Atherton council OKs further study of fire district options

This entire process began on the basis of providing more information to the town's Municipal Services page. Since then, it has spun out of control. The five member Atherton City Council made it very clear that detachment was off the table; today, it is front and center. Financial data on how much of what Atherton sends to the Fire District (via County property taxes) was NOT available, any more than Atherton does NOT maintain information on their own neighborhoods (thus, "do as I say, not as I do").

Atherton is also picking on the local kid on this matter (the Fire District), when it is a well known fact that the State of California taxpayers sends far more to the Federal government by way of income taxes than they receive back. Perhaps Atherton should contract their Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. and cancel their payments to the IRS.

The same applies to the schools. It is well known that Atherton provides the school district more property tax dollars than they receive back. Should Atherton stop making payments to the schools and instead start their own schools? I suggest the School District pay attention to this matter as the Town Council may be coming after you next.

Instead, what is needed is an adult like meeting between Atherton and Fire District. The topic was avoided at both their annual Joint Meetings in 2016 and 2017. Why was this? If you need a mediator, or a facilitator, do so. The result may be in saving a lot of time and especially a ton of Atherton taxpayers dollars to the town for an unnecessary and avoidable consultants study after consultant's study. It was suggested by Council Member DeGolia to place this matter on hold. I suggest that topic be revisited, since the other four members voted it down and instead to forge ahead with more consultant's studies, due back in 60 days, or so.

Having already spent or caused to be spent $80k of taxpayers’ money on their so-called Fire Services Fiscal Review and discovering, thanks to the response to a thoughtful letter (attachment 1) from a concerned citizen to the Executive Director of LAFCO, that detachment from the Fire District would be both unprecedented and very difficult, and after each of the Council members has stated that they are opposed to detachment from the Fire District the Atherton Town Council will on 21 March consider spending another $13k to further pursue this boondoggle.

And almost all of the information that Matrix proposes to provide (“understanding the LAFCO and legislative processes and requirements associated with detachment “) for a mere $13k has already been provided for free by the LAFCO Executive Director’s Feb 9 email!

Nothing that the Council has done or proposes to do will reduce the property taxes of a single Atherton resident by even a penny.

Nothing that the Council has done or proposes to do will improve the fire services provided to Atherton residents.

And the Council is fully aware that 98.5% of the Fire District residents are satisfied with the performance of their current fire agency (attachment 1).

What exactly is the Council trying to “accomplish” except to continue to waste our taxpayers’ money?

The only way to reduce the cost of fire services while actually increasing service levels is wide area consolidation - which your Fire Board is on record as supporting:

RESOLUTION OF THE MENLO PARK FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT BOARD
REQUESTING THAT THE SAN MATEO COUNTY LOCAL AGENCY FORMATION
COMMISSION (LAFCo) PERFORM A COUNTY-WIDE MUNICIPAL SERVICE
REVIEW OF FIRE AGENCIES WITHIN SAN MATEO COUNTY
WHEREAS, the District believes that consolidation of fire and emergency medical
services agencies allows for the greatest opportunity to provide efficient and quality life-saving
services; and
WHEREAS, any action resulting in fragmentation of fire and emergency medical
services agencies within the County of San Mateo would result in increased costs and a decrease
in the quality of services; and
WHEREAS, fire districts, including the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, provide a
myriad of services to the community in addition to basic fire and emergency services, including
but not limited to, disaster preparedness, public education, code promulgation, and inspections;
and
WHEREAS, the Menlo Park Fire Protection District has been a long time leader in the
consolidation of fire dispatch services and has successfully and significantly reduced response
times in recent years; and
WHEREAS , consolidation of services allows for economies of scale, permitting
exemplary levels of cost-efficient service; and
WHEREAS, any attempt to replicate this level of services in individual San Mateo
County municipalities would be imprudent and ineffective, as such effort could not facilitate
economies of scale, resulting and in higher costs and inefficiencies; and
WHEREAS, special districts, including the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, have
the unique distinction and capability of being well managed and economically healthy, primarily
due to not being subservient to municipal government.
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Board of Directors of the Menlo Park
Fire Protection District hereby direct that correspondence be transmitted by the Fire Chief, on
behalf of the District, to the San Mateo LAFCo, requesting that the San Mateo LAFCo perform a
county-wide municipal service review to evaluate fire agencies within San Mateo County.


Here are two great examples of such wide area consolidations:

Orange County Fire

The Orange County Fire Authority is a regional fire service agency that serves 22 cities in Orange County and all unincorporated areas. The OCFA protects over 1,400,000 residents from its 61 fire stations located throughout Orange County. OCFA Reserve Firefighters work 10 stations throughout Orange County.

$263,952,650 (09/10)
$188 per capita


SacMetro
Serves nearly 640,000 citizens over a 417-square-mile area, serving Sacramento & Placer counties including the City of Citrus Heights and the City of Rancho Cordova.

Historically, Metro Fire represents 16 former fire agencies, some of which were founded more than six decades ago. Today, Metro Fire is the seventh-largest fire district in California with 42 strategically located fire stations.
$148,269,642 total expenses
= $231 per capita

A concerned Town Council should pass a resolution supporting a County wide Fire Services MSR. Such a consolidation would then allow the County Supervisors to reallocate the savings to other agencies.

CalFire is a far better and more efficient option than local fire departments.

Carpenter is afraid of losing control of his little fiefdom.

The only way to reduce the cost of fire services while actually increasing service levels is wide area consolidation - which your Fire Board is on record as supporting. So I am working to give away control!!!