Fire Services Task Force and Training

Fire Services in Emeryville

I had the unique opportunity to participate in a training exercise at the Emeryville Fire Department a few weeks ago. With my children watching, I put on the full fire fighting gear (boots, turn outs, fire hood, helmet, air tank and gloves) and entered a trailer set up for practice fire fighting, with members of Emeryville’s fire fighters there to help me. The heat was intense, the hose was heavy, the dummy I tried to rescue was heavier, the fires were hard to put out, and the noise was extreme. With my own breathing, it was hard to hear the instructions my buddy was shouting to me, and boy did I want to hear what he was telling me!

Afterwards, shaking from the physical challenge and adrenalin, I thanked the crew for allowing me to experience just a bit of what they do. I know that having well trained men and women, strong and with strategic know-how, is the most important thing we can provide to our residents, workers, shoppers and all the folks who drive through town on I-80.

Emeryville is taking an opportunity to look at how we provide our Fire Services, whether there are ways to improve our services and reduce the cost of our services. With improvements in mind, the city council created a Fire Services Task Force, a group of city council members, union representatives, staff and residents to work with a consultant to examine our Fire Services. We are still looking for at least 2 residents to help with this important task. Please contact Karen Hemphill, City Clerk, if you are willing and able to serve your community in this way. She can be reached at city_clerk@ci.emeryville.ca.us or by phone at (510) 450-7800.

My thanks to Chief Johnston, Steve, Heather, Kyle, Jason and all the other folks who helped me to understand just a little bit about their jobs. And thanks for making me feel like I did my best. They even took pictures of me to memorialize the event!

Vote on November 2, if you haven't already!

Vote on November 2!

Friends and neighbors,

Here is the way I am voting on several of the propositions facing us on Tuesday:

Measure J in Emeryville: YES will fund the school portion of new school facility with collaboration from the city for a rec center and library (see my earlier posts for more info)

Prop 20 NO redistricting commission has less accountability than legislators

Prop 21 YES secure funding for our State parks with a vehicle license fee

Prop 22 YES protect local government money from being taken by Sacramento

Prop 23 NO Will turn back the clock on climate change bill AB32 – green jobs now!

Prop 24 YES Keeps some corporate tax breaks from going into effect

Prop 25 YES!! Simple majority for budget in CA legislature

Prop 26 NO increases fee requirement to 2/3 majority vote

Prop 27 YES also about redistricting (like prop 20)

Hope that helps you if you are dropping off your ballot on Tuesday or are voting at the polls. Don’t forget to vote!

Financial Considerations for Measure J

October 10, 2010

Dear Emeryville Neighbors,

Here is another installment in the information regarding Measure J and the Center for Community Life. This time I will talk specifically about the financing structure, as well as I understand it. I am not a financial professional, but I feel that the information I have heard makes sense to me, and I will try to share it with you.

At the city/schools committee meeting last Thursday, October 7, I spent the better part of 20 minutes asking Khushroo Gheyara (from Caldwell, Flores and Winters, the consultant that is advising on facilities and financial planning) questions that I had or that had been posed to me in the last few weeks. I will sum up the answers that I received, and hope that this will bring clarity for you as well.

First of all, there are 2 aspects to Measure J that we need to consider: the overall project and the financing of that project. I feel strongly that the project is one that will enhance our community: both the schools and the city. I have stated those reasons in my previous blog.

If you like the project, then let’s look at the financing. Bond financing is the way that many capital projects are accomplished. This bond measure is not remarkable or different than many others. It would combine two kinds of bonds: a traditional one where interest is paid out every 6 months, and a “zero-coupon” bond where the interest is paid at maturity of the bond. As with a mortgage, the one where interest is not paid during the life of the loan ends up costing us more – a greater amount of interest over time.

The bonds for this measure are typical for a project like this. By allowing 3 different series of bonds to be sold, the district is left with some flexibility about how much to issue and when. Emery Unified would have about 7 years’ time to issue the bonds. If interest rates were high, we might choose to issue less in bonds early on, or add years onto the repayment of the bonds, if necessary.

We cannot anticipate accurately interest rates or how much assessed value the city of Emeryville will have over time, so what happens is we work with assumptions. For now, this bond measure assumes a growth of assessed value of 4%. Historically over the last 2 decades of extreme growth, Emeryville has had assessed values rise at close to 11%, but times have changed. The 4% assumption is conservative. If assessed value does not grow at at least 4%, then there would be a longer life to the bond payments.

Interest rates are the other variable that we do not have control over. Assumptions again guide our decisions here. If the bond were sold today, at today’s interest rates, the cost of the bond would be principal plus interest roughly equal to 1.8 times the principal. In other words, with $95 million borrowed, we would pay back the $95 million plus an additional $171 million, or a total of $266 million. Just as homeowners can refinance a mortgage, there is an option to change a bond whose interest rate is higher than we’d like, and it is called “defeasance”. If the interest rate (which is locked in at the time the bonds are issued) is higher than today’s, the interest would be higher than the amount above. This bond has been projected out at an assumed 6% interest rate. Again, this is a conservative assumption, as currently the interest rate is closer to 4%.

(Interestingly, the bond measure on the ballot for neighboring Berkeley assumes a higher rate of assessed value growth and a lower interest rate. I feel better about our more conservative estimates.)

The length of each bond will also vary. The first bond is assumed to be for 25 years.

The best way to measure how much this bond will cost the property owners of Emeryville, is to look at the maximum annual payment of $60 per $100,000 assessed value. For my family that would equal approximately $180/year. Just as when you take out a mortgage, you don’t usually look at the total cost over the life of the mortgage, you instead calculate how much your monthly payment is. This bond is really that annual payment for each property owner.

Ultimately, I feel that if you are comfortable incurring some debt for the long-term benefit of the community, then this project will make sense. If you are someone who disagrees with bond financing in general (although it is used all over our state and country), then you might not like this plan. The building is slated to have a life of at least 50 years, the bond should be paid off in 47 years.

I hope that if you have questions, or you see some inaccuracies or mistakes in what I have written here, you will write to me directly to let me know. Again, I am no expert on general obligation bonds, but I am very interested in getting all questions asked and adequately answered.

I hope this information will help you to support Measure J.

Sincerely,

Jennifer West

Emeryville City Councilmember

(510) 420-5795

emeryvillewest@gmail.com

emeryvillewest.blogspot.com