Crime & Safety

Residents Suggest Options To Resolve Moraga-Orinda Fire District Budget Problems

District is trying to balance a budget that is currently $950,000 in the red

Moraga-Orinda Fire District board members heard a variety of suggestions from residents on how to solve the district's budget problems during a public workshop on Wednesday evening.

The suggestions came after Interim Fire Chief Stephen Healy gave an overview of the district's financial status and offered alternative staffing models to prevent the district from using reserve funds to cover a deficit, as it has done the past several years.

Healy presented two models that would reduce the daily staffing at the district's five stations from 19 to 17 captains, engineers and firefighters a day.

The option Healy favored would keep all five stations open with five engines available. There would be one full-time ambulance and three cross-staffed ambulances. There would also be a reserve ambulance. This plan would require the $160,000 purchase of another ambulance.

This plan also keeps more personnel in northern Orinda, which has Highway 24, the Caldecott Tunnel and higher fire danger.

"There is a lot of risk in north Orinda," Healy said.

At the start of the public hearing, Board Member Steve Anderson asked residents not to discuss past problems. Instead, he asked them to give them concrete ideas.

"The past is the past," said Anderson. 'I'm sitting here looking for new information."

The members of the audience responded with a number of alternatives.

Richard Olsen, a Moraga resident for 41 years and a former fire district board member, said the district needs to either reduce services, cut salaries or do a combination of the two.

Olsen said if the district cuts salaries, it should do so across the board.

"You shouldn't just inflict pain on firefighters," he said.

Olsen said the district could also increase firefighters' workweek from 53 to 68 hours a week, allowing the district to hire fewer employees.

He said they could also contract with an outside agency as some cities in Riverside County have done.

Another resident suggested the district find out how much homeowners' insurance rates might go up if staffing is reduced and then ask voters to approve an extra tax of the same amount.

Gordon Nathan, a Moraga resident for 45 years and president of the Rescue One Foundation, said residents are following these procedures closely.

"There is concern over what's going to happen here," Nathan said. "I don't envy your position as you try to sort all this out."

Healy began the hearing by outlining the district's financial status.

The district's 2013-2014 general fund budget projects $20.2 million in expenditures and $19.2 million in revenues. Expenses are up 4 percent from the previous year and revenues are up 6 percent. The deficit is about $950,000.

In 2012-2013, the district had a $1.3 million deficit and in 2011-2012 it had a $250,000 deficit.

Healy said the district used reserve funds in each year to balance the budget.

He said one of the primary reasons for the deficits is the district's retirement costs have risen $3 million in the past two years. Retirement costs are listed at $5.8 million this year. That's expected to rise to $7.9 million in fiscal year 2014-15.

"This is something we've inherited," he said.

In addition, the district spent $2.4 million in overtime pay last year. He said the main causes for the overtime were the December 2012 Highway 24 crash, hiring practices since 2009 and injuries to firefighters.

He noted there hasn't been a cost-of-living raise for district employees for four years and health benefits are frozen at 2010 levels. A battalion chief position and a fire marshal position remain frozen.

Another workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 16, in Orinda. The time and location hasn't been decided yet.

The district directors said they will use the input from both workshops to try to craft a working budget.

Board Member Fred Well said hard decisions lie ahead and things can't continue the way they have.

"Something has to change," he said.


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