Saturday, September 4, 2010

Should we do this with Pacifica 5-0?


If San Carlos can save $2M by outsourcing cops, why not Pacifica? Similar in size. Sheriff's substation just down the road in Moss Beach. Piece of cake and save us $$ too!

San Carlos Officials Vote to Disband Police Force


The Associated Press
Posted: 09/03/2010 06:49:25 AM PDT
Updated: 09/03/2010 06:49:25 AM PDT

SAN CARLOS, Calif.—San Carlos officials have decided to disband the city's police force and outsource law enforcement services to the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office. The city council voted unanimously Thursday night to accept a five-year agreement with the sheriff's office for law enforcement services. Under the deal, all 39 members of the city's police department would become employees of the sheriff's office.
Police Chief Greg Rothaus would likely remain as a captain and bureau chief.
City officials said before the agreement, they were facing the possibility of having to lay off at least two police department employees.
The outsourcing move would save the cash-strapped city of 28,000 about $2 million a year.
It still has to be approved by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.
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Information from: SAN MATEO DAILY JOURNAL, http://www.smdailyjournal.com/

Posted by Steve Sinai

13 comments:

Lionel Emde said...

I wouldn't count on San Carlos saving any money in the long run. The reason it's coming in at $2 million less is that there are fewer employees. The cops will actually get a raise when they become S.M.Co. Sheriff's personnel.

The Sheriff's Dept. was the only county bargaining unit that wouldn't even freeze their salaries as part of the county efforts to trim personnel costs.

Think that's going to work for San Carlos?

Anonymous said...

How much money did Pacifica save by merging the fire department??

zero!!

Smart Growth Pragmatist said...

From Lionel Emde:
"I wouldn't count on San Carlos saving any money in the long run. The reason it's coming in at $2 million less is that there are fewer employees. The cops will actually get a raise when they become S.M.Co. Sheriff's personnel."

That's the idea, Lionel - to consolidate expensive administrative personnel (including Chiefs) and save the taxpayers some serious money. From the original KTVU story which I posted on another thread (without any credit from the blohgmaster here):
"All of the 26 sworn San Carlos police officers will become deputies wearing sheriff's department uniforms [emphasis added], San Carlos patrol cars will carry sheriff's decals, the current police chief will become a sheriff's captain and the police headquarters will become a sheriff's sub station."

From Anon@7:46AM
"How much money did Pacifica save by merging the fire department?? zero!!"

How do we know, Anon@7:46AM?? Have you audited the books? Might the savings been put elsewhere, e.g., pet projects or general fund bailout? Guess that's never happened before...

So unless you prefer REALLY neat names like Officer Realyvasquez to the counterpart Deputy Sheriff RealyVasquez, and if you really don't care about saving the city millions of dollars so that future generations can continue to enjoy our present day views of the hillsides and the ocean, then please, leave the police department, and other departments, for that matter, EXACTLY the way they are today...

Lionel Emde said...

"...consolidate expensive administrative personnel (including Chiefs) and save the taxpayers some serious money."

It's unclear how much money will be "saved" when salaries, benefits, and pensions keep rising at the present rate. Riptide posted a story from the Oakland Tribune which noted that San Mateo County has the most underfunded pension fund in the state, and that the county reserves will be gone by 2014 at the present rate of consumption.

The salaries in San Carlos rose by almost $3 million overall since 2006, while the general fund was static. Pacifica isn't in much better shape, with the fiscal geniuses in charge spending 75 percent of our meagre reserves on the "structural deficit." (payroll)

So, Smart Growth Pragamatist, pray tell your plan for leaving city departments "EXACTLY the way they are today."

Smart Growth Pragmatists said...

"So, Smart Growth Pragamatist, pray tell your plan for leaving city departments "EXACTLY the way they are today."

You misunderstood me, Lionel. Leaving city departments exactly the way they are today is a sure fire recipe for fiscal disaster. I have always advocated outsourcing/contracting of all city services to private sector entities. There is absolutely no way we can sustain the current trend of esclating pensions and salaries brought to us courtesy of public employee unions and giveaway politicians who are in their pockets. Competition and the dynamics of the free market place will bring costs down to much more sustainable levels. But you know that...

Kathy Meeh said...

And if you could bring city worker wages down to 3rd world levels (hopefully we would all find unacceptable), what about inflation, city maintenance and improvement? Here's a 10 year inflation index from 1999.

Anonymous said...

As for Pacifica Fire Department, we did not merge. Pacifica still handles their pay and pensions independently. The audit showed that we saved about $350,000 in the positions lost, but that was it. Although add that up over the years, it comes to serious money. I would not recommend doing it in the manner it was done again. Cal Hinton and Sue Digre negotiated that contract with Tanner leading the way. Bad news for everyone involved. Just not bad for the reasons most complained about.

Cities run on taxes and fees. Until we have more property developed or more businesses making money, we have no other way to pay the bills but raise taxes, cut services, go bankrupt, or go county. Which do you want? Vote out the council. Fine, but you still have the same problem and there are no great geniuses to fix it.

Lionel Emde said...

"Until we have more property developed or more businesses making money, we have no other way to pay the bills but raise taxes, cut services, go bankrupt, or go county. Which do you want?"

It's a false model. Because of the bursting of the housing bubble and the ridiculous runup in public employee payrolls in the last ten years, there is no easy solution.

I say let Helicopter Ben print stacks of hundred-dollar bills and deliver them to me and I'll take care of it.

Anonymous said...

This is the logical fallacy of false choice. It's a fallacy of oversimplification that offers a limited number of options when in reality more options are available. A false choice arises when someone argues that we have to choose between mutually exclusive options or from a limited set of options, when that is untrue. Generally, when this rhetorical strategy is used, one set of options is unacceptable, while the other is the one the manipulator wants us to choose. Whoever succumbs to this trap has thus made a choice that is forced, and as such, of little value.

The Decider said...

You're either with us or against us.

Kathy Meeh said...

Anon@9:19pm and Decider @9:33pm, what are you talking about?

Anonymous said...

What we're talking about is the fallacy of false choice. Lionel Emde quoted your false choice. The Decider gave an example of another false choice.

Anonymous said...

I would rather keep the Cops and outsource the firemen.....they eat up more money than the Police department does....

2 days on 4 days off....someone calls in sick for their shift...its and easy 48 hours OT...

5 fire captains making $500,000 in Overtime...that put them in the $200k a year range that year...

Pacifica's Fire responds to more Medical emrgencies than fires...Outsource the Firedepartment to CDF and AMR