[Scroll down for further.]

LBFD presented data showing that between 2005 (Foster and a new Council took office in mid-2006) and 2015 (Garcia and a new Council took office in mid-2014) an increasing percentage of LBFD response times exceeded NPFA's national standards for medical responses and structure fires. By way of context, LBFD noted that of 70,066 responses, over half (49,252) were medical responses while fewer than one in ten (5,385) were for fires.

• In 2005, 74.2% of LBFD's emergency medical responses were within NFPA's standards; by 2015, the figure was 46.6%.

• In 2005, 73.2% of LBFD responses to structure fires were within NFPA's standards; by 2015, the figure was 59.7%

LB taxpayers no longer have five fire engines in service that they previously had: Engines 23, 101, 18, 17 and 8 (the numbers reflect fire station numbers; Engine 101 was a second downtown engine at Station 1.) An advanced Life Support ambulance, Rescue 12, is also gone from Station 12. Daily sworn fire staffing is down from 138 (2004) to 110 (2015.)

To view LBFD's Power Point presentation, click here.

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LBPD presented statistics ("citywide" numbers without breakouts of specific Council district impacts) that indicate that in 2015 compared to 2014:

• Violent crime increased 18.8%

• Property crime increased 15.4%

To view LBPD's Power Point presentation, click here.

Committee-member/Councilman Daryl Supernaw (took office May 2015) asked LBPD Deputy Chief David Hendricks about Council budget actions (in which he joined in Sept. 2015) that since FY14 no longer fund LBPD's field anti-gang unit. Deputy Chief Hendricks replied that LBPD still has an anti-gang unit, but not the field anti-gang unit [which was deployed in neighborhoods where offices could observe conditions firsthand, interact with neighbors and businesses, gather intelligence and the like.] Hendricks indicated that patrol officers now perform work previously handled by the field anti-gang unit (20 officers + 2 sergeants.) (Supernaw and the other Committee members didn't ask what duties those patrol officers no longer handle while supposedly handling the anti-gang tasks previously performed by the specially dedicated field anti-gang unit.)

Starting in FY10 and continuing through FY16, Mayors Foster and Garcia recommended, their Council allies approved, budgets that shrank police and fire service levels and resources for taxpayers. [Critics of those budget actions (including LBREPORT.com) note that the Council approved spending for, among other things, management raises (Nov. 2013) and a 40+ year costly Civic Center transaction (Dec. 2015).]

Since FY13, City Council budget votes erased roughly 200 budgeted officers (over 20% of LBPD's citywide deployable force), leaving LB with a police level roughly equivalent per capita to eliminating roughly a third of LAPD's officers. Other area cities weathered "the great recession" without reductions of this magnitude on their taxpayers.

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As a regular practice, the Council's Public Safety Committee chaired Robert Garcia (named by Mayor Foster) and Councilwoman Suzie Price (named by Mayor Garcia) didn't hold meetings on the public safety impacts of budgets recommended by the Mayors who appointed them as Committee chairs. (Price publicly claimed in 2014 that such Committee budget discussion would be "unprecedented.") But on March 1, 2016 -- with Mayor Garcia and the Council seeking voter approval to raise LB's sales tax to 10% (when Signal Hill/Lakewood is 9% and most OC cities are 8%) -- Price scheduled a meeting of her Public Safety Committee to hear the presentations by LBFD and LBPD, and following the presentations, asked the management reps a leading question: could the issues they cited be improved with increased resources? Yes, they replied in unison.

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On Feb. 23 and March 1, the Council voted without dissent to put a measure on the June 7 ballot that would raise LB's sales tax from 9% to 10% (while Signal Hill/Lakewood charge 9% and most OC cities charge 8%) but wouldn't legally guarantee restoring LB police or firefighter/paramedic levels or street/pothole repairs; the measure is written in a way that allows the current and future Councils to spend its revenue on any general fund items.

Councilmembers could have legally guaranteed police, fire and infrastructure uses in the tax measure's text, which under Prop 13/Prop 218 would require passage by a 2/3 vote of the people. The Council approved "general sales tax" measure (accompanied by non-binding statements of the Council's current stated "intent" for public safety and infrastructure) allows enactment on a 50%+1 vote.

For the past few years, City Hall has dealt avoided deficits (spending expected to exceed revenue) in large part due to a windfall from Sacramento's dissolution of Redevelopment (a Sac'to action the City opposed.) In September 2015, the Council approved a FY16 budget that chose to basically continue current spending levels although management publicly indicated that current spending levels will exceed anticipated revenue in FY17 worsening in several years beyond.

The Council describes the proposed sales tax increase as "temporary" by providing that it will be halved in six years [when most of the current incumbents will be gone or soon to exit] and will end entirely in ten years...but with no indication of what will replace the revenue unless future voters vote to extend it (since government costs aren't expected to decrease.)

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