How much more or less will a stand-alone Coastside department cost the community?
In short, starting a local fire department will not cost the tax payers any additional money. In fact the Fire District has several opportunities to regain millions spent on the transition moving to CalFire and use those millions for costs incurred with starting our own Fire Service.
How is the level of service of CalFire better or worse than the level of service of a stand-alone Coastside department?
There are many advantages to a local fire department, and the most important is local control over the level of service. Right now, we contract with CalFire for services, but if they violate the terms of that contract we have no recourse. So, when CalFire takes our experienced firefighters and replaces them with inexperienced ones, or when they refuse to hire a Fire Marshall in the District despite the fact that it puts our community’s safety at risk, we have no recourse. The Fire Board will have local firefighters trained to the standards that meet the needs of the Coastside residents. Why should we let the vendor that has failed to provide contracted Fire Services to our residents also be in charge of monitoring those services? We need to assert local control because CalFire has failed to do their job.
Why Vote Yes or No on the Recall?
Vote no. This recall is a blatant power grab by CalFire in retaliation for our locally elected officials doing their job. When the Board was elected they tried to get CalFire to provide the service levels specified in the mutually agreed contract and owed the residents of the Coastside. When they refused to do that, the Board decided that it was in the best interest of the District not to renew the contract. Now, CalFire's union is sponsoring a recall election so that they can stack the Board with outsiders that answer to them. Why should the residents of the Coastside give control of our Board to the vendor that failed to provide the services we need.
