Politics & Government

City Counters Local Newspaper's Editorial

Gilroy city spokesman Joe Kline said that claims of superfluous spending on fire service were 'extremely misleading.'

In a recently released letter to Gilroy Dispatch Editor-in-Chief Mark Derry, city Public Information Officer Joe Kline said that an editorial claiming superfluous spending on local firefighting was "extremely misleading."

Gilroy's top executive, Tom Haglund, asked that the city's response to the July 1 “CHEERS & JEERS” column be posted to the city’s Facebook page on Friday, said city spokeswoman Jacqui Carrasco.

“We responded because we really think that there was a gross mischaracterization that the city spent more for fire services than any other city in the county,” said Haglund.

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The letter refuted the claim that the city spent 21 percent of its total budget on firefighting services, part of a July 1 “jeer” attributed to the Dispatch Editorial Board citing the findings of a Santa Clara County Grand Jury that examined the efficiency of county fire departments.

The city spent 21 percent of its general fund budget in the previous fiscal year, Haglund said, a fund used to pay for city services that constitutes part of Gilroy’s overall budget.

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“This figure, taken alone, does not begin to tell the story, as Gilroy currently has one of the lowest city budgets per capita in the county, largely as a result of aggressive and proactive cost-cutting measures which have taken place over the past two years,” wrote Kline.

Gilroy spends the second-lowest per-resident amount in the county for firefighting services: $156 per person in a city of nearly 50,000, wrote Kline.

Residents in Los Altos pay the most: $871 per person, in a city of approximately 30,000 according to the grand jury report.

The Gilroy City Council has taken up the subject of examining the cost of fire service as recently as March 28, but keeping firefighting under the city’s umbrella has been unchallenged. Other cities, like Morgan Hill, pay for outside agencies to operate fire service.

“It (the editorial) does an injustice to the fact that the city of Gilroy has reduced the cost of its fire service to below what we could contract for,” said Haglund.

A Dispatch article on June 22 examined the findings of the report, quoting Haglund and other authorities who said that “% of City Budget” in the report actually meant percentage of Gilroy’s general fund.

The June 22 article was not a subject in the city’s letter to the editor.

Gilroy firefighters accepted a second-tier retirement plan—the lowest cost to a city in the county—and reduced staffing to help the city bridge a budget gap in 2010, Haglund said.

Cooperative agreements with the adjacent fire districts, including shared battalion chiefs, helps to bolster the response in the case of a fire, said the city administrator.

The grand jury report examined the cost of fire departments and if separating them from medical responsibilities could save money. Officials have until August to respond.

“A full understanding can only be expected when all of the facts are presented,” wrote Kline.

Click on the PDF for the full letter.


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