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Letters
Saratoga Fire District has plenty of money
I take issue with some of the facts asserted in Oakley Brooks' Oct. 3 article on the Saratoga Fire District. For instance: According to Commissioner Hugh Hexamer, "money is the first hurdle the fire district will have to clear in repairing" the current fire station building. This is not a true statement; the fire district is awash in money!
The bonds issued pursuant to Measure F netted the fire district nearly $6 million. According to the fire district's business manager, $700,000 was used as a deposit to purchase the former Contempo Realty Building (an additional $1.3 million was secured without using any more of the bond's proceeds) to complete condemnation acquisition. That leaves more than $5 million in bond funds to build a new fire station! But in reality the figure is higher. The funds are earning above market interest. On Aug. 27, Frank Lemmon, chairperson for the citizen's bond oversight committee, reported nearly $227,500 in bond interest as of last July! By the end of this year it is expected the bond fund will grow to $5.5 million!
Contrast the foregoing with the cost to construct a new fire station. The current fire station consists of roughly 7,500 square feet of single story improvements. Rather than replacing or modernizing it, the fire district's plans call for 13,325 square feet of two-story improvements to be constructed! The fire district's revised cost estimate for the new station, as of May 2001, is only $3.7 million. So there's plenty of Measure F moneys to construct a new state-of-the-art fire station nearly double the size of the old! In fact, as you will see, there's so much money it now makes one ask 'why Measure F?'
In addition, on June 22, Harold Toppel, the fire district's attorney, reported his client had an additional $2.5 million or more of deposits, the product of various operational surpluses and ever-increasing secured real property tax revenues. Like the bond proceeds, additional surpluses and above-market interest will have pushed this figure closer to $3 million by the end of the year! Unlike the bonds, this surplus can be spent on making the current fire station safe!
The fire district now owns the former Contempo Realty building, consisting of 4,250 square feet of improvements, which according to Commissioner Egan represents considerably more living and working space than the current fire station. It was about to spend $240,400 on interior improvements before its use-permit application was denied by the city council. Although planned improvements to the building may be "on hold," the money intended to pay for them is not!
Prior to coming to the voters for approval to issue the bonds, the fire district commissioned a report from engineering experts (the Meserve Report) who estimated the fire station could be seismically retrofitted for about $200,000. According to Commissioner Egan, "The [fire] station has further deteriorated over the last seven years to the point that upgrading would cost nearly $1 million." Notwithstanding, there have been no formal updated retrofitting cost estimates. But this statement is misleading in its use of the term "upgrading," as it includes $600,000 or more of interior improvements having nothing to do with safety. If one limits upgrades to seismic retrofitting, even today less than $300,000 is required.
Last month the fire district sent out a letter telling district residents the new fire station might not be in service for up to five more years. Thus the issue to the public is one of priorities and quite straightforward--jeopardize the safety of our firefighters or spend less than $300,000 of the massive surpluses on deposit to make the current fire station safe, and if the pending bill in the Legislature to fund public safety projects such as this passes, the net cost to the fire district will be next to nothing!
Contrary to how the incumbent fire commissioners continue to inform the public, money is no hurdle whatsoever to making the current fire station safe while the city explores a long-term fire protection solution. When are the fire district's commissioners going to act?
Aaron L. Katz
Saratoga
All meetings held by district done legally
I was appalled to read Mr. Blaisdell's letter in the Oct. 10 issue of the Saratoga News. His comments border on libel and to put it nicely, are 100 percent incorrect. Our commissioner's meetings are all held according to the California "Brown Act" and minutes of all meetings are open for public review. Mr. Blaisdell, not a resident of the fire district, has been unsuccessfully looking for a "smoking gun" for the past two years, and it is unfortunate that he now resorts to misinformation in print.
Our books are open to all, regardless of what the Firefighters and Citizens Task force says. Regarding Mrs. Grens' letter, we did apply for funding from a FEMA grant and were turned down since we did have some steel in one wall and there were apparently other stations in worse shape. Since that time, we have been working to get a new station.
If there are any questions regarding any of these allegations, please call me or speak with another commissioner, the chief or our business manager.
Jay R. Geddes
Fire Commissioner
Saratoga Fire District
Candidates promise to seek public's approval
We are candidates in the Nov. 6 election to become fire commissioners in the Saratoga Fire District.
Our opponents and the incumbent administration of the fire district are claiming, falsely, that if we are elected, we intend to turn over control of our fire protection services to the county government. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Two months ago in our formal campaign platform we made this promise to the community: "We are not committed to entering into a blanket contract with any agency to take over the management and/or operation of SFD; and would not in any event enter into such a contract without obtaining the prior approval of the residents of SFD through a formal referendum."
We have been and will continue to be meticulously truthful to the community. We are committed to retaining local control and to providing residents with the best possible fire protection and emergency medical services.
We appreciate the tremendous support given to our campaign by Saratoga's professional firefighters. We are committed to giving them and the community the open and responsive leadership that they deserve.
Dave Dolloff and Barry Ford
Saratoga Fire Commision Candidates
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
