Statement by Moraga-Orinda Fire District Chief Randall Bradley in response to a local group's recent, critical analysis of district management. The "Orinda Emergency Services Task Force" was driven, in part, by local resident Steve Cohn.
From Chief Bradley:
I have been directed by the MOFD Board to conduct an analysis of Steve Cohn’s 90 page report and develop and executive summary of my findings. I plan to provide the Board with my summary within 30 to 45 days. I will be working with our auditors, actuaries and standards of cover consultants to ensure I provide a balanced and objective review. With that said, based on a cursory review of the report the following is my initial reaction and thoughts.
The group that published this report is basically the same group (Mr. Cohn) that predicted two and a half years ago that the District would have an extra $60 million dollars to pay for Orinda roads. He also proposed that the District should contract with the Contra Costa County Fire District (they will shut down six stations if their parcel tax fails) and utilize a private ambulance company for ambulance services. Now he is asserting that we are bankrupt and $700 million in debt. In the past (we have read Mr. Cohn’s $700 million debt assertion before), our professional actuaries did not agree with Mr. Cohn’s numbers.
I believe these communities value their schools, open space and quality fire and EMS services (public safety), then roads and infrastructure, in that order. I believe the intent of the report was to try to influence that value system by discrediting the Fire District and placing the improvement of roads and infrastructure above quality fire protection and EMS. I have heard Mr. Cohn say that he does not care if his home burns down….I do not believe these communities agree with that value system. I believe the District has a mandate to protect these communities and provide urban service levels in an area with semi-rural housing densities. The citizens want their open space and a fire engine within six minutes 90 percent of the time with well-trained firefighter paramedics on the fire engines and ambulances. We accomplish this by strategically locating five fire engines and two ambulances throughout our District. It is an expensive proposition but we have been able to meet that expectation with no service level reduction throughout the largest recession since the great depression. It should also be noted that in Orinda we a have one of the worst wildland urban interface fire problems in the country.
Our Firefighters have not received pay raises in four years or health care increases for almost three years (labor costs are 90% of our budget). In that same time we have reduced overhead costs dramatically by eliminating a Fire Marshal, secretary, full time nurse, communications specialist and reserve firefighter coordinator. We have also reduced costs by renegotiating service contracts, changing how we administer our employee benefits, and renegotiating chief officer employment contracts.
Mr. Cohn continues to argue there is an inequity between Orinda and Moraga
- We are one District and Orinda benefits by the economies-of-scale that are created by one District.
- After the completion of the Fire House in Orinda the District will have spent approximately $8-9 of the $12 million expenditures in fire flow tax dollars in Orinda (Moraga Pays the same amount of Fire Flow taxes as Orinda).
- If you include the approximate 700 Orinda homes that are served by Moraga Fire Stations the revenues are very close to being equal.
- Everyone pays 1 percent of assessed property values in property taxes…post proposition 13…true property tax equity is elusive. Your next door neighbor probably pays different property taxes based upon when he/or she purchased their home.
Like most public agencies the District has accrued unfunded liabilities due to our pension system’s (the District inherited this pension system when it was formed) failure to achieve expected return on investments and the 2002/2008 stock market losses. None of our current Board members voted for our current pension formula (3% @ 50) that has contributed to the unfunded liabilities. We have also accrued unfunded liabilities due to retiree healthcare, a program we also inherited with unfunded liabilities when the District was formed.
We have been working for over two years on a sustainable labor agreement and for over a year on a plan that we believe will address our unfunded liabilities over the next 13-15 years without a reduction is service levels. After the reported is completed I will present the report to our Board for public review, comment and hopefully adoption. The District understands that we must develop a system that is sustainable and that we need to address our pension system (Pension reform will help) and our other retiree medical benefit liabilities. The Board is committed to developing a sustainable fire protection and EMS program that the public deserves and expects.
Before MOFD, there were 700 homes in south Orinda served by the Moraga Fire District. However that situation no longer exists so we should work on the fire district we have today - MOFD . The Orinda Task Force report explains AUTO or MUTUAL AID which goes on throughout the county including MOFD. Section V - Pages 3 to 9 of the Task Force report will point you in the correct direction. Hope this helps. www/OrindaTaskForce.org
Sorry for typo. www.OrindaTaskForce.org
The link below blows this concept away as CNN is hardly anti union anti fire or police. http://money.cnn.com/gallery/pf/2012/09/20/most-dangerous-jobs/index.html Bottom line for me is of course these people provide a valuable service but we must convert all public employees to 401K private sector type plans, eliminate sick pay and pay a fair wage for this valuable service provided. The spreadsheet will soon handle this as the union elected politicians will not. I use to think our police and fire people were our heros but from a state fiscal standpoint I no longer think that. They are destroyers and a big part of the problem. When ever I see an endoresement from their union for a candidate I see this as a negative.
Ditching MOFD won't do Orinda or Moraga one nit of good. If anything it will increase adminstrative expense (2X chief bradley's each probably making atleast 3/4 what our current chief makes! not including benefits. 2X the admin personnel and etc.) Steve has some legit beef with the MOFD, but the FAIR solution of hand grenading the district will only make it worse not better.
A modest framework: 1. As a taxpayer, I deserve to get the most out of my tax dollars. 2. Public employees should be paid market rates. In other words, enough to attract qualified people to fill the slots that we deem necessary to deliver the services levels (quality and quantity) we choose to pay for. No more, no less. 3. When hundreds of seemingly qualified people apply for vacancies (and then sue up to the Sup. Ct. when they feel they weren't given a fair shot at a position), this suggests that above-market compensation may be being offered and the taxpayers' money can be stretched further. 4. I don't blame first responders for their current comp packages or for wanting to preserve them. In their position, I would do the same. I think they just might want to reflect on my first three points. I am sorry if this offends anyone.
The wrath of taxpayers you are hearing is a complete frustration with your union money and bosses influencing politicians who want to fill thier campaign coffers, those same politicians who voted for pension laws that are unsustainable, with union contracts negotiated with unrealistic assumptions and with collective bargaining laws that destroyed any fairness between taxpayers and public employees. It is not an attack on you personally, rather a response to a completely broken system that we will be picking up the tab for. I genuinely thank you for your service.
Since I am not a member of Fair, am not sure of their positions. My position since 2002 has been for Orinda to detach and form an Orinda Fire District based on Orinda's boundaries. Our Orinda Fire Chief, would also be the Fire Marshal, and would not receive the benefits you mention which apply to MOFD. The list of fiscal benefits are too numerous to mention here. Orinda would be over $18 million ahead which would have maintained our roads. We would not be faced with a monumental infrastructure problem. If you believe in economy of scale, do you advocate Orinda and Moraga join Con Fire? The old Moraga Fire District has not existed since 1997 so your calculations based on the pre 1997 Moraga Fire District are not applicable. We must base our calculations based on what is from 1997 to today. It is sad MOFD or the city councils involved has been unwilling to appoint a citizen committee to oversee our emergency operations.
What will it take to effect a study of our emergency services?
"Orinda's 11-firefighter force merged with Moraga's 8-firefighter force therefore the costs of the combined force should be shared in this ratio of personnel providing service to each community, 11:8 (57.9% to Orinda), unless substantial reasons exist to allocate differently. The Task Force examined the various rationales put forward to share costs in a different ratio (area served, mutual aid, assessed property value, capital expenditure needs) and found that none provided significant reason to deviate from the basic 11:8 cost sharing ratio." If my "Pre-MOFD" numbers are irrelevant so are yours. So you're saying that the ratios you and the comittee established in section V are not applicable today? I don't propose a merger with Confire because the interests Confire wouldn't be inline with Orinda or Moraga. I think that if you use the "actual" Orinda/Moraga ratio as I've stated in my above post you'd probably find that your $18M shrinks down to nothing; unless you are proposing that the 700 south orinda homes in the former MFD would be paying for MFD coverage and additionally for an OFD whose district they were not in?
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_21572616/contra-costa-times-editorial-glazer-and-smith-best?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com
Orinda provides $10,529,000 for 11 firefighters which equals $957,181 per firefighter. Moraga provides $5,796.071 for 8 firefighters which equals $724,508 per firefighter. Orinda is paying $232,673 more per f.f. than Moraga. Using Moraga's cost per f.f., Orinda would save $2,559,940 annually with an Orinda Fire District. ($232.673 x 11 f.f.). With that kind of savings, Orinda could have paved their roads paved maybe not in gold but certainly with the best paving possible. Using the cost of taxes per taxable parcel for MOFD, Orinda would save $3,565,364.50 annually with an Orinda Fire District. Once Wilder/Pulte come on line Orinda's subsidy to Moraga increases significantly . One cannot blame Moragans for ignoring the facts but Orindans are needlessly driving on gravel roads.
Orinda has 7,366 taxable parcels. Orinda's AdValorem Tax to MOFD is $10,529,000 which averages $1429.40 per parcel. Moraga has 6,131 taxable parcels. Moraga's Ad Valorem Tax to MOFD is $5,796,071 which averages on $945.37 per parcel.. Orinda pays an annual tax differential of $484.03 more per parcel fhan Moraga. As I said earlier, using Moraga's parcel tax model, Orinda would save $3,565,364.50 annually with an Orinda Fire District. These 2011/12 facts from the Contra Costa County Controllers Office are only of concern to Orindans and not the community it subsidizes.
People who work long careers at a job deserve a fair retirement basis. But once your productive years are behind you, you should not be allowed to walk away from said job with a salary larger than the last level earned. That is insanity. Anything close is nuts, but MORE! Base it on an average earned over the years of employment. This sort of math, even for the G.E.D. types that are benefiting from 'spiking', makes for an unavoidable fiscal crisis over and above the one we all are enjoying now. It is a system designed to fail all of us. How did this happen? Inmates take over the asylum? It is astonishingly stupid. And when the other boot falls on these looters ("we were just playing by the rules"), if they complain about retroactive application they should lose the entire retirement benefit. This type of lunacy cannot be tolerated. End it now.
Herein lies the problem. Since inception of MOFD there are hardly ever more than 4 or 5 citizens at the Board Meetings. Usually it is the same 4 or 5. The same 4 or 5 have complained to the deaf ears of the Directors and the Orinda City Council for years. What is the solution?
I thought I was done with this sort of battle, but this one drives me to action. I hope others join us to right this criminal abuse of public funds.
"Everyone pays 1 percent of assessed property values in property taxes…post proposition 13…" Also you need to define rate: it is obviously not 22.6% and 19% of the assessed value of the homes/parcels. Generally a parcel tax charges you a fixed amount of money per amount of assessed value. i.e. $20 per $10,000 of assessed value. Are you saying this formula is different for Orinda and Moraga? Or that because of prop 13 and assessed values Orinda pays more in fire service? Since the parcel tax rate across the district is the same; the only issue you can grind on is that Orinda currently has a higher total assessed value then Moraga. Using your own logic we should kill prop 13 and so newer buyers like myself can stop subsidizing older ones like yourself and Steve.
All taxable properties (parcels) are taxed according to 1% Ad Valorem Tax. 19% of Moraga's Ad Valorem Tax goes to MOFD, whereas 22.6% of Orinda's Ad Valorem Tax goes to MOFD. Please read Sec. I, pages 4-7, www.OrindaTaskForce.org. When Orinda detached from ConFire & formed MOFD, the Orinda taxes previously dedicated to Con Fire, 22.6% of the 1% Ad Valorem Tax transfered to MOFD. I believe Orinda accepted a flawed contract because of the 22.6% Orinda transfered while Moraga only transfered 19% to MOFD. The fact Orinda properties have a higher assessed valuation than Moraga makes the MOFD contract even more egregious. MOFD has an additional tax called the MOFD Fire Flow Parcel Tax. This tax has a completely different formula than the Ad Valorem Tax. You can call the Contra Costa County Assessor's office. Perhaps they can explain MOFD funding more clearly for you. We should all be happy to have Prop 13. Even though a Buyer acquires a house today, the assessor is limited to raising the property taxes by only 2% annually. Without Prop 13 many home owners could not afford to stay in their homes. We recall those pre Prop 13 days when our property taxes were going up 5% a year. It was scary especially for t retired seniors we all become. Bottom line, why should the average Orinda home owner pay $484.02 more annually than the average Moraga home for supposedly the same emergency MOFD service.