The East County Voters for Equal Protection (ECVEP), a group of residents who are working to find ways to fund the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District without a tax increase, have endorsed Oakley Councilman Doug Hardcastle in his race for Supervisor in District 3, for his support of their efforts.
The group supports reallocation of funds that other local agencies within the district boundaries, currently receive in property tax revenue. The fire protection district includes Oakley, Brentwood, Discovery Bay, Bethel Island, Byron and Knightsen, as well as the unincorporated areas of Clayton along Marsh Creek and Morgan Territory Roads.
“This can has been kicked down the road too many times,” said Rob Broocker, the group’s leader. “Doug recognizes that it’s time the local officials sat down and worked things out.”
Sign in the window of the closed Discovery Bay fire station.
At a recent meeting with Hardcastle at a closed fire station, in Discovery Bay, Broocker, a Santa Clara firefighter, painting contractor and Discovery Bay resident said, “Of two Discovery Bay Fire Stations one is closed. Even with a tax increase the second one can’t be guaranteed to be open, according to County Assessor Gus Kramer. At the same Discovery Bay Town Council meeting David Piepho said it will never be open due to the lack of funding.”
The group has met with board members and spoken before their meetings, as well communicated with other community leaders like Hardcastle, to get them to consider a reallocation plan instead of a third attempt at a tax increase.
“I appreciate the support of the East County Voters and look forward to continuing to work with them to find a solution to improving fire protection, without another tax increase,” Hardcastle said. “Our number one priority is safety of our families. You have to take this personal. You have to ask yourself, what if it was my house on fire or one of my family members in an accident? We deserve quicker response times for all of us.”
Speaking of the only current ECCFP board member who is also a candidate in the District 3 Supervisor’s race, Broocker stated “Steve Barr is not ready to step up and be a Supervisor if he can’t handle the job on the fire district board.”
At a candidates’ forum in Discovery Bay, Wednesday night, Barr said, “There is a task force that’s been formed. The first step the fire board has taken is do a study to find out what is the adequate number of fire stations in this district. That study, came in with a nine-station model. I think we’re on the right track. I’m hopeful this next measure or however it comes to you will be right.”
Hardcastle disagrees.
“We’ve had enough studies,” he responded. “People do not want to raise their taxes again. They tried it twice, already. It’s ridiculous they even tried it twice. We just need to learn how to spend our money properly.”
While the ECVEP is asking all the agencies within the bounds of the fire district to pitch in, Hardcastle only supports reallocating funds from the cities of Oakley and Brentwood, and the County, like was done with one-time money to re-open the fire station in Knightsen.
“I feel the only ones that have the ability to approve reallocation of money are our councils and the county,” he stated. “We just did it by funding the Knightsen fire station to get them open for 2017.”
That process was explained by another member of the group.
“When the self-appointed Task Force made their initial report to the fire board on October 21, 2015, they recommended emergency funding to open one fire station for a limited period of time,” stated Bryan Scott, a member of ECVEP. “They sought and obtained one-time funding from the cities of Brentwood and Oakley as well as the county.”
“The Task Force allocated the contributions from the cities and the county based on call volume to their respective areas,” he continued. “This came out to 49% for the city of Brentwood, 28% for the city of Oakley, and 23% for the county.”
“Using these same allocation percentages to increase fire district funding by $7.8 million would mean Brentwood would contribute $3,822,000, Oakley would contribute $2,184,000, and the county $1,794,000,” Scott explained.
Brentwood will pay a larger portion for two reasons. First, because they have a larger population than Oakley. Second, they receive a greater percentage of property tax, 16% than Oakley does at just 7%. Plus, they used part of funds set aside for fire protection on their police force, instead.
“We need the cities and county to pitch in to make this happen and in a fair way,” Hardcastle added. “It’s time to get this done.”
District 3 includes all of Oakley, Brentwood, Discovery Bay, Bethel Island, Byron, Knightsen and most of Antioch in East County, as well as Blackhawk, Diablo and Camino Tassajara in the San Ramon Valley. The election is June 7. For more information about Doug Hardcastle, visit www.doughardcastle.com or call the Campaign Headquarters at (925) 755-5053.
Doug Hardcastle doesn’t know the first thing about the fire district, or its finances.
The ECV group is recommending ILLEGAL activity, which puts our families and communities at real risk.
Do us all a favor, and vote for anyone but Hardcastle!!!
Doug clearly knows nothing about the fire districts finances, if he is saying things like it should be more responsible with its finances. What an idiotic thing to say. He hadn’t spent one minute going over them with me, or any other board members.
I am fed up with people like Doug literally endangering the lives of my family, and every family and person in this fire District, by spewing the ignorance that they are spewing. I am going to personally hold him responsible if this fails should we go out for another source of revenue. I will get his personal home address and phone number to every family member that has someone who was killed for lack of resources I promise you that!
That’s coming from a resident board member.
Joel Bryant
EDITOR’s NOTE: Bryant is a member of the Brentwood City Council and one of its appointed representatives on the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District Board of Directors.
Dear Amazed,
You are and have been part of the problem!!! What you have done and continue to do should be illegal. You call youself a public servant, but you are the problem. You have been a Brentwood council member and served on the fire board for years. Since your tenure as a public servent the 110,000 people served have suffered under your guidance. Fire stations have closed and people have died from your inaction. Please do the citizens of Brentwood and East county a favor and go away. They will be better served if you were to do nothing. All you can do is criticize people who have answers. YOU have no solutions nor do you offer them. Just get out of the way.
Joel, I have never said our fire district is not spending money wisely. I’ve said they need more money and that we need to properly spend the taxpayers’ money, to make public safety, first.
The fire board has already tried and failed twice to get voters to approve any kind of tax to improve our services. But if it fails a third time, it will be my fault? And then, you threaten me for your inability to get funding?
During my campaign for county supervisor I have walked many miles and talked to hundreds of the people we both serve. The message is clear: spend their money for safety, first!
I can only surmise this was a political rant to try to help the candidate you are supporting.
You should be listening to those you are serving. That’s what I’m trying to do by working to find another solution to fund the needed fire service, without a tax increase. How can it be illegal to reallocate the tax money our cities and the county already receive – which is what I support doing – if we just did that to reopen the fire station in Knightsen?
And your threat of telling people where I live? We’ve lived at the same address for the past 35 years. I don’t think it’s ever been a secret. Let’s not make this personal. I know you’re better than that. Let’s keep focused on finding solutions for the benefit of the people who live in the fire district.
Doug Hardcastle
Member, Oakley City Council and candidate for County Supervisor, District 3
Joel,
Please put the citizens first. As Doug has said, put who you serve, first. You and others have been involved in this for a long time. I appreciate that you have tried!!! I know you tried your best. But, we can’t allow things to keep getting worse.
At the rate you, Steve Barr and the rest of the fire board are going, we will have more fire board members than we have firefighters. Thank you for trying. Please put the citizens first. Appreciate your service!!! But, for the good of East County residents let’s fix this using Doug’s approach. You tried your tax increase twice. Why a third? Three strikes, you’re out.
Let Doug get the reallocation done and if there is a need for more taxes maybe you can help after the reallocation is complete. Thanks for thinking this through. Appreciate your efforts in the past. But they failed. You’re worried about families in the future if your tax does not pass. What about the people who have passed away (due to longer response times) and houses that have burned, since you have been involved? Should we have them all contact you for your past failures? THINK ABOUT THAT.
On another note Joel, you are great about telling other people how they have no idea how to fix things or how wrong they are. But, you have yet to come up with any productive, positive alternative to fix the problem. Neither has Barr nor the rest of fire board.
Please work with Doug on reallocating our current tax dollars and get us the additional fire protection we need and deserve, now.
Rob Broocker