LB Firefighters Ass'n Leadership Signals (1) It Won't Oppose LBFD Mgm't Request For "First Responder Fee; (2) Says Dept. Is Drowning And In Need Of Resources And Can't Withstand Further Cuts And Notes The Fee Is The Fire Chief's Choice; (3) Notes It Has Opposed Previous "Proportional Budget Reductions" And Says There Are A Number Of Ways A Council Majority Could Provide Funding

LBReport.com

News

LB Firefighters Ass'n Leadership Signals (1) It Won't Oppose LBFD Mgm't Request For "First Responder Fee"; (2) Says Dept. Is Drowning And In Need Of Resources And Can't Withstand Further Cuts; (3) Notes It Has Opposed Previous "Proportional Budget Reductions" And Says There Are A Number Of Ways A Council Majority Could Provide Funding And Fee Is The Fire Chief's Choice

LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. Support independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.

(July 21, 2015, 3:05 p.m.) -- LBREPORT.com has learned that the leadership of the Long Beach Firefighters Association (LBFFA) has signaled that (1) it won't oppose LBFD management's request (per LBFD Fire Chief Mike DuRee) for a "first responder fee" [$250 per call, on Council agenda tonight July 21]; (2) says the Department is drowning and in need of resources and can't withstand further cuts; (3) notes that LBFFA has opposed previous "proportional budget reductions" [advocated in budgets by city management recommended under Mayors Foster and Garcia and implemented under their Council majorities] and notes that there are a number of ways a City Council majority could provide LBFD with additional funding and the fee is the Fire Chief's Choice.

LBREPORT.com will provide LIVE coverage (as we routinely do) of tonight's Council meeting on our front page. Special start time tonight is 6:30 p.m .

[Scroll down for further.]

Management's agendizing memo doesn't indicate how the sum -- which would be General Fund money and could be spent by the City Council on multiple items -- will in fact be spent. It indicate that it will be allocated to LBFD but management plans to evaluate the amount of revenue actually raised by the fee for the next year and then decide -- for FY17 -- how the actual sum raised should be budgeted. The Council could "on any Tuesday" seek to change the current budget and allocate and prioritize LBFD additional sums from currently budgeted sums (currently allocated to other items) but no Councilmember(s) have seriously pursued this since the Council enacted (without dissent) the current FY15 budget in September 2014.

[Scroll down for further.]

Management's request for July 21 Council approval of the new fee seeks implementation in the current FY15 budget...and comes just days before Mayor Garcia is scheduled to publicly release his recommendations for a FY16 budget proposed by city management.

[Scroll down for further.]

Below is the agendizing memo accompanying tonight's (July 21) Council item seeking Council approval to impose a "First Responder Fee" (effective in the current FY15 budget.)

LB Fire Chief proposes "First Responder Fee"

On April 17, 2015, LBREPORT.com was first (again) to report LBFD Chief DuRee's publicly stated intention to propose a "first responder fee" in testimony to the Council's Public Safety Committee. Public Safety Committee chair Councilwoman Suzie Price and vice-chair Councilman Al Austin (member Mungo absent) had invited testimony from LBPD and LBFD management on measures their Departments recommend to deal with budget reductions that city management said (March 3, 2015 study session) would be required if a City Council majority were to continue "proportionate share" budget cuts (which have had significant impacts on LBPD and LBFD service levels for taxpayers.)

Neither chair Price nor Vice Chair Austin questioned continuation of "proportionate share" budget reductions; the Committee item was agendized to discuss "alternate funding sources" for public safety and city efforts to "come up with innovative ways to address public safety needs."

At that meeting, Chief DuRee stated that he planned to propose to the full Council in the coming weeks consideration of a "first responder fee"...and neither Price nor Austin expressed any disapproval of this.

During the roughly nintety days that have elapsed since then, not one Counci incumbent (Supernaw took office in early May 2015) or Council Committee (Public Safety or Budget Oversight) has taken any steps to seek alternatives that could avoid imposing the "First Responder Fee" (whose impacts would be felt most heavily by individuals and families with limited resources.) (However the Council did find time in May 2015 to debate and approve a "Meatless Monday" resolution (approved 7-2, Supernaw and Mungo dissenting) and then voted in June 2015 to adopt the actual resolution.)

[Scroll down for further.]

LBREPORT.com plans (as always) to carry tonight's Council meeting LIVE on our front page. Tonight's meeting is scheduled to start later than usual at 6:30 p.m. following a lengthy Council closed session.

Opinions expressed by LBREPORT.com, our contributors and/or our readers are not necessary those of our advertisers. We welcome our readers' comments/opinions 24/7 via Disqus, Facebook and moderate length letters and longer-form op-ed pieces submitted to us at mail@LBReport.com.