‘A’ Fire Station is Near the End of the List, but it doesn’t mean it’s That Low on our Priorities. It’s on the List, Right?
The Potrero Interchange is a ‘priority’ for the warehouse developers, but not for the Citizens and Home Owners of Beaumont caught up in the City’s illegal bond and construction activity.
A major factor that classifies Beaumont’s construction as ‘illegal’ is the construction of over 20,000 houses without building any Fire Stations. The Federal Standard Response Time is 4 minutes, but some Beaumont Citizens are over 20 minutes from fire and safety protection.
In 2015 Calfires told the Beaumont City Council and Staff that the City needed to build four (4) fire stations. In 2015 the City had about $27 Million ‘Fire Stations Mitigation Fees’ collected, but claimed the City had less than $3 Million, but as soon as the City collected $3 Million in Fire Station Mitigation Fees they would build a fire station.
In 2018 the City still claimed to have less than $3 Million in the fire station account. There is no separate bank account for Fire Station Mitigation Fees. All Mitigation Fees are deposited into the General Fund and embezzled by Staff and Council.
The City ‘planned’ to build one fire station in the southwest side of town for the warehouses, but it will be of no value to the homeowners in Four Seasons or Solera. That fire station is stalled because the City just wants a little cheap fire station and Calfires demands the City build a ‘real’ fire station that will be large enough to service the warehouses and the thousands of houses being built in Area 5.
Beaumont City Councilman Lloyd White stated that Citizens are complaining that their Homeowners’ Insurance is increasing because they have no Fire Stations near their homes. But it is far too late to feign ‘prioritizing’ fire stations – in the real world fire stations are completely built BEFORE the houses are built, not ‘put on a list’ and leaving the homeowners at risk.
Four Years After the Raids: Where are the Mitigation Fees Collected?
Page 24 of the 2015 Internal Control Report used the fire station mitigation fees as an example: “City Ordinance No. 795 was established in September, 1999 for the purpose of establishing a fire station development fee. Section of the Ordinance indicates that purpose of the fee is to finance the acquisition of three fire stations. In addition, Section 8 of the Ordinance states that the “Fire Station Development Fees shall be deposited in a restricted account and accounted for in a manner that will ensure that the Fees shall be expended solely for the purposes for which the Fees were collected. Any interest income earned thereon shall be retained in the restricted account.”
“the Fire Station Development Fee, along with the other 15+ DIF, were all accounted for in the same fund in the City’s general ledger. City staff were unable to provide documentation to provide detail of the purposed restrictions as of June 30, 2015.”
Beaumont City Council Meeting Transcript July 2, 2019
1:26:30 Lloyd White: “The Fire Stations is something I think we should highly prioritize and even use the Waste Management money that’s coming in soon to build that first. I’ve heard from a number of Citizens that areas south of the 10 that their insurance rates have just been increased because they do not have a Fire Station close by. I know we’ve already got the design work done or in the process of being completed. I thought if this was an opportunity to prioritize, and I know we don’t want to get into a list of prioritizing everything.”
1:27:00 White: “But I just thought there should be mention to the Fire Station and to verify the fact that it’s near the end of the list doesn’t mean it’s that low on our priorities.”
Mayor Julio Martinez: We can verify that it’s ‘on the list’, right?
Rumblings of assurance from City Manger and Public Works Engineers.
Lloyd White: Okay, great. Thank you.
Beaumont City Council Meeting Transcript July 2, 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1_tNrvDjoM
Maybe Mehlman, Nancy Carroll, and Russ Bogh would like to run another phony fire station committee – everyone was fooled the first time, right?
First Meeting of Beaumont Fire Safety Committee Set for Monday
Meeting is Open to the Public
By Steve Mehlman, Patch Contributor | Mar 27, 2015 3:18 pm ET
This post was contributed by a community member.
The first meeting of Beaumont’s committee on a proposed new fire station for our area will be held MONDAY, MARCH 30 at 4 p.m. at Beaumont City Hall. The meeting is open to the public.
All those who support better fire and emergency protection for Beaumont, Cherry Valley, and Calimesa are encouraged to attend.