10C Action 2007 0604 - Laserfiche WebLink

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~.. EXHIBIT 1 General Fund. It is a separate entity with their income and expenses independently managed. So if the County Supervisors and the City of San Leandro have no controls, then who does? There is no elected or appointed agency willing or able to provide control to this budget. The County Fire Department has become a privately managed monopoly off of public funds. And San Leandro has suffered long enough. We receive services from the highest quality fIre department in the area, there is no doubt about that. For our dollars, it had better be that good. However, it has come time to be much more vigilant in how we spend our money. This sounds odd, coming from me, since I've been pushing to spend more money for Cops and the Cherry Festival as quality..of-life issues ever since the day I was elected. However, this is very different The Alameda County Fire Department is an agency that acts like a Contractor when budgeting time comes and they need more money. Then they act like a City Department when their costs come in higher and they need more money. They cannot and should not have it both ways. Either they are part of our family and they celebrate with us and sacrifIce with us. Or they are a contractor and will be treated as outsiders. San Leandro has always been proud to be called a full-service City. Our employees go above and beyond the usual service expectations to make San Leandro the great City that it is. Our Firefighters have always been part of our family. They are heroes and they deserve the best equipment, training and support our City can give. All of our employees deserve the best resources we can give. None of them should be a pawn in the game of monopoly. We need to focus our resources to give them ALL the best. We need to bring the Fire Department back to the City of San Leandro. .. Mayor Young, I would like to aSk you to follow-up on my discussions during our Finance Committee meetings to research this further. I would like you to create a committee of the Council to quickly review this matter and consider bringing the Fire Department back into the City Family. At a minimum we should review the contract for this year's budget cycle to create terms that are much more favorable to the City of San Leandro. I have a list of 7 items for a committee to consider in that regard. 1) Our contract with this vendor should be reviewed for renewal every 5 years. 2) Our contract increases should be capped at a limit not to exceed CPI or other inflation factor. 3) The maintenance of our Fire Equipment should be brought back in house. 4) Invoicing for services should be after services are rendered by the contractor. S) The City Council should have line item veto power of budget items we feel are not required for basic fire services. 6) Our City Manager should have a seat at the bargaining table. 7) There should be Formal Council approval when invoicing exceeds the annual contract amount by more than the City Manager's signing authority.