The Personal Toll of Outsourcing
Sign our online petition against outsourcing!
FINALLY, San Carlos residents are beginning to understand what’s at stake if the city outsources the police department to the San Mateo County Sheriff and the fire department to CalFire. Overwhelmingly, speakers at Monday’s city council budget session criticized city manager Mark Weiss’ recommendation to dismantle the departments, and some council members felt more options were needed to solve a $3.5 million budget deficit. Weiss had offered what he called his “Two Paths” approach: farming out all of public safety or slashing parks and recreation, including the possible closure of the Youth Center.
Despite the concerns of residents, a majority of the council seemed to espouse the parks-at-any-price option and instructed the city staff to further explore outsourcing police and fire. The proposals from the sheriff and CalFire may soon be joined by a proposal from Redwood City, which could offer a contract for services or some type of consolidation. It’s not known whether this would be limited strictly to police functions or might also include the fire department, which is shared jointly by Belmont and San Carlos.
If the city thought that few people cared about public safety, Monday’s meeting was a revelation. The council might also want to consider the fact that an online petition against outsourcing that we’ve started at Change.org is approaching 200 signatures. They might want to consider that a group of Central Middle School youngsters, concerned about the fate of their firefighters and police officers, have collected hundreds of signatures from fellow students urging the council not to break up the departments. And they might want to consider that an online poll from fellow blogger Chuck Gillooley (www.whiteoaksblog.com) is running two-to-one against outsourcing.
There is no escaping the fact that this issue is convulsing our city, perhaps as never before in its history. Just look at the media circus this has caused, with three Bay Area TV stations, local newspapers and even The New York Times covering the story. San Carlos has become the embarrassment of the Bay Area. So much for “The City of Good Living.” Our image is going down in flames.
Police and fire protection represents the foundation, the bedrock of city government, and for anyone to speak of these dedicated men and women in terms of numbers and costs is hard to swallow. Nothing personal about this, insists the mayor and some council members, it’s only business.
I’ve got news for them. It’s VERY personal.
These officers and firefighters had a choice of where they could work, and they chose San Carlos. The motivation for entering public safety professions is rarely just a paycheck, since no amount of compensation can replace an officer or firefighter who dies in the line of duty. Here in San Carlos, where public safety salaries are among the lowest in the region, the performance of our employees has consistently been outstanding. The police department has one of the highest crime-solving records in California. The fire department has such an esprit de corps of training that it has been entrusted with running an elite hazardous materials unit for all of San Mateo County. In case of a chemical spill or a terrorist attack, they would be the first responders. And how dangerous might that be?
Further, 10 years of staff cutbacks in these departments have created mounting frustration and often long hours of overtime, especially with the police department. We’re supposed to have four officers and a sergeant on duty during the weekdays, and an extra officer on weekends. But, in fact, we often don’t hit those levels because of sickness, court duty and vacations. This means that just one major incident – an armed robbery, a bar brawl or an injury traffic accident – can quickly overwhelm the small force and require calls for backup from neighboring police departments. To be honest, our officers are putting on a game face, but they are approaching burnout.
The same is true with the fire department. A bare-bones contingent of 6-7 firefighters staffs our two fire stations, and there is neither enough equipment nor sufficient manpower to send to even a modest structure fire. Again, help is often requested of neighboring jurisdictions.
So, the men and women of these departments have been doing a lot more with less, year after year. They have stretched themselves for our community, gone the extra mile to solve a crime or rescue someone from a burning house. Officers chase burglars, stop vehicles with gang members, remove drunk drivers from the streets to keep them from killing someone, and talk to our troubled youth.
And now they might be sent packing. If you were in their shoes, you might well be asking: “What kind of thanks is this?”
Many of these public safety employees live in our community, have kids who go to our schools and enjoy a picnic in our parks just like anyone else. Frankly, because of the high cost of housing on the Peninsula, living here is often beyond the range of affordability for public safety employees. Since many commute long distances from out of town, we should be grateful for the ones who are here.
Not personal? Here’s what will happen if these departments are tossed aside like a broken puzzle:
- Folding the police department into the Sheriff’s Department will result in immediate demotions because of an incompatible organizational structure. Chief Greg Rothaus, whom many regard as one of the finest law enforcement professionals anywhere, will be bumped down to Captain, and the San Carlos Police Station will become a “substation” of the county. Our two commanders will be demoted to lieutenant or sergeant, since there is no comparable position within the sheriff’s department. Our five sergeants – who make up the front line of supervisors on our streets – could be reassigned to East Palo Alto or some lonely mountain beat or even to the County Jail. How’s that for building a career, for getting hard-earned promotions, for honing your skills with advanced training? Here’s your new assignment and see ya later!
- CalFire, an agency with a runaway budget that moves faster than a wind-whipped forest fire, would quickly set off an exodus of our firefighters if it takes over in San Carlos. The reasons? Lower pay, longer hours and deployment that can move people anywhere in the state. The firefighters who have come to know every street and business and school in San Carlos could be packed off to Paso Robles, or anywhere that the state has a wildfire emergency. CalFire hiring standards are lower because the agency does not perform background checks. Also, there are questions about whether CalFire has the same depth of specialty training on areas such as hazardous materials and emergency medical support. When CalFire was brought in to service the Coastside Fire District over on the San Mateo County coast, most of the existing firefighters there – one estimate is 75 percent – quickly left.
Not personal?
No matter what the city council does, this city government is already sucking the life out of our police and fire professionals. Many of them have had it with this place, and they want nothing more but to move on. We’ll see the departures of key supervisory people soon – those who created the pride and professionalism of these two departments. Losing our seasoned and experienced supervisors will leave a huge hole, and our community will suffer for it.
On top of that, the fire department, which has a preponderance of young and highly-skilled firefighters, stands to lose many of them to other departments. And what kind of waste of tax dollars is it to train these people and then push them out the door? Does this impact the safety and security of our community? Even if we were to get the same staffing levels and the same vehicles through an outsourcing scheme, what will be left of our departments? Not much, I suspect. Once we go down this path, how difficult would it be to put the genie back into the bottle if we ever changed our minds?
I can envision a scenario in which, if these departments are broken up, the city manager and some council members might shake hands with these professionals and wish them luck. Kind of like the layoff specialists from the movie, “Up in the Air.”
After all, it’s just business. Nothing personal.
– Ken Castle
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Note from Administrator
We will not be kind: we are vehemently against this proposal. It is a BAD idea, and we do not want this implemented in our city. We are prepared to take action to stop this.
Ken, thank you for another thoughtful summary of the situation. You ask: “how difficult would it be to put the genie back into the bottle if we ever changed our minds?” Ask Half Moon Bay, theyr’e studying that right now. If they were satisfied with their service, they wouldn’t be studying.