The Scene
After nearly an hour and a half of impassioned public comment on the future of San Carlos fire services, the San Carlos City Council voted unanimously to pursue an agreement with Redwood City as a means to provide fire services to the City of San Carlos as well as take a major step toward lowering their current fire services costs. The crowd was raucous at times, forcing Mayor Ahmad to close the tall doors leading to the lobby of City Hall. Speakers ranged from concerned members of the public, current firefighters from the Belmont-San Carlos Fire Department, Fire Chiefs from around the Bay Area, community leaders and the former mayor of San Carlos. The vast majority of the speakers pleaded with the council to ignore a substantial cost savings and not go with the private option, Wackenhut Corporation, to provide San Carlos fire services. Instead, these speakers argued that a significant savings could also be realized by negotiating with Redwood City for a more regionalized approach. In the end, they got their wish.
Theory vs. Practicality
Many of the council members found themselves caught in a struggle of theory versus practicality. In this case, was it possible for a private company such as Wackenhut, to handle a service that has traditionally been a publicly provided service? Countless speakers argued that there was no oversight with a company such as Wackenhut. The Brown Act and an open forum with the public was not mandatory under a contract with Wackenhut. Further, could a company that was made for profit be trusted to provide the same level of safety for San Carlos residents as many of our current firefighters do every day. Some, including former San Carlos Mayor, John Buchanan, said he faced the exact same issue the current council was facing last night, over thirty years ago. He urged the council to explore the Wackenhut option, alluding to the idea that the current structure of our public fire fighting platforms will land the city right back in this same position again some day. In the end, the council seemed to really be taken with some of the ideas in the Wackenhut proposal, but ultimately it appeared there was simply to much of an unknown factor with Wackenhut.
It’s Not a Done Deal
Keep in mind that the decision was to pursue an agreement with Redwood City for fire services in San Carlos. There are many details still to be worked out, such as upper management issues, hiring, and oversight issues. Councilman Andy Klein made it known that private companies such as Wackenhut were not entirely out of the picture. While he hoped for a successful negotiation with Redwood City, he made it clear that he would have the council revisit a possible deal with Wackenhut or another private company should those negotiations with Redwood City not make favorable progress.
It’s Time to Give the City Council Credit
There are many different opinions on the members of the city council. I, for one, feel they take far too much heat for being handed a disaster of a financial situation and asked to make everyone happy. The truth of the matter is that San Carlos is in a massive hole due to Proposition 13. We see far less per property tax dollar than any of our neighboring towns and the voters of San Carlos have shot down every measure which would have generated additional taxes for services such as the Fire Department. You simply cannot have it both ways. At the end of the day, this council has systematically and intelligently cut costs across the board. Everything from police, fire, parks and city employees have seen substantial cuts. The result is that San Carlos will very soon be living within its means….something that has not happened in a very long time. It is certainly okay to be critical of city leaders when appropriate, but when you have the last three council members running unopposed and working under almost impossible circumstances while finally getting San Carlos to sustainability, it’s time to give them some credit.
9 Comments
The truth of the matter is that San Carlos is in a massive hole due to
Proposition 13. We see far less per property tax dollar than any of our neighboring towns…
Can you offer hard data to substantiate that claim?
Here is a post from March 2010 and how Prop 13 affects schools. This article illustrates how the frozen tax stream affects schools, but it is applicable to other city services as well:
https://sancarlosblog.com/2010/03/proposition-13-taking-its-toll-on-san-carlos/
I read this before… it does not address the comment you made in clarity… We see far less per property tax dollar than any of our neighboring towns .
We are quick to point fingers at our city council every time they have to make tough decisions. They are making sound decisions that are difficult to comprehend at times, but the bottom line is that it is in our best interest. We all need to suck it up if we want to dig out of a financial hole. We don’t want to become another Vallejo.
Bob,
I am glad to hear that SC is taking some steps to move towards a lower costs solution. We certinaly have challenges around prop 13. A postive step, but I am not sure it addresses some of the long term challenges of the rising costs in the public sector. I don’t understand why we don’t look at converting to a volunteer force. Let’s have funding set aside for training and equipment maintenance. We had a volunteer force where I grew up and they served that city with distinction. This is not to knock our current firfighters who do a fantastic job, but we should be looking at all options to keep our great city solvent.
I commend the City Council for hearing everyone and for keeping the process moving.
Adam
Mich Mi,
I have inserted the property tax rates into the post at the bottom. You can see that San Carlos is near the bottom in terms of what it keeps. Redwood City and Belmont are both near the top.
Bob
Interesting post – I haven’t heard anybody talk about the impact of Prop 13 on city services (usually you hear about schools), but it makes sense. Can’t afford to pay for services if there isn’t enough money coming in.
Fundamentally, Prop 13 allows a certain segment of the population (at this stage, mostly older folks who’ve owned their homes for over 30 years) to avoid paying their fair share as members of the community, which makes me pretty angry. On the other hand, my elderly mother (a retired secretary) would be priced out of the little tract house she bought in the early 1970’s if she had to pay taxes on its fair market value now. However, if the tax burden were spread more evenly, she still wouldn’t be paying as much as new homeowners currently do, because new homeowners pay disproportionately high taxes to counteract the impact of those who benefit from Prop 13.
At the end of the day, I can’t really find any objective arguments in favor of Prop 13 that make sense; they all seem to be based on greed. I want to be open-minded, but I just don’t see how we can continue to have the kind of disparity that Prop 13 has created.
It’s an unfortunate reality that San Carlos gets 50 cents for every dollar in taxes that Redwood City and Belmont gets, especially since we are all “full service” cities. If you factor in the voter-approved tax initiatives that other cities have enacted to make up for the deficiencies of prop 13, the gap gets even wider.
Monday’s outcome was, in my opinion, the best course of action given the circumstances. The devil is in the details, and there is much work left to do before the department is up and running.
I’d be curious to see what cost structure Belmont comes up with in order to sustain the same expected level of service – I suspect their costs are going to increase from today’s levels.
Andy waltzed in unopposed because Bob Bredel decided not to run, but it sounds like it wouldn’t have made much difference to have you instead of him.
If these three hadn’t been determined to make decisions emotionally instead of rationally, there would have been many more options available to the city, but they were determined to have their own way. Their behavior has been appalling, and they’ve burned a lot of bridges for the city.
Andy insisted on threatening the union once again because that’s the way negotiation is done. Maybe in kindergarten. Children are supposed to evolve beyond that stage long before the age of 29. Jon Mays’ editorial in the DJ today is very interesting, and probably true.
Give them credit? I would give the three of them pity, not credit. Bob and Matt deserve medals for putting up with all this garbage and continuing to comport themselves as gentlemen, despite the childish behavior of the gang of three.
Maybe Omar will recognize them with one of his coins, which I think may be illegal.