Jim.Sweeney: March 2009 Archives

Santa Rosa firefighters warn that people's lives will be at risk if the city follows through on its budget-cutting proposals. The council already agreed to close one station beginning July 1, perhaps using a system of rolling brown-outs. A proposal headed to the council on Tuesday would extend the closure to a second station.

The proposals - and the subsequent warnings - left me wondering what's happened to Santa Rosa fire response times over the past several years. A Sonoma County grand jury report published in 2004 said response times were too slow and recommended that the department add at least two stations and relocate several others. A new station opened in the southwest area in 2006. A second new station is expected to open on Lewis Road in Santa Rosa in April or May.

So what's happened to response times? Well, they're getting slower.

And the volume of calls, as you probably know intuitively, is increasing.

The department posts some response-time data on its Web site. I asked Fire Chief Bruce Varner for some additional data. Here's a snapshot:

2008

Incidents: 19,137  (up 1.9 percent from 2007)

Average code 3 response time: 5 min (1 second slower than 2006)

2007

Incidents: 18,758 (up 1 percent from 2006)

Average code 3 response time: 4 minutes, 59 seconds (12 seconds slower than 2006)

2006

Incidents: 18,557 (up 5.2 percent)

Average code 3 response times: 4 minutes, 47 seconds (6 seconds faster than 2005)

2005

Incidents: 17,582

Average code 3 response time: 4 minutes, 53 seconds

The grand jury looked at data for 2002 and found that the Fire Department arrived within six minutes 86 percent of the time. The goal is to reach 100 percent of emergency calls in six minutes. The average response, according to Varner, was 4 minutes, 38 seconds for 16,301 calls.However, the department and the rest of Sonoma County firefighting agencies have since adopted a computerized dispatch system that provides more accurate data. Still, according to department figures, it is reaching emergencies within 6 minutes about 77 percent of the time, down considerably from 2002.

Looking at the changes between 2005 and 2006, you could wonder if there is a direct correlation between call volume and response time. But is anyone ready to take the risk that closing stations wouldn't result in yet slower responses?

If not, are people ready to foot the bill to maintain service at the current level?

Police and fire account for about two-thirds of the city's $132 million general fund. If you had to balance the budget - it's $23 million out of whack -- do you keep them whole at the expense of all other departments? Ask cops and firefighters for concessions on pay and benefits to keep the fire stations open? Raise taxes?

Let me know what you would do.

-- Jim Sweeney

Even as Santa Rosa and other local governments reconcile spending with declining sales and property tax revenue, another hit may be in the offing.

Calpers, the California Public Employees Retirement System, is taking big hits on its investment portfolio (just like private pension funds, 401(k)s and other investors). According to testimony in a legislative hearing reported by Ed Mendel of Calpensions.com, the value Calpers' portfolio is $111 billion, down from $174 billion.

Calpers, which administers pensions and health insurances, warned member agencies that employer contribution rates could be boosted as much as 5 percent if the fund drops 20 percent during the fiscal year that ends June 30.

Santa Rosa and other local governments (state government, too) have granted generous, retroactive pension benefits over the past decade based in part on promises that Calpers' investment returns would cover the cost.

Now, however, it sounds like a bigger share of those costs will be falling on California taxpayers, paid at the expense of public services.

-- Jim Sweeney

What about the astroturf tax?

I've written before about astroturf letters, the campaigns backed by special interest groups that provide the content and even deliver letters to newspaper editorial pages in a phony (astroturf) display of grass-roots sentiment. They usually aren't hard to spot, as they come in bunches and often even share the same misspellings, and we try not to use them. There's a new one circulating - actually, there are several new ones circulating. But one of them is amusing enough to share:

To the IRS:

I am sorry to inform you that I will not be able to pay taxes owed April 15, but all is not lost.

I have paid these taxes: accounts receivable tax, building permit tax, CDL tax, corporate income tax, dog license tax, federal income tax, unemployment tax, gasoline tax, hunting license tax, fishing license tax, waterfowl stamp tax, inheritance tax, inventory tax, liquor tax, luxury tax, Medicare tax, city, school and county property tax (up from last year), real estate tax, social security tax, road usage tax, toll road tax, state and city sales tax, recreational vehicle tax, state franchise tax, state unemployment tax, telephone federal excise tax, telephone federal state and local surcharge tax, telephone minimum usage surcharge tax, telephone state and local tax, PUC utility tax, California vehicle license registration tax, lease severance tax, oil and gas assessment tax, California property tax. While on a trip I also paid Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Ohio, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois and Michigan state sales tax, and many more that I can't recall but I have run over my allowable word count and money.

When or if you do not receive my check, on or around April 15, just know that it is an honest mistake. Please treat me the same way you treated Congressmen Charles Rangel, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and ex-Congressman Tom Daschle and, of course, your boss Timothy Geithner. No penalties and no interest and I will pay it as soon as I can, or when I get caught or when I get appointed to a cabinet position. Of course I may get a job as a CEO of a multinational in which case my salary will be hidden so you won't know about it anyway.

P.S. I will make at least a partial payment as soon as I get my stimulus check, or my accountant says I have to.

-- Jim Sweeney