Portola Springs

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
its sad that the fires have become politicized even before the flames have been put out. i think chief prathers's comments about air support were misinterpreted as some sort of accusation toward the state or other counties since it was already close to sundown when the fire really got out of control. it does bring up the issue of why oc and sd have fewer firefighting assets of their own and are reliant on neighboring counties or the state. the retired firefighter in the kfi interview had the opinion that la county residents put their money where there mouth was by approving the supplemental tax for fire protection. in additon, he said the only way to really ensure you have the resources you need, when you need them, is to control the resources directly and not rely on the assistance of others. i thought that was a good point.





as for city of irvine, shouldn't it relaly have its own fire dept? its understandable for small enclaves and towns like vp, yorba linda, rsm, laguna woods, la palma to be serviced solely by the ocfa. anaheim, orange, nb, santa ana all have their own depts.
 
<p><em>>>in additon, he said the only way to really ensure you have the resources you need, when you need them, is to control the resources directly and not rely on the assistance of others.</em></p>

<p>I concur. You need to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.</p>

<p><em>>>as for city of irvine, shouldn't it relaly have its own fire dept?</em> </p>

<p>I've sometimes wondered the same thing. I wonder if it saves costs to pool resources, or if there is a benefit to running it as a joint powers authority rather than a city agency.</p>
 
<em>"All y'all are going to make me do a post on the misinformation regarding public employee retirement benefits, aren't you? "</em>





Yes. My original comment was that municipal governments will be severely impacted by lower property tax revenue as these governments tend to cave in to labor unions in negotiations. (The State of California does it with its unions as well.)





According to <a href="http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/04/10/news/sandiego/16_32_514_9_07.txt">this article</a>, over 5% of the city budget goes toward funding retirement obligations. I think that is a great deal of money, and these programs are notorious for being underfunded based on actuarial studies.





It is entirely possible I have formed an opinion based on too little information, so if you could provide any data showing pension obligations are not a big problem for municipal government, I would like to see it.
 
<p>San Diego is known as one of the worst offenders. In no way, shape, or form, would I defend any of the decisions made by them. </p>

<p>A few short factoids: the amount of "underfunding" is linked, in part, to portfolio performance for some public entities (e.g., CalPers). In years when the portfolio doesn't perform well, the current balance of the fund is less than in years when it performs well. Like a 401(k) account.</p>

<p>Unlike a 401(k) account, however, many public entities have not been putting money into a portfolio or account as their workers work and get paid. They have, instead, preferred to current fund it (i.e., putting off to tomorrow that which you can pay today). That the public entity made that choice is hardly the fault of the employees (except, perhaps, for the City Manager or equivalent).</p>

<p>Another factor is unpredictable revenues. In some jurisdictions, when times are lean, the public employees agree to forego COLA and merit raises for an increased retirement benefit. I call this the Wimpy agreement: the public entity will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. It is also part of the trade-off that private sector employees make when they work in the public sector. They give up the larger current paycheck, for a better retirement benefit.</p>
 
w2b,





I think I have that info somewhere. Eh yeah I seem to have the data whether it is useful or useless. IIRC OC's property taxes mostly go to the state because they do some weird calculation. I will see if I can find it later.
 
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