Antioch Press 05.06.16
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Your Hometown Weekly Newspaper
Transcript of Antioch Press 05.06.16
30A | THEPRESS.NET COMMUNITY APRIL 6, 2016
by bringing the district’s property-tax al-location percentage (8 percent) from the lowest of all county fi re agencies to the average amount (12 percent).
The plan was formally presented to the board in April, but district legal staff said this week it would violate the law.
“The tax code is very specifi c that tax revenues cannot be reduced to the school districts, under the current law,” said Fire Chief Hugh Henderson. A por-tion of school-district monies are cur-rently allocated via property-tax rolls.
A memo from attorney Shayna van Hoften also said agencies transferring money to the district could not increase their rates, license fees or user fees to make up the difference in the property tax they have given to the district. In ad-dition, the transferring agencies couldn’t cut hours or stop conducting services because of the impact of the revenue
transfer.Hal Bray, co-chair of ECVEP, indi-
cated part of the legal analysis was cor-rect, but said one aspect of the plan was misunderstood.
“We said the agency should allocate a line item in their budget (for fi re-pro-tection service),” Bray said. “It’s not re-lated to property tax or anything of that nature.”
The district board agreed with the legal analysis, but stopped short of dis-regarding the plan, because its core mission involves changing the district’s property-tax allocation, which many feel could solve the district’s funding woes.
ECCFPD, which was comprised of eight stations in 2008, is down to three stations that serve 105,000 residents spanning 249 square miles. The problem stems almost entirely from the district’s property-tax allocation being set with the approval of Proposition 13 in 1978,
when volunteer departments were suffi -cient to cover all of East County.
“I absolutely agree with their efforts to make necessary changes - all of us had made that statement, but what they asked us to do is not that,” said ECCF-PD Board President Joel Bryant. “What they asked us to do is support what they currently crafted, and in that request, there are things against the law.”
Aside from the legal concerns, the board expressed reservations about the length of time any modifi ed plan would take to materialize and its apparent con-fl ict with the district’s exploration of a short-term fi x. A multijurisdictional task force, comprised of offi cials from Brentwood, Oakley, the county, EC-CFPD and the fi refi ghters union, is ex-ploring whether to proceed with a ballot measure in November.
“I would love to be able to support the plan (with modifi cations),”said EC-
CFPD Board Director Randy Pope. “I support the concept. I don’t want to come out against it, because that is kind of killing it. I see this as complementary – short-term and long-term.”
The board plans to send a letter to the grassroots organization saying it will not take a position on the plan, because it needs modifi cations. A separate letter will be crafted to state lawmakers asking them to look at reallocation of property taxes. Changing property-tax allocation laws would require a two-thirds majority in both houses of the state legislature.
To read the analysis, visit bit.ly/1Z9kT8F. For more information about the grassroots organization, visit www.facebook.com/EastCountyVoters.
The board’s next meeting is sched-uled for Monday, June 6, at 6:30 p.m., in-side the Oakley City Council Chambers, at 3231 Main St., in Oakley.
To comment, visit www.thepress.net.
Proposal from page 1A
transportation system. This will include provisions for driverless vehicles and bikes in every community and feature increased investment in smooth and safe streets.
The plan also calls for growth to take place within clear urban limit lines and in conjunction with the protection of vital open space for parks and farmland.
“What we asked of the consultant is to try to fi nd us a plan that is marketable and can be successful for various inter-ests,” said CCTA Commissioner Federal
Glover.At least three key projects in the lat-
est draft of the plan signal improvements to East County.
About $70 million is earmarked to extend high-capacity transit service east from the Hillcrest BART Station in Antioch through Oakley, to a new transit station in Brentwood. Another $122 mil-lion is designated to improve traffi c fl ow and reduce congestion between Concord and Brentwood, along State Route 242 and State Route 4. About $117 million is allocated for safety improvements to
Vasco Road and safety and capacity im-provements to the Byron Highway corri-dors to better connect East County and the Interstate 205 and 580 corridors in Alameda and San Joaquin counties.
District III Supervisor Mary Piepho said during a recent board meeting that she hopes the plan will increase employ-ment opportunities in East County and improve the fl uid movement of goods.
“As great as BART is going to be for human capacity, commuters and recre-ators throughout the Bay Area region, it is not going to move goods,” she said.
Other fund allocations included in the plan have $664 million for the mainte-nance and improvement of local streets; $64 million for programs that promote safe transportation options for children to access schools or afterschool pro-grams; and $115 million for pedestrian, bicycle and trail facilities.
It’s likely that the CCTA board will decide by July 20 if the measure will be included on the November ballot. For a complete look at the latest draft of the plan, visit bit.ly/1UxWTgn.
To comment, visit www.thepress.net.
Plan from page 1A
PG&E pays millions in taxes, feesPacifi c Gas and Electric Company
(PG&E) is paying property taxes and fran-chise fees of more than $318 million this spring to the 50 counties and 243 cities where the utility owns and operates gas and electric infrastructure that serves 16 million Califor-nians, including millions to East Bay cities and counties.
“Property-tax and franchise-fee pay-ments are one of the important ways PG&E helps drive local economies and supports essential public services, like education and public safety,” said Jason Wells, senior vice president and chief fi nancial offi cer for PG&E. “This year’s higher payments refl ect the substantial local investments we are mak-ing in our gas and electric infrastructure to create one of the safest and most-reliable util-ity systems in the country.”
PG&E pays franchise fees to cities and
counties for the use of public streets for its gas and electric facilities. The utility submit-ted the fees to counties by March 31 and to cities by April 15.
PG&E’s franchise-fee payments totaled over $125 million - almost $28 million for nat-ural gas and more than $98 million for electric service. This sum is almost $5 million more than the previous year’s total. In addition, PG&E also collected and remitted more than $30 million in franchise fee surcharges that are imposed by some jurisdictions in PG&E’s service area. The franchise fee payments to East Bay cities and counties totaled more than $28.2 million – more than $11.1 million for natural gas and more than $17 million for electric service. The company also increased its payment of property taxes sharply this year, as the utility continued to make signifi -cant investments in its gas and electric system
to improve safety and reliability. On April 10, PG&E paid property taxes
of more than $36.4 million to Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The payment cov-ers the period from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2015. Throughout its service area, PG&E paid property taxes of nearly $193 million to the 50 counties in which it owns property. The payment covers the period from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2016. Total payments for the tax year of July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016 are more than $385 million - an increase of $41.6 mil-lion over, or 12 percent more than, the prior fi scal year.
PG&E invested more than $5.5 billion last year and expects to invest $5.6 billion this year to enhance and upgrade its gas and electrical infrastructure across Northern and Central California. One such investment is the recently completed, $36 million, state-
of-the-art, electric control center in Rocklin. PG&E opened a $40 million control center in Concord last year and in 2014 opened a $28.5 million control center in Fresno. Together, these three centers provide coverage to all of PG&E’s electric distribution system. PG&E is also constructing a $75 million gas opera-tions technical training center in Winters.
PG&E supports the communities it serves in a variety of ways.
Last year, the company provided more than $25 million in community grants and investments to enrich local educational op-portunities, preserve the environment, and support economic vitality and emergency preparedness, and employees provide thou-sands of hours of volunteer service in their local communities. The company also offers a broad spectrum of economic development services to help local businesses grow.
Applications available for county fair jobsThe Contra Costa County Fair
will be holding a job fair and inter-views on Saturday, May 7, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Contra Costa County Fairgrounds Office, 1201 West 10th Street, in Antioch.
Applications and interviews will take place for the 2016 Contra Cos-ta Contra Costa County Fair, which will be held Thursday June 2 through
Sunday June 5. Available positions include but are not limited to park-ing and ticket sellers, ticket takers, parking attendants, customer ser-vice representatives, janitorial staff, maintenance staff, security guards and more. Fair management and de-partment supervisors are looking for people with a strong work ethic and a high level of customer service, who
want to be part of the Contra Costa County Fair event. Interested appli-cants must bring their photo ID and a social security card to the Job Fair.
Each year, the Contra Costa County Fair hires roughly 50 to 100 people to work at the annual event, not including the local employees hired directly by individual food vendors, carnival providers and live-
stock department. The goal with the job fair is to create a greater level of awareness among Contra Costa County residents that these job op-portunities exist at the Contra Costa County Fair.
Applications will be available to fill out on site or are available online in advance, under the “About Us” tab at www.contracostafair.com.
