Vote NO on Measure C.

Republishing my opinion piece because that’s what I really want people to read; not the garbage dealing with the no/c shenanigans.  Also, if you missed Jeffrey Smith’s opinion on Measure A in the May 31 Alameda Sun, you really should read it; we can expect more of the exact same irresponsible spending patterns with any new tax revenue, particularly because Measure C has zero accountabilities built in:  MEASURE A EXPECTATIONS DON’T MEET REALITY

Vote NO on Measure C. Here’s why:

In 2009, the City tasked the ICMA (International City/County Management Association) with providing a professional assessment of Alameda’s fire service needs. Their report stated 75% of calls are medical and the Alameda Fire Department (AFD) should focus on medical responses and fire prevention.  ICMA advised, per industry standards, 78 personnel, two fire stations, and five captains are sufficient to retain response time and safety.

National firefighting industry standards call for one fire station for every 1.5 mile radius, and one ladder truck for every 2 mile radius. Alameda is 4 miles long; we need two stations and 1 ladder truck.

If our city did just three things—-reduce four fire stations to two, mothballed two of our three ladder trucks, and cut 15 of our 20 fire captains (who earn on average $217/K/year [$3.25M/year alone!])-—it would make Measure C’s relatively paltry $1.8m tax revenue per year irrelevant. 

Instead, the City has acted in opposition to that independent evaluation.Today, we have 92 station personnel, four open fire stations, 20 captains, and plans for six new facilities requiring additional staffing. The AFD’s overstaffing currently costs Alameda Citizens $4M+ annually. Measure C’s projected $11M cost for fire facilities will actually be doubled by the bond costs. We are being asked for $22M for fire facilities we don’t need.

According to the City’s Fiscal Sustainability Committee, actual City debt was almost $12M in 2009, despite the passing of the Measure P property tax in 2008.

In 2011, debt spiked 250% to $4.4M, and another 24% since then, to $5.1M, making actual debt today north of $15M. It was deceptive or shockingly uninformed of Vice Mayor Bonta to tell people that the City’s debt is decreasing each year and soon the City will be debt-free.

2011 city worker earnings skyrocketed $4.8M above 2010. 30% of fire and police earn $200K – $400K. 88% take home over $150K. Additionally, there are 66 retired workers drawing annual pensions over $100k.

Measure C does three things:

1) Suggests, but does not guarantee, city improvements (Carnegie Library, 50m pool, lighted fields)

2) Allocates 50% of the tax revenue to offload 90% of our annual city-vehicle costs from the General Fund, to offset continued overstaffing and exorbitant worker pay, and

3) Allocates the other 50% to pay for bonds to build fire stations we don’t need, to prioritize firefighting when only 25% of AFD calls are for fire responses. These costs will only continue to spike as we hire new staff .

Why are firefighters going house to house to campaign for Measure C? Why does the firefighters’ union pump nearly $50K each year into our local elections? Is it because they can afford to? Six fire staff earn over $240/K per year, 34 earn over $200K, and the rest mostly earn over $150K. Is it because the AFD’s high staff-to-call ratio makes it so easy?  Are firefighters campaigning for their own security or the security of the Citizens of Alameda?  The ICMA found the AFD lacked performance management and measurements. Despite our talented personnel, the AFD is responsible for a string of failures in recent years: they didn’t protect our public and environmental health from toxic and regulated substances (friable asbestos and crude oil), they didn’t  rescue Raymond Zack one year ago, and they have engaged in other behavior that has incurred several lawsuits against the City.

In the future, a well-written sales tax measure could be a great idea. But today, there is no justification to impose a 30-year sales tax to fund an excess of fire facilities.

Alameda needs fiscal responsibility focused on necessary services. We demand that the City stop wasting our hard-earned money and get to work for the Citizens of Alameda.

Get informed, read the facts (www.AlamedaNoOnC.com) and join me—June 5^th—vote NO on Measure C.

Letter.

Letter to local newspaper editors:

We are a small unaffiliated group of Alameda residents who wrote, signed, and sent a request for an investigation to California State Attorney General (AG) Kamala Harris. We are unrelated by campaigns or any politics but are united in a single purpose: we have a right to expect fire services to rescue and protect us and we have a right to expect our city management to ensure this.

It seems simple, yet our city has been failing us in this regard for years—we have been subjected to a series of extreme city-wide exposures to highly toxic and regulated substances (asbestos and crude oil) and now these failings have culminated in the death of Raymond Zack.

Why?  Moreover, what or whom is next?!

Our fire services have politicized the issue, and rather than take our complaints seriously, our mayor exacerbated the situation: without a recruitment process, she placed a retired captain unqualified to lead at the helm of our fire services of a city of 74,000 residents. This contradicts everything we know about how fire and public management skills, rank, ICS (Incident Command System), and recent experience matter when it comes to public safety services. We brought our concerns to fire and city management and leadership. When those proved unresponsive, we felt it was necessary for the safety of this community to escalate it and bring these issues to the attention of AG Harris.

Signed: Horst Breuer (former Economic Development Commission Chair), Greg de Haan, Adam Gillitt (2010 city council candidate), Denise Lai, Mark Linde, Karin Lucas (attorney, former city council member), Rosemary McNally,  Liz Williams.

Political $$.

During the first six months of this year, January 1, 2011 to June 30, 2011, the 2010 political campaigns for our mayor and every city council member except Mr. DeHaan received monies from the same donor.

Gilmore: $1,000

Bonta: $2,500

Tam: $5,000

Johnson: $2,000

$10,500 in total. From who? The Alameda Firefighters Political Action Committee (AFA PAC), that’s who!

That’s right. The Alameda firefighters made sizeable donations to the elected officials while the firefighters were negotiating their contract with the city. Ahem: our elected officials accepted these donations while they were negotiating the firefighters contract. Source documents are here.

Johnson, ignored by the AFA PAC in 2010, suddenly this year, in 2011, gets money from the AFA PAC for her 2010 campaign. Why? Moreover, her FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission) filings show she also paid the Local IAFF 689 Printshop $10,000 (!) for mailers and/or fliers. HUH?

And those four—GilBonTamJo—who accepted those monies, voted to approve a contract that got ZERO concessions in pay & benefits from current fire employees. This is what is known as trading in influence. It is corruption.

And then there’s this little tidbit reported on over at Action Alameda News: The Boys & Girls Club made a donation this year to Gilmore’s 2010 campaign for mayor. This is a BIG NO-NO. Both the B&G Club and Gilmore know that no political candidate can receive donations from a 503(c) corporation, that no 503(c) corporation can make a donation to a political candidate. The rules are very, very clear. And this kind of thing really rubs the IRS the wrong way. And rubs the FPPC too: there’s that little thing Gilmore’s supposed to check before she signs her FPPC form: accuracy and legality of donations and payments.

More corruption than you can shake a stick at in our city and everyone involved in the corruption expects us to think this is normal, just people helping each other out. What the heck.

I sure hope yawl are outraged about these very real facts, this data. Because if you aren’t, then seriously, Alameda: we have a problem and it is you. For we have nothing less on our hands than a ship of fools.

Mayor, orchestrate the meetings much?

Seriously.

Mayor Gilmore says she doesn’t want to ‘put the guy on the spot’ but asks some guy to come to the podium and explain the golf plans….and the guy has a multi-page speech prepared.…yeah. Right: THAT’s putting him ‘on the spot”. Orchestrate and manipulate meeting much, Mayor?   She has since her first meeting on December 28, 2010, in which she lied to fellow council members, dissembled about the agenda, had hired Meyers Nave prior to the meeting, and surreptitiously fired then City Manager Ann Marie Gallant .

What a joke. How can she NOT be wholly embarrassed? (hint: arrogance).

And WTF?  How can GilBonTamJo sit there and NOT address the very serious implications brought to their attention by those that asked WHY and HOW they could have taken money in recent months (2011!!!) from the Alameda Firefighters Association Political Action Committee into their 2010 political campaign accounts WHILE they were negotiating the contract with the firefighters?!

The failure to respond confirms the impropriety. For certainly, those operating with moral principles are confident and will speak to any complaint, would welcome sunshine. But failing to respond, well folks, THAT indicates confirmation of trading influence, of corruption.

It looks like Mayor Gilmore, Vice Mayor Bonta, City Council Members Tam and Johnson have been bought by the IAFF Local 689 in exchange for a fat retroactive contract for our underperforming, overpaid firefighters.

Peddling influence much, Mayor?!

SOMEONE NEEDS TO SAY: ADDRESS OUR DAMN CONCERNS.  ANSWER OUR DAMN QUESTIONS!

What they said.

ABOUT THE ZACK INCIDENT

6/23/11, Action Alameda News: ALAMEDA FIRE DISPATCH PHONE RECORDING PAINT A PICTURE OF CONFUSION, EQUIPMENT FAILURES , by David Howard  << how do you spell DERELICTION OF DUTY?  Which is exactly what you call failing to keep the batteries charged on life-saving equipment on an ambulance……..be sure to read the comments; very interesting.

6/22/11, East Bay Express:  A HISTORY OF INCOMPETENCE, letter from Liz Williams

6/22/11, San Jose Mercury: BENECIA INCIDENT DECADE AGO EERILY SIMILAR TO ALAMEDA SUICIDE OFF BEACH, by Matthias Gafni

6/8/11, East Bay Express:  HEROES AND COWARDS, by Robert Gammon

IT IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE THAT THE MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, AND CITY MANAGER HAVE APPROVED THE CITY’S CONTRACT WITH THE FIREFIGHTERS AT THIS TIME.

“Residents are still seething because many questions about the drowning still haven’t been answered.”  - Alan Wang, KGO-TV.

Residents are still seething because the more we discover, the worse it is/was.

Yet, still, no word from the city on the independent investigation. No disciplinary action against any first-responder or manager thereof.

READERS:

What do you think of Tuesday night’s vote to approve the firefighters contract? 

What do you think of the way the city is responding to the Memorial Day assisted suicide of Raymond Zack?

Self-serving, greedy and not service-minded….

Didn’t you just love Friday?  What a day. Our first week of council-manager city government with Gilmore/Russo in charge is a doozy. And does not portend well for our future.

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ANY HOPE THAT OUR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

-Speaking out with our well-researched, reasonable, and very serious concerns at city council meetings, letter writing, public demonstrations, and reports in the local news, demanding our city do what’s right-

MIGHT LEAD TO BEING HEARD AND CONSIDERED,

-that our considerable efforts to inform and collaborate with our city government to help them do what should be their Job #1: looking out first and foremost for us-

CAN BE TABLED.

-they have unambiguously demonstrated this week that they are not interested in optimizing the city for us.

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Friday’s Glaring Missing News Item: It’s been three weeks since Mr. Zack died. It’s unacceptable for the city to be stalling on the Independent Investigation. Unacceptable. Who are these heinous firefighters who would not allow even one of their team—without their water rescue certifications—to walk out into the shallow lake-like water on Crown Beach but could send three firefighters out yesterday on rescue boards to paddle out into the deep-water estuary in a water response rescue effort???  News story here.  Seriously?! WHERE’s THE FREAKING INVESTIGATION?!

IT GETS WORSE: The city made the time last week to move forward with the firefighters contract and to try to sneak two things in under most people’s radars: a legal-fees reimbursement for Tam and a promotion sans city recruitment process for Lisa Goldman (sans resume for the new position) to Assistant City Manager, and told me that the procedures and protocols at the fire department are only available in hardcopy, they are that outdated.…yes, pre-PC, circa 1980s….

Last Friday’s news shouted volumes…..   

What the Wade Out proved

At the Wade Out, the following was demonstrated:

1. Several Mutual Aid requests can and should be made–standard operating procedure—at the outset to ensure an effective reponse, e.g., if requested by the AFD, Alameda County and Oakland Fire departments could have been onsite and effected a rescue before Mr. Zack succumbed to the cold water and died. On May 30, 2011, our AFD failed to request mutual aid from even a single agency.

2. A middle-aged (50-65 year old) human being standing almost 200 yards into the water can hear another human being using a bullhorn from the shore.  On May 30, 2011, neither the APD nor the AFD attempted communication with Mr. Zack despite the fact that ‘negotiation’ with a suicidal victim in a public location is often successful.

3. The water is fine out there. Look, if a dozen middle-aged women can saunter out 200 yards, and back, in that water at high tide with nary a problem—the water’s warm, mid 60 degrees; there’s no current; it’s like a wading pool for crissake!—then our police and our firefighters could certainly have waded out waist deep, halfway to Mr. Zack, and engaged him in a conversation, in negotiation.

Recently, APD Chief Noonan said …..  

Write Now.

Showing up at the June 21st City Council Meeting to voice your opposition to the Mayor’s expected approval of the city’s contract with the firefighters…..will be too late. I believe that the current firefighter’s contract—-about to be before, and approved by, Mayor Gilmore—-is not in our best interest. How could it be? It doesn’t take into account the horrific event on Memorial Day!

If you wait, if we all wait, until Tuesday to voice opinions about this, it will be too late; that contract will be a done deal. She’ll sit there, listen to what you say, and vote to approve it anyway.

If you really REALLY want to do something about this, if you want the city to postpone approving the firefighter contract next week, if you think the city should move forward more prudently, then in order to effect that, you must WRITE right NOW: …..

The Wade Out.

KTVU Channel 2

CBS News

 

 

SF Bay Area Observer

 

San Jose Mercury News

 

San Francisco Chronicle

Photographs of the event by Robin Lai are here  (on Picasa).

Note: I was upset to find out that I’d missed Mr. Zack’s memorial; had I known about it, I sure would have gone. Many of us would have.  Vaya con dios, Raymond.

See you at the Wade Out!

Sunday, June 12th

9:30a – 10:30a

Crown Memorial Beach

Alameda demonstrators plan to wade into waters where man died

By Doug Jastrow
Contra Costa Times

Posted: 06/11/2011 08:38:51 PM PDT

ALAMEDA — A group of Alameda residents plan to stand in chest-deep water off the shore of Crown Memorial State Beach on Sunday morning to demonstrate the conditions in which a suicidal man died last month as police and firefighters watched from the beach.

The group’s organizers said they hope their demonstration will highlight how easy it would have been for first-responders to rescue Raymond Zack, 53, as he intentionally took his own life on Memorial Day.

“We want to put to rest all this nonsense,” said Liz Williams, a resident of Alameda. “We want to take one argument off the table and show that these guys were cowards.”

Williams said about 10 people will wade out into the water at the beach near the corner of Willow Avenue and Shoreline Drive at 9:30 a.m. The time and date were specifically chosen in order to approximate the weather and tide conditions when Zack died.