by being offended.
I was there, you were not, and I was the one who fell down the stairs. I wasn’t unconscious nor did I bump my head. I know who arrived when and AMR was there as fast as the useless firefighters.
So you think the FD ALWAYS arrives first. I’ve got news for you, they don’t. Where is the link to the document from LAFCO that shows fire arrives faster?
As to heads, you need to get yours out of “where the sun don’t shine”. Too bad fire shills like you try to muddy the waters on this unnecessary parcel tax. But we opponents are going to kick your butt in the November election with a similar result that East County fire experienced.
And, I’m brave enough to use my own name. What’s your excuse for hiding behind a pseudonym? Chicken?
He might have been from East County – I do not recall. But it is the Fire Commission Chair that should have told him not to do what he did.
He had to identify himself to speak and the BOS keeps record of blue card submitters and commenters. It is a matter of public record and will be on the video.
At the VERY LEAST, the BOS owes the taxpayers a COMPLETE explanation about this letter.
P.S. The BOS also owes the taxpayer advocates (and the general public) a HUGE apology for allowing a childish firefighter to violate public comment protocol and make an offensive accusation against the taxpayer advocates. The BOS sycophants did NOTHING when the childish firefighter violated public comment protocol by directly addressing the taxpayer advocates in the audience and the BOS sycophants did NOTHING when the childish firefighter made the offensive accusation against the taxpayer advocates. Just imagine what the BOS would do if the roles were reversed.
Civility? From the Supervisors? Favoritism knows not protocol, only its self interest; which obviously is not in the interest of taxpayers or common sense.
The civility Claire is alluding to is that a firefighter turned directly to me (who had signed the ballot argument against the East County Fire tax on behalf of CoCoTAX) and essentially said someone had died because of me. That is unacceptible behavior and the chair should have instructed the firefighter to address the board.
It is interesting that the firefighters who extended their contract until AFTER that election took no responsibility for the impact of their failure to deal with their pension problem had on the that election.
To Kris,
A reprimand should have been issued by the Chief for that firefighter. This type of comment is unacceptable and unprofessional.
The letter above in this article clearly shows that the union is playing the public through the Board of Supervisors and their campaign contribution influence.
So as you stated, the firefighters union by delaying their negotiations should admit to some responsibility for the entire problem.
The BOS should be investigated along with the County Administrator.
I wonder how much the politicians pay the lamestream media to print & parrot their propaganda? Between the time I helped write the argument against Lafayette’s last parcel tax & it’s election day, I found out about a massive cover up by the lamestream media.
It turns out that the Lafayette police were called 4 times on Lafayette’s most famous murderer, Scott Dyleski, for credit card fraud, the day before the murder. The Lafayette police did not show up until 5 days after they were called. Then they showed up like a army of thugs.
Every lamestream media outlet deleted these facts. I wonder how much they were paid?
The story about this fact, was on newsmakingnews.com . I confirmed the story from a reliable source. It has disappeared from that site. “Page not found”, comes up.
Now the politicians are screaming FIRE! How much money are the politicians paying the lamestream media, to delete anything detrimental to them??
Claire and others who are interested, the names, rank, and pay (including overtime) can be found at the CoCoTAX website: cocotax.org The chart that Mr. Bill posted here of the 201 retirees receiving $100,000 or more in retirement is found there as well.
As I hit the send button from the last post I hear my room mate say, Anyone can put out a fire, but it takes very specialized person to prosecute a child molester. I laughed.
The letter that is displayed here from Mr. Twa is very concerning. It looks like some ethics are being played with. The DA’s Office gets a cut shoved down their throat and the Fire Union gets a promise of more money. The stress and danger to district attorneys has to be as severe as fire people. The board of supervisors flexed their muscles on the DA’s office. Maybe the DA’s office needs to flex back on all the ethical games of the supervisors and do some investigating there. I would rather keep a potential rapist or child molester in jail over putting out a grass fire for a couple hundred thousand per person. The fire costs are way to high to give up more money. I’m not voting for a new tax.
“In March, the City Council adopted targeted savings of $1 million annually from the current $7.1 million it spends for shared fire service. Nearly all options before the council last night exceed the target, although Grassilli said all plans but his will carry JPA termination costs.”
…
“In contrast, Wackenhut, of Florida, offers a 10-year agreement with multiple service options ranging from the status quo of three firefighters per station for a little more than $4 million annually the first year up to $4.6 million a year initially for a deluxe alternative with four firefighters, SUVs and ladder trucks. The baseline proposal would see costs drop to $3.8 million in the second year because it wouldn’t include startup costs and then ramp up to $4.6 million by year 10. The more extensive option would increase costs to $5.4 million in the 10th and final year of the contract.
Firefighters would work in two 72-hour shifts, with each including seven or nine personnel, similar to Cal Fire.
Wackenhut will hire BSCFD employees as long as they meet criteria and certification established by the city and company, according to its report.
The company also is willing to discuss provision of hazmat services and establishment of a reserve firefighter program.
San Carlos, and cities everywhere, could have cut their FD budget from 7.1 about in half, —and— had a new reserve firefighter division.
The answer is WACKENHUT.
Claire,
I saw this posted on the press.net commenting on Vince Wells of local 1230. Is this what you are looking for? These are probably total costs to taxpayers for that person.
Contra Costa County Clausen, Curtis D Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $305,426
Contra Costa County Pohlhammer, Michael K Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $308,761
Contra Costa County Woods, David R Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $299,665
Contra Costa County Walker, William J Battalion Chief-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $298,307
Contra Costa County Platt, Kevin M Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $296,588
Contra Costa County Brondolo, Alfred Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $285,614
Contra Costa County Stovell, Joy P Fire Engineer/56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $285,216
Contra Costa County Quesada, Michael S Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $283,389
Contra Costa County Manzo Jr., Louis Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $281,676
Contra Costa County Kipp, John P Battalion Chief-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $280,592
Contra Costa County Peterson, Darin E Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $279,712
Contra Costa County Smart, Jamie B. Fire Engineer/56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $276,982
Contra Costa County Cormier, Keith J Battalion Chief-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $276,163
Contra Costa County Sonsteng, Richard J Battalion Chief-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection Districtc $276,124
Contra Costa County Penaloza, Franklin Fire Engineer/56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $273,388
Contra Costa County Newberry, Terry R Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $273,214
Contra Costa County Freeman Jr, Richard M Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $271,466
Contra Costa County Wannamaker, Scott A Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $270,252
County Stralovich, Catherine S Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $269,434
Contra Costa County Smith, Benjamin T Battalion Chief-40 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $269,366
Contra Costa County Dick, Eugene E Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $269,098
Contra Costa County Alailima Jr, Elia Fire Engineer/56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $268,192
Contra Costa County Hartford, Alan B Battalion Chief-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $267,720
Contra Costa County Walker, Ronnie M Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $265,826
Contra Costa County Gleeson, Tim P Fire Engineer/56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $264,826
Contra Costa County Depolo, Matthew J. Fire Engineer/56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $264,821
Contra Costa County Danielson, Donald C Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $264,787
Contra Costa County Burris Jr., Xon C Fire Captain-56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $264,396
Contra Costa County Robb, Kenneth R Fire Engineer/56 Hour
Ccc Fire Protection District $262,857
Wendy, Kris, and all other taxpayer advocates,
Please be sure to disseminate information about TOTAL cost of employment for ConFire employees.
I’d suggest posting a list on your websites of the 30 highest TOTAL cost of employment for ConFire employees.
@Claire:
A 103% benefits factor has been previously used by the county in ConFire budget discussions. Will need to get that verified and updated, if necessary.
A benefits factor of over 100% of salary seems unbelievable.
Latest CA U-6 number is 20.3%. This is the most accurate unemployment figure because it includes the complete universe of discouraged workers.
California’s high U-6 is why tax and bond measures on the November 6th ballot will be a mighty tough sell. Voters view public employees as the “haves” — and don’t like subsidizing government worker largesse.
See: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/07/california-ranks-second-highest-in-employment-distress.html#storylink=cpy
Bringing up the U-6 number has nothing to do with this ballot measure and you are comparing apples to oranges. Keep on acting like the CoCo Tax parrot you are!
@ EastCountyToday:
The U-6 — and all it represents — impacts voter attitudes.
Therefore it has the potential to affect prospects for all tax and bond measures on the November ballot.
Brian – the number of inaccuracuracies about pensions per line in your post are unbelievable. However, I will deal with the attack on me regarding East County Fire District Parcel Tax first since you blame me for anyone is suffers in that Fire District and I regard that as a serious charge. I was essentially pointed out as fully to blame for a death at yesterday’s Board meeting and I take that charge seriously as well.
— The East County Fire Board should be blamed for putting a tax on the ballot that 56% of the people in that district voted AGAINST.
— The East County Firefighters should be blamed for failing to agree to sign a new agreement changing pensions, etc., prior to the election. People from that district told me that was a factor for them.
— The firefighters sent multiple mailers to homes in the District, while those opposing the measure took no action other than writing a ballot argument that, in fact, quoted the Fire Chief.
By the way, the Chief never disputed the numbers that we used from his presentations.
—If you were not so blinded by misinformation you might actually acknowledge that when I first went out to do research on the District’s situation it was with the idea of supporting a tax increase because that district has been poorly funded.
East County had a number of options, but they, much like we are seeing at ConFire, believed that a tax could fail. They threatened the residents with dire consequences and 56% of the voters voted no.
Kris, I don’t blame you for real, not perceived or threatened delays in patient care. The voters have spoken and decided in East County that they want a smaller fire department, one that has and will continue to have signifigant delays to medical and fire service calls. I will respect you more when you actually jump on a fire engine and do a ride along, and see first hand what these men and women are up against on a daily basis. East County Firefighters make one of the lowest salaries in the state, even less than CDF. You said in both the BOS Meeting and on TV that only 3.3% of Con Fires calls are fires. You are speaking a half truth for a sound byte. Being the “numbers person” you are, you can quickly figure out that 3.3% of 50,000 is about 1600, or roughly 4 fires per day. Forget the vehicle accidents where people have to be cut from their vehicles, or the public service and medical calls. Ask the residents of Rossmoor if they are ready to shutter their firehouse that proudly serves Rossmoor on average 10 to 15 times per day. Whether they are helping someone who needs help up or assisting a resident with medical issues, Con Fire is happy to provide that service.
My point is that you are not being totally honest to the public with the facts and you know it. Telling half truths and distorting the facts to benefit the anti tax angle is unethical. Forget telling the voters that their properties have been aggressively reassessed at lower values for 4 years now and people have saved hundreds if not thousands in property taxes, or that Redevlopment agencies in this county have stolen 10′s of millions of dollars from the Con Fire Budget for many years now. Most of all, you know for a fact that the Con Fire Employees pay the most out of their own pockets for their pension of any public agency in the USA. Comparing Con Fire to Stockton or San Jose is a joke, because until recently both of those cities paid 100% of the Employee pension contribution. On average in California, firefighters pay about 7-8% of salary for their pension, Con Fire members pay between 25-28% of their salaries for pension. You love standing on your soap box and slamming this parcel tax at the detriment of the citizens. I live in a Con Fire area also, and shutter to think what insurance rates will be when 7 – 10 stations close. The ISO and Insurance Companies are watching very closely and rates have already increased for cash strapped middle class homeowners in far east county. Unfortunately you and your group will continue to villify and hate firefighters until one day you will need their service. I have no doubt in my mind that when that day comes they will deliver the finest care and utmost professionalism to you in your time of need. I pray daily that your group find peace in your hearts and direct your energies to something that is positive. God Bless you Kris Hunt and CoCo Tax, I will continue to pray for you.
The Stupidvisors vote was predicable. There isn’t an elected board in the county that talks about raising taxes, then changes their mind. It’s like the recent tax for the rain that falls on your roof, that the Stupidvisors recently tried to trick people with, by calling it the “Clean Water fee”.
I purchased a white fire extinguisher for my kitchen at the Pittsburg Walmart last Wednesday for $18.97 plus tax. A mate for my red fire extinguisher.
If the voters are foolish enough to pass this tax, it’s 100% certain the politicians will squander the money and ask for more.
The “Pension” Reform that you SCREAM about has already taken place in Contra Costa Fire. The public pays 0% of 3@50, the public pays 0% of COLA’s. Even Kris Hunt cannot argue that Contra Costa Firefighters pay the MOST (#1 in the US, way more than San Jose and San Diego) for their pensions of any public safety (police & fire) agency in the US. You can call me names, call me a “Union Thug”(although I am a Moderate Republican), or slam me in some other childish way, but the facts are the facts. Speaking of facts when Richter was Chief, CCCFPD had zero pension liability, but that was eroded after CCCERA decided to depool the pension system. I used “Wendy’s” lets calculate your own pension tool, and found that I would have to be retired for over 30 years (33 to be exact) before I touched one penny of taxpayers or employer contribution. I would love to live to age 87 so I could collect taxpayer money into the system. AMR is a great company, I know because I worked there for many years, but AMR cannot put out a house fire, or like yesterday a 2 acre grass fire threatening homes in Lafayette. Many times Fire is first on scene for several minutes providing Advanced Life Support for the patient, and always help lift the patient to the gurney. (something Kris and Wendy know ZERO about). Kris Hunt’s comments to the media are desperate and ill conceived at best, I have rarely seen someone on camera that is so ignorant to the facts of how the EMS System operates in this county or the Bay Area. Contra Costa has one of the highest Cardiac Arrest Survival Rates in the US, one of the quickest 911 call to the Cath Lab on Heart Attack Patients in the US, and has some of the best Paramedics and EMT’s in the world working for AMR, Con Fire, San Ramon, Moraga-Orinda, El Cerrito, Rodeo Hercules, Pinole, Richmond and East Con Fire. Oh, and by the way Kris, I hope that your happy that last week a 12 year old serious medical emergency in Oakley had to wait SEVERAL (10+) minutes for a Fire Engine from Pittsburg, because the majority of East County was on a second Alarm Fire, and AMR was tied up on multiple other calls. Unfortunately innocent people will suffer when Engine Companies are shut down, and responses are delayed. Your uneducated statements to the media have and will continue to threaten public safety.
Brian,
You must not get it. It’s not the value, need, and respect for Firefighters that are at issue. It is simply the cost is too high per position. You state that the public pays zero for COLA and 3 @50. You must be more intelligent than that to know that the money that YOU pay comes from the taxpayers. More importantly, is the fact that what you pay from us the taxpayers through you is actually short paid. When the contribution is made to pensions from you the Firefighter (actually from taxes collected) based on a 7.5% return when the actual return is more like 2% someone has to make up the difference. So when you retire leaving short paid contributions, we the taxpayers are asked to pay more in the form of a new tax. This is the problem, not your base salary, not your needed service, not anything at all but the fact that the position you hold has benefits that cost too much. This tax will do nothing more than most new taxes. It will push the problem on to our children unless we solve it today by saying no to overspending. If you look at your base salaries compared to your gross salaries the problem is clear. Pensions and benefits are over promised and under paid. The confusion is not the base salary but the underpaid into pension and benefit funds. Until that is fixed this debate will continue. It is important to note that all emergency personnel are respected, needed, and appreciated. We need to change the system to pay as we go and stop mortgaging our children’s future by over generous promises by politicians and unions that we can’t keep. This is why the Fire District is Millions in debt already. This tax will not fix anything until the root problem is corrected. There is a lot of talk about working on the problem but no actual correction has been agreed on or established. Until then any new tax is a waste.
Brian old boy you are targeting the wrong people when you go after Kris Hunt and Wendy Lack. Their comments contain public facts while yours are somewhat questionable or unsubstantiated. Somehow you got your head “where the sun don’t shine”.
Your target should be the BOS (ConFire Board), the firefighters union and the firefighters themselves. The BOS is owned by the union (except for Candace Andersen), the union is totally intransigent and the firefighters are laughing, as Liberace said, all the way to the bank.
A 5% reduction in salary is peanuts. It’s simply a political ploy by the union in trying to make people think they are giving up something. A 20-25% reduction in both salary and pensions (including those already retired) is giving up something. And ConFire would have plenty of money.
I don’t care if it closes stations. It can achieve good fire protection with half the stations it has. All it has to do is stop going on medical calls (only 3.3% of its calls relate to fire). After all, AMR is a perfectly good and reliable medical emergency service.
Recently I fell down the stairs in our house. My wife called 911 for the first time in our lives. AMR and a fire engine arrived at the same time. The fire folks stood around and chit chatted while AMR did all the work. Fire didn’t need to be there.
As I said at the beginning you are targeting the wrong people. Leave Kris and Wendy alone. They aren’t the problem. The BOS, the union and the firefighters themselves are the culprits.
Mr. Hambrick,
you fell down some stairs? Did you bump your head because it sure sounds like it with your very ignorant statements.
I request you pull the incident report in order to prove they arrived at the same time.
I am looking at a document from LAFCO right now that states engines arrive 2-5 minutes before an ambulance. Nice try.
For the record, if AMR was to pick up the slack for the closed stations, they would have to hire more folks and renegotiate their contract which would be significantly higher–then you would find a way to complain about that.
Please go see a doctor for your head.
To East County Idiot,
Mr. Hambrick provides a personal experience and you nearly call him a liar. You are an idoit. Besides who cares if AMR renegotiates a new contract. It is contra costra county that is required to provide emmergency medical services. It is also true that taxes collected for emmergency medical come from a different tax collected other than the fire tax. Someone at the county is fooling the citizens with less than adequate ambulance service and using fire as the excuse. Fire is using medical calls as a need for new taxes when the county is responsible and collects taxes from a different source. By the way idiot, I too was in a vehicle accident where AMR paramedics were assisting my medical needs while the firefighters stood around and BS’d. Even the CHP was actually doing something. I also see the costs for firefighters. Look at todays paper. There is a picture of one firefighter spraying water while three are BSing. That is a million dollars annual cost to us. A million dollar picture that is only worth one forth. Keep up the good work Kris, there are many intellegent people who love you and your work. Let the idiots blabber.
County Supervisor Candace Andersen opposed placement of this tax measure on the ballot, on a 4-1 vote at today’s Fire Board meeting. She expressed appropriate concern about the District’s lack of financial planning – correctly observing that the whole discussion re District finances just didn’t track.
Kudos to Andersen for honestly speaking her mind, acting independently and breaking free from the Board’s groupthink.
It is inevitable this tax measure will fail. Then county sups will need to find efficient ways to deliver services – simply slashing services is not leadership.
BTW, here’s the CCTimes summary of today’s meeting:
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_21201908/contra-costa-fire-tax-measure-sent-voters
Wendy you apparently Lack an attention span from yesterday. Two hours earlier, Ms. Andersen voted not to impose a reduction for the DA’s office–meaning she goes against what CoCO Tax which is advocating for a pay increase and against what you are praising her for on the fire vote. If you ask me, you both are confused.
@ EastCountyToday:
Please refer to Mr. Peterson’s remarks yesterday regarding “politically powerful bargaining groups.”
From yesterday’s BOS and Fire Board meetings it was clear that some bargaining groups are more favored than others. The stark contrast in the county supervisors’ demeanor in the two meetings — one re the DAs and the other re ConFire — was notable.
Please also note that my comments are my own and have nothing do to with the views of the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association, whose official spokesman is its executive director, Kris Hunt.
I am not surprised that Mary Piepho sold out to the public. Look at what she did to Fire in East County. However, Gioia I never thought would conspire with the rest. I always took him for an independent thinker for his constituents. It is another sad day for the public to watch our Supervisors continue to procrastinate on issues such as this. Eventually the voters will smarten up like they have in East County and realize these types of new taxes are a waste without the equal support of the Supervisors to confront the problem. This new tax along with many others are placing too much burden on the public. This next election with all the new taxes asked for will be historic one way or the other
These are honest questions (not rhetorical questions):
Does that prior action invalidate the subsequent vote to place the proposed tax on the ballot?
Does that prior action violate the Brown Act?
Does that prior action violate any federal civil law(s)?
Does that prior action violate any federal criminal law(s)?
Does that prior action violate any state civil law(s)?
Does that prior action violate any state criminal law(s)?
A response from state/federal regulators and/or state/federal law enforcement is warranted.
Nice work Sherlock. What a complete embellishment of a benign letter. Why not just skip to the point where you despise pensions and unions instead of using this letter as a prop for something it’s not. This is such a non-story it’s comical.
Dear fire union shills. The letter says what it says. The actions and statements of the board of supervisors that misled voters with promises of addressing unrealistic budget and pension issues is more than disappointing; possibly actionable. Your attempts to brush this issue under the carpet is not in the public interest, especially when the supervisors promise the sky to the fire union a year in advance of now questionable “open” and “fair” public hearings concerning a phony budget with built in deficits by 2015-16. But you go ahead and spin it any way you want; and don’t forget to sneer for the camera.
THESE QUESTIONS MUST BE ANSWERED:
Does that prior action invalidate the subsequent vote to place the proposed tax on the ballot?
Does that prior action violate the Brown Act?
Does that prior action violate any federal civil law(s)?
Does that prior action violate any federal criminal law(s)?
Does that prior action violate any state civil law(s)?
Does that prior action violate any state criminal law(s)?
RICO
These supervisors are in the hands of the public employee unions come hell or high water.. On November 6th they will be in the voters hands.
Opponents of this gang of thieves should take heart and crank up their campaigns.
Now who’s a fine T.E.A. party patriot to run against these slobs for the next election?!
This is unacceptable; it’s time to elect responsible people to represent this County.
Stop pandering to unions; stop ignoring budget shortfalls incurred by increasing unaffordable pensions.
I will work to unseat you !
sincerely, barbara murphy
Why you are wrong Mr. Gram-Reefer.
ARTICLE
As for Ms. Lack, this is no development, but rather old news. If there was no transparency or discussion as stated, I believe you and Ms. Hunt would not have been corrected by Supervisor Piepho and Glover a few weeks back.
Burke, you are a union shill with your talking points.
News Flash: The voters are NOT suggesting a pension fix that will reduce costs decades from now. As you point out, that wouldn’t make any sense. We are saying pretty clearly that we will not vote for any new tax until the pension mess is fixed – and that means weighing the value of bankruptcy and a drastic change to providing services by using non-union medical services such as AMR.
Burke, you can call it like you see it – but don’t expect anyone to buy your sauce any more now than when they voted down the new tax in East County over your whiney threats of Armageddon.
This memo is noteworthy because it demonstrates the political norm in our county: The BOS and Unions who elect them are working together to bring and maintain unsustainable benefits for themselves. And we know the BOS and fire district are not going to put an honest tax increase before the public that would actually solve the financial issues largely brought about by unfunded pension and medical benefits. That number would scare the stripes off a zebra. Instead they will ask for what they think they can get by threatening us with reduced services and continuing on with the completely unrealistic investment returns that will be paid out by our children and grandchildren.
No thanks! It’s time to turn the ship in a different direction. And lucky for you Burke, we will take you along for the ride.
MB is so far up Piepho, Wells, Glover, and his good buddy Frazier’s …… along with any other spendthrift politicians. The fact remains that the Supervisors AND the Union have done next to nothing to fix the over generous pension debt. The six figure salaries and pensions that haunt this County need to stop. Typical spend today worry about it tomorrow. Promise today, screw everyone else tomorrow. Stop this cancerous relationship between politicians and unions now. Force the politicos with promises to do their job and spend within their means. Stop passing the buck to our kids while you suck off the system today. Vote no on all taxes, bonds, and fees. Our debt has just gone too far and the taxpayers are clean out of extra money to give. Burk and his kiss ass to politicians is a joke. This new tax is just like the one in East County, a waste of good money down the toilet. Time for the public to send a message to government. No is the only way to go.
Fix It First… use your real name and lets talk.
Love Mike
This development simply affirms what we’ve known all along: the public is not represented by its elected officials. Rather, county sups and organized labor actively work for their mutual benefit, at the expense of taxpayers and contrary to the public interest.
Sadly, it’s the same story for many city councils, as well.
The people of San Jose and San Diego found a way to circumvent entrenched political and labor interests. Perhaps necessary reforms can only come from the public, via direct ballot box measures.
If the public is no longer represented by its elected officials, what choice is there?
After Contra Costa voters reject this parcel tax, the next order of business may need to be voter-initiated ballot box reforms . . . what’s to lose?
Speaking of Gross Salary counting toward pensions Let’s not forget builtins like: uniform allowance, education allowance for (not all actually take the classes), temp upgrade pay, EMT pay 12.75% for paramedics…It looks like we are paying for a Porsche 911 Turbo S when we only need a Cayman.
Voters increasingly view public employees as royalty. With their blast-from-the-past compensation packages, today’s government employees are the so-called “one percenters” from the perspective of average private sector workers and small business owners.
Those unemployed or underemployed private sector workers don’t relish footing the bill for government workers’ six-figure pensions, lifetime paid medical and generous pay/benefit packages.
While elected officials and public employee unions desperately seek to perpetuate the status quo government gravy train, an informed electorate is likely to throw a wrench in the works this November.
Apples and oranges, Mike. I know it’s popular to hate lawyers, though. Too bad Supes are taking part in interdepartmental neener-neener warfare.
Documents paint a harrowing picture of city’s financial ills
IT’s … SALARIES UBER SAFETY – like east coco. Stockton firefighters get paid 188k (or is it $147k – I see different numbers)… and the fire dept budget was squeezed so much they couldn’t replace trucks. So they have breakdowns on the way to emergencies? Add a few million, or tens of millions?, to the off-the-books deficit. This is a city & sacto caused problem…
from the article: As for mechanics traveling to fires, Fire Chief David Rudat said that has become the department’s new policy. He said that at least twice this year on life-or-death calls, engines have broken down.
“These things are so damned old,” Rudat said. “We page out our mechanics, and they come out.”
*******
sick…
bill FS.
I thought we are talking about CONFIRE here… now you want to talk about Stockton? Wendy wants to talk about U6-figures. Stay on topic people!
Billy,
please explain how its apples to oranges? Please do.
Fire v D.A.s? Two different scenarios. To wag a finger at CoCoTax for inconsistency over budget funding between needs of two different departments (if indeed they ever made such a blanket statement to cut them all, which I don’t believe they have) is rather Grover Norquist of you.
Since the BOS has lost all credibility in this matter, since it is in the public record, you should call out the fireman by name and shame him publicly, including his unit and department for tolerating that behavior.