Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

Fax: 626-307-9081

E-mail: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

I attended every Ad Hoc Committee Meeting regarding the possible transfer of our fire service to Los Angeles County Fire Service.

This issue is a matter of life or death in Monterey Park.

The loss of our two Advanced Life Support Paramedic Ambulances and one fire truck specified by the County violates our Measure J.

The reduction of 15 firefighters stationed in our city specified by the County violates our Measure J.

The annual expense of $300,000 or more per year paid into the CALPers account for our police department since the loss of our firefighters would reduce the membership to below 100, which put the city in another payment plan, violates our Measure J.

The $1,057,000 loss of annual income from our paramedic ambulance service, the $500,000 loss of annual fire department inspection fees and the $225,000 cost to Verdugo Communications for cancellation fees of their contract violates our Measure J.

The Los Angeles County Fire Service has failed to meet the requirements of Measure J voted into law by the residents in 1999.

The costs projected by the Los Angeles County Fire Service are estimated and would be negotiated if the voters decide to give our fire service away.

The independent consultant ESCI publicly stated the city would have to do a better job negotiating the expenses with the county.

The County promise of raising their fees by 5 1/2% per year for the first five years is a bait and switch tactic. The Board of Supervisors recently approved their fire service to raise their fees by 2% to offset their $43 million shortfall in their current pension funds.

According to the county records their fire service pension fund is now $41.5 million in the hole.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl L. Osby was quoted in the Los Angeles Times in August 2012 “We’re just trying to get every dollar the we can”.

Chief Osby’s major concern seems to be for his department to be able to meet payroll and pay their pensions.

I have yet to hear from him that his fire service is about saving lives and property.

Residents of Pomona have warned us that the Los Angeles County Fire Service is squeezing the financial life out of their hometown.  The majority of their taxes are paid for their fire service. The small balance is stretched to cover their police department, general employees and their library.  They had to vote on their own Measure J to keep their Council from giving their police department to the County. The fire union supports Councilmembers who continue to give them their full financial support at the expense of the residents and other employees.

Local 1014, the Los Angeles County Fire Service union, is their Political Action Committee.  I have a copy of their private union memo dated November 6, 2010 where the union brags “…our great Union with the strength of our numbers, our money and our efforts has been a rock in determining the political landscape for California and our local cities, most notably the City of Pomona… We made many decisions on key endorsements and when to endorse to put our membership and the interest of the Los Angeles County Fire Fighters, Professional Firefighters and Paramedics into the mindset of the elected officials who make decisions and votes affecting our work, our pay, our benefits”.

The Monterey Park Firefighters Association supported Betty Tom Chu, Mitchell Ing and Teresa Real Sebastian.  They owe their Council seats to the firefighters.

Betty Tom Chu was the Councilmember who wrote a letter telling the County Fire Service that the staff reduction would be handled by the city.  She attempted to have the Council change the verbiage of Measure J to make the County takeover easier for her firefighters.

Mitch Ing voted NO with David Lau and Anthony Wong not to pass her resolution.

So Betty Tom Chu with some of her supporters and her firefighters decided to pass around a petition to secure signatures to force their measure on the ballot.

Residents were told barefaced lies by the firefighters to obtained the necessary signatures to force a special election that will cost the residents $100,000.

During the April 3 meeting a presentation was made to the Council and residents by our Fire Chief and his staff.

The data was the same information presented at the Ad Hoc Committee meetings.  The numbers of estimated costs and possible savings flew around the room so fast I though I was attending a board meeting of Enron as their cooked the books to support their profits before they sold their worthless stocks.

When Teresa Real Sebastain asked a question if the annual fees could be reduced in the employment rate is 9% in the city?  Their spokeswoman said that all of their customers must pay their fair share.

So the residents of Monterey Park would be financially responsible for any and all fire service expenses that the Los Angeles County Fire Service can charge their customers.

The County Fire Service must have taken a course from Bernie Madoff on how to rip off their clients to support their financial greed.

Contracting with the County Fire Service will make the residents and employees of Monterey Park financial hostages of the Board of Supervisors for the existence of our hometown.

After a 10-year contract with Los Angeles County we may have to give away our police department to the county, sell our library and our beautiful parks just to be able to pay for the Los Angeles County Fire Service annual fees.

This issue has never been about Public Safety.  The Los Angeles County Fire Service and their union members just want control of our Monterey Park to reduce their financial losses and promote their political gains.  They are promoting a power grab to destroy all of the independent cities in Los Angeles County to gratify their greed.

We cannot endanger the lives of our residents and employees by losing our Advanced Life Support Paramedic Ambulance service.

We cannot afford to bankrupt our hometown for the gluttony of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and their fire service.

We need to maintain our Monterey Park Fire Department.

Vote NO to Going County.

This is a matter of life or death in our hometown.

The election date has been set for July 2.

The residents have the support of our employees who are members of the Monterey Park Police Officers Association and members of the SEIU 721.

They agree that contracting with the Los Angeles County Fire Service will financially destroy our Monterey Park.