Concerned about decisions in Pinole and the future of our Fire Services

Concerned about decisions in Pinole

                The other day I was walking by the Pinole Fire Station #73 and found the rollup door open and some firefighters checking their equipment. Hearing so many different opinions about the fire services here in Pinole… I thought I’d talk to them for a few minutes and see for myself what is really going on.

While talking to the firefighters I noticed only 2, 4x4 fire engines in the station and empty stalls with firefighting equipment piled up where the other engines and ladder truck used to be. So I asked if the other equipment where on other calls? To my surprise I was told no: 2 of the first out Type 1 city pumpers E73 and “E74 from the closed fire station” are in the shop due to mechanical failures, also the Ladder Truck 73 is also in the shop for mechanical failures and safety issues. This leaves the city protected by a wildland firefighting fire engine that is not ideal for structure fires and has no rescue capabilities for car accidents or calls requiring rope rescue. I also found out that do to cuts in the fire department budget maintenance is done reactively as things break instead of proactive  preventative maintenance prior to equipment breaking. I also learned there is no replacement plan for the aging equipment.

So this brings me to why I’m writing. I watched the past council meeting like I do many and knowing this information about all of the broken equipment now after the fact makes me very frustrated. I’ve refused to attend council meeting in the past due to I’ve watch others that spoke in favor of the fire department get shot down time and time again and those that spoke against the firefighters had no interference what so ever. I shouldn’t have to attend these meetings since the council’s job is to handle business in the best interest of the public but it looks like that is not the case and I may have to start showing up.

Last week’s meeting on 4/16/13 the council decided to keep its own city fire services and not consider combining with Rodeo-Hercules or Contra Costa County. To me this seems very foolish. These contracts would have kept the local control that everyone opposed to the idea was concerned about and provided us with levels of service Pinole has never been able to provide before. Also they had equipment maintenance and replacements funds included in these contracts which is very apparent we need since almost every city fire engine is broken and in the shop.

The thought that this small city can handle everything all by themselves and provide service better than anyone makes me sick. I called a friend of mine that works for the LA County Fire Department and asked what kind of services they provide and how many cities do they cover. I learned that this department is a class 1 department which is the highest rating you can get. They have fire engines, ladder trucks, helicopters, life guards, USAR teams and list goes on and on. They provide service to 58 cities and towns with 171 fire stations, 3,892 uniformed firefighters with a $939,017,000 budget. This is what a regional approach can get you. I sure feel all residents of Contra Costa County would be better off if we regionalize, see for yourselves:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_County_Fire_Department

 http://fire.lacounty.gov/HometownFireStations/HometownFireStations.asp

    For many years now revenues and budgets fall across the county and in Pinole Ca. I’m very concerned about what’s been happing in our small City of Pinole and how the term “transparency” is a common phrase used by our local officials. The truth is the only thing that is transparent is information they want you to know about, other information is either swept under the rug or crafted to portray to be one way… but in actuality it’s the opposite and they continue to pull the wool over our eyes and lie to our faces.

Now you may wonder how this deception is accomplished? Well it’s very simple in short: 

• Falling economy creates concern and fear “banks that were deregulated and made bad investments… the beginning of the housing market crash”
• The finger pointing begins “don’t take the fall… blame someone else”
• Use the media to craft a story and create a false economy to shift the focus onto other issues that are not the actual cause.
• Shift of focus has been accomplished “Labor Unions and public employees, pensions and health care are now the so called cause of the economic collapse”
• Banks continue to sit on foreclosed properties and are not paying property taxes on the properties now owned by the banks. This means loss of revenues to States, Counties and Cites.
•  Loss of revenues means lower budgets and loss of services.

City of Pinole:

• Focus has been shifted from the loss of revenues to the 13 Firefighters and their Union to be the main cause for fiscal collapse in Pinole.
• A citizens group that has many self centered agendas and an extreme amount of powerful influence over our city officials and media ties have damaged this city and its ability to provide essential services.

For  many years studies have been done over and over again and all of these studies have shown that the City of Pinole provided Fire Services are under staffed, under budgeted and unsustainable hands down. Recommendations of a merger of some sort with neighboring departments have been suggested by “City Gate”, LAFCO and the Firefighters.

If you look past the negative false image that has been placed on the firefighters… they have actually been thinking outside of the box and coming up with some creative solutions to address the problem by not only thinking of the short term, but looking at long term sustainability and service delivery.

This concept in short is simple:

• Stream line the overhead management by a merger. This would eliminate duplication of effort and establish a well round overhead staff at a reduced cost to all agencies involved by sharing the cost vs. footing the bill by themselves.
• By stream lining the over head would allow more of the already small budget to be applied to the operations such as stations remaining open, retaining staff that respond daily, equipment and training
• Regionalizing would create more depth in services provided and how it’s delivered and may actually be cheaper for everyone.

 Listed below is another false statement by an individual that consistently down plays the fire service and our firefighters. He is one of the few that has some sort of power over our local officials:

 Public safety should focus on paramedics

Between June and November 2012, the Pinole Fire Department answered 1,126 calls -- 187.6 per month, or 6.15 per 24-hour shift.

There were 690 medical (61.3 percent) and 44 fire calls (3.9 percent); seven were structure fires. Of these, 271 calls were in Pinole Valley (1.48 per day); 196 (72.3 percent) were medical.

We need more paramedics, not firefighters. We certainly need more police officers.

Charles Hanley, chief of the Rodeo-Hercules Fire District and the Pinole Fire Department, didn't notify the Pinole City Council or the city manager that he had applied for a SAFER grant that stipulates Station 74 in Pinole Valley be reopened. What gall to not tell his employers about the grant until it had been received, and virtually obligate the council to reopen the station.

People recognize their public-safety needs have changed. That's why Central and East Contra Costa voters rejected parcel-tax increases for additional fire services in the June and November 2012 elections.

This nonsense that cities that don't capitulate to firefighters' rapacious demands don't care about public safety has to end.

Jeff Rubin

Pinole

This guy above states that the council and city manager were not notified that a short term solution was in the work by applying for a SAFER grant to provide staffing. Not true see links:

http://www.royswearingenpinole.com/

http://www.royswearingenpinole.com/Attainablegoals.pdf

http://pinole-hercules.patch.com/articles/fire-chief-discusses-stations-...

The Fire Chief and our Firefighters are portrayed as a villains by this individual, but the truth is the city manager and council were notified many times and Roy Swearingen ran his re-election campaign on reopening station 74 by going out for grants. The Fire Chief is trying to find away to restore the services that have been reduced. Come on Pinole wake up this guy Jeff Rubin is a joke! If the council didn’t know about the grant then the city manager must have forgot to inform them. Also our new assistant city manager came from the City of Rio Vista where he was voted 4-0 not to have his contract extended in Rio Vista.

http://www.dailyrepublic.com/news/rio-vista-city-manager-de-la-rosa-cut-loose-by-council/

Raul Ramero