Council Meeting September 9, 2014

I haven't seen anything this arrogant and disrespectful as to how the three city council members voted to outsource fire in a long time!  Smith tried to push a vote before Council Members Krupa and Wright were able make their comments! Thankfully, his efforts failed. I just hope what Council Members Krupa and Wright had to say was accurately recorded. I am impressed by what the two of you had to say.

Council Members Krupa and Wright showed commitment not only to the people of this City but to pure, true democracy! They made a motion to bring this decision to the people of our City for a vote. The three, of course, quickly shot that down because they know this city would never let contracting out happen if we voted. Instead, they rushed the vote. It may have very well been less than 15 seconds from the motion to the conclusion of the vote! It was orchestrated. So now I ask, why is this being forced upon us? We know from surrounding cities that the rates will go up and we will not be able to afford it. That is a fact. There is evidence to support it. Why are you trying to bankrupt this City? I don't want to hear about how you saved this City from bankruptcy by contracting out to CR&R. I hope most of you, by now, are aware that CR&R contributed to Jeff Stone's State Senate Campaign. Jeff Stone is the County Supervisor for our district. John Petty is the Planning Commissioner for our district. John Petty on a website boasted about how he used his political connections to get Milne elected. That is all public knowledge! Something is going on...

Let's get back to the meeting last night. Even if I get liberal with the numbers... Let's pretend that HFD is $30,000 a year more expensive than CalFire (We aren't calling them County because they are a State Agency). For that price, we get 3 Battalion Chiefs, a full-time Hemet Fire Chief and 100% use of our ladder truck when we want it and need it.  If you ask me, that's a deal!

It is still cheaper to risk going .9% (City said last night that HFD, over the last 8 years, on average spends 100.9% of their budget. However, if you average the budget for the last 9 years, HFD comes in under budget, but only an average of 8 years supports the council majority argument.) over a budget than to have an increase in rates (possibly yearly) anywhere from 1.3% to 40%. Wexler made a great point. If this contract gets signed with CalFire, what dollar amount do you think we will contractually obligate ourselves?  Guess what? We, the taxpayers, will not know what that amount is before that contract gets signed, if it does. If this actually goes through, HPD is next. Do you want to lose control of 75% of our City Budget?

For our HFD-  I know that you would rather continue to commit yourselves to our City and not go elsewhere even though the job would be far less demanding. I know some of you grew up in the City of Hemet and became Hemet Firefighters. Please know, and I'm sure I speak for the vast majority, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for never giving up on us!