Kick the can down the street. That’s what the meek Gilroy City
Council did last week when it voted 6-1 to halt the process of
analyzing costs related to contracting out for fire service.
Kick the can down the street. That’s what the meek Gilroy City Council did last week when it voted 6-1 to halt the process of analyzing costs related to contracting out for fire service.
Given the dire budget circumstances facing public agencies across America, it’s a hugely disappointing vote that demonstrates less courage than the lion had in the beginning of the Wizard of Oz.
City Manager Tom Haglund threw up the requisite bureaucratic Power Point slides about how difficult it would be for the staff to compare costs, etc., etc. ad infinitum, and the Council folded its cards as if the poker table were on fire. Only City Councilman and mayoral candidate Perry Woodward voted to go forward with the analytical process.
The vote wasn’t even to endorse switching fire services, it was only to proceed with a process of looking at possibilities and comparing costs. The Council once again decided to serve the firefighters union first and the community second. There’s simply no justification whatsoever for not considering possibilities.
Even against the backdrop of an economic re-set and overly generous pay, overtime and benefit packages for firefighters, the Council shrunk from its fiduciary duty.
Yes, the firefighters have made some significant – and temporary – contract concessions. Surely, they saw the writing on the wall. The public has had enough.
But that doesn’t relieve the Council of its duty to look at the long-term fiscal health of the community. There are far better reasons to follow through with a fiscal analysis regarding contracting out for fire services than not. Gilroy officials have been meeting with Morgan Hill officials jointly since 2009 about a regional approach to fire services. That’s a wasted two years. And Morgan Hill already contracts with Santa Clara County Fire. Mayor Al Pinheiro, Coucilmembers Bob Dillon, Dion Bracco, Peter Leroe-Muñoz, Cat Tucker and Peter Arellano, apparently, don’t really want answers.
Honestly, isn’t there enough critical thinking skill amongst the Council members to figure out that there’s a huge disconnect between a Power Point slide that says, “Broad spectrum of labor law issues involved, including the legal limitations and preconditions that apply when a local agency seeks to contract out an essential operation,” and the fact that our neighbor, Morgan Hill, contracts out for fire services.
In Gilroy, it’s the “don’t ask, don’t want to know” policy. Why would a Councilmember actually want the facts – it might lead to a tough decision?
Councilman Dillon’s comments pretty much summed it up – going forward could lead to an unfriendly debate (heaven forbid we debate public policy and finances) and that he liked seeing “Gilroy” on the side of the city’s fire engines.
In Morgan Hill, which contracts for fire services, it still says Morgan Hill on the sides of the fire trucks. At least the Council should gather all the facts before sharing the deep reasoning behind such an important decision.
