Statute grants the Grand Jury with power to investigate and report upon the operations, accounts, and records of our County, cities, and special districts. The Grand Jury has completed an investigation and submitted a report titled:
Report 1211
Contra Costa County Fire Protection and Emergency Response Services
“Leveraging Combined Strengths to Address Individual Weaknesses”
The report states that …“With no assurances as to when a significant recovery may arrive, it is time for fire agencies to rethink their operating approach.”
The report further states that…”Other California fire agencies have taken innovative, new approaches to providing services in a manner that allows the elimination of operation deficits without compromising recognized standards for response time.”
The report additionally states that …”Feedback received from service providers that have been through the change process suggest that a prerequisite for the successful implementation of any of these potential, cost-saving alternatives to structure and/or operational service delivery models is the political will to recognize and overcome the stakeholder’s resistance to change.”
The report includes the following recommendations:
-
"All fire agencies and the County should
conduct, on an individual agency and county-wide basis, evaluations of
alternative service models utilizing independent consultants with a history of
analyzing fire agency challenges.”
“Fire agencies, LAFCO, and the County should
find ways to cooperate with one another in the evaluation and adoption of
alternative service delivery models.”
All of the Grand Jury’s reports can be found online at the
Superior Court website:
This specific report can be found by using the following
link:
http://www.cc-courts.org/_data/n_0038/resources/live/rpt1211.pdf
Thank You,
The Contra Costa Grand Jury
* The Task Force estimates that the District has approximately $700 million liabilities and only $120 million in offsetting pension assets. Even if the pension assets earn at the current projected rate of 7.75%, they are only enough to pay off approximately $300 million of the $700 million in liabilities. * Even though the district employs 19 firefighters per shift, four times the per-capita force covering the neighboring ConFire service area, 33 percent of all critical emergencies are responded to in excess of the District's target. and industry standard, six minute response time. The members of the Task Force produced this report because a petition by 220 residents to the Orinda Council to review service provided to Orinda was denied; directing the petitioners to MOFD. MOFD similarly ignored the petitioners when told a task force had been created. The Task Force report was presented to both the Orinda Council and to MOFD in mid-September. No substantive responses have been made. The full report and an on-line summary can be found at www.OrindaTaskForce.org. Given the facts contained in the report, I agree with the grand jury report that new service models need to be investigated. The community should insist on this, not just of MOFD but of the Orinda and Moraga Councils.
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.
http://contra.napanet.net/depart/sc/grandjury/0203/0310rpt.htm The report's main complaints are bad accounting, the decision making process (the board relying on staff recommendations too heavily without fully understanding or investigating options), and a wag of the finger for a "shady" initiation of a law suit against the presidents of two homeowners groups (one being Maiorana) who opposed a District-sponsored tax. (The suit was dismissed and the District had to pay the defendants' legal fees; plus its own which were never disclosed.) The interesting part, to me, is item (3) stating: "pension enhancements were granted without knowledge as to the associated costs of the District's increased share of the Unfunded Actuarial Accrued Liabilities (UAAL) of the Contra Costa County Employees' Retirement Association." In helping to prepare the Task Force report, I have asked MOFD more than once what their pension liabilities actually are. All they are able to provide me is the discounted present value of sixty years (or so) of liabilities as provided to them by CCCERA. This is like the bank only giving you your home mortgage balance but not telling you (and you not asking) what the payments will be or how long those payments will last. If the discount rate is questionable (which it is), the district has no means to determine the impact of a lower or higher rate. This is ten years after that Grand Jury report.
Let's GO council. Address this report in a manner that reflects the seriousness of the issues that it presents.
Soon citizens will pay millions for firemen and their extraordinary benefits but have no services, unless you want to pay for them. Since 2002, citizens, The Grand Jury, and the California Appelate Court (115 Cal.App.4th, 477, 10 Cal.Rptr.3d 13), unbiased observers, have apprised the Orinda City Council what was/is going on in MOFD. Had the Orinda City Council followed citizens' request in 2002 to detach from MOFD & form an Orinda Fire District, we now would not be obligated for millions of unfunded liabilities. The council continues to look away as the Orindans they represent continue to get taken.
Concerned citizens like you who use their energy and time to keep track of the historical path of our communities' important issues such as this one, are an invaluable resource for us all. We are very grateful to you...
I've been trying to tell everyone I know that California firefighter's and their budget busting pensions are the biggest financial risk our State is facing. Every City in this State is being bankrupt by these employees. The typical firefighter only has 12% of his day billed to an actual call for help. The other 88 percent we're paying for standby time. The thing that really gets me worked up is when i hear how firefighters say they have a short life expectency when they retire at age 50...that's nothing but hooey!
In 1997, because Orinda was subsidizing other communities, Orinda detached from the Bd. of Supervisors and Con Fire to form MOFD. After 3 yrs, Orinda citizens realized we had jumped from the frying pan into the fire. So we began asking the City Council to detach from MOFD, & form an Orinda Fire District with a Fire Chief running the District with the City Council. The District would be run for the benefit of the citizens. It makes no sense to continue digging ourselves into deeper debt. It is better to detach now, and form and Orinda Fire District than continue what we are doing.
I do not know anything about what went on in Martinez. You said the Grand Jury did not indite anyone. Can the Civil Grand Jury indite anyone? I thought they could just make recommendations. I believe the 2002 Civil Grand Jury made a very good MOFD. The MOFD directors were so upset they talked about suing the Grand Jury. Unfortunately,the Grand Jury has no enforcement powers but at least they tried.
I do not know what went on in Martinez. You said the Grand Jury did not indite anyone. Can the Civil Grand Jury indite anyone? I thought the Civil Grand Jury could only make recommendations. I believe the 2002 Civil Grand Jury made a very good MOFD report. The MOFD Directors were so upset about the recommendations, they talked about suing the Grand Jury. Unfortunately, the Grand Jury has no enforcement powers but at least they did come up with much needed recommendations.
Arriving at a Common Sense solution would require that MANY Orindans contact the Orinda City Council, and request the Council form an Orinda Task Force to study our emergency services. I don't know how many citizens would have to call to get results but it is over 220 as that is how many signed a citizen petition which was ignored by the City Council.