The Encinitas City Council is wasting time we don’t have. On issues from pensions, suspect real estate deals, failing bluffs, contaminated soils and the decade-long failure to build a park, the council has delayed tough decisions and the community has paid the price.
The current hot topic is failing emergency response times in Olivenhain. Residents in the five communities of Encinitas are becoming vocal about the delays. Each community has its own identity and character with individuals willing to protect their rights. They want solutions not excuses.
Olivenhain is the most distant from emergency services and its residents want the same response times as the rest of the city. One of the problems for some is that prior to Proposition 13 many parts of Olivenhain were covered under Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District, which had a very low tax rate. When Proposition 13 was enacted it locked in this fire protection rate and because of it, these Olivenhain residents pay about half the property taxes per $100,000 assessed value to the city as the residents of the other communities.
Olivenhain needs improved emergency response times. A new fire station would cost $5 million-plus to build and $1.5 million in annual operating costs ($20 million over the next 10 years). Some residents of Cardiff-by-the-Sea, historic Encinitas, new Encinitas and Leucadia say “No way.” They feel it is unfair that they are paying more for present emergency services and think Olivenhain should set up an assessment district and pay what they say is “their fair share.”
A few common sense solutions to improve response times could include:
1. Locate an ambulance at Village Park Fire Station No. 4. This could cost nothing to accomplish if the present downtown Encinitas ambulance was transferred to Village Park. A better solution would be for the city to acquire its own ambulances and crossman them with firefighters located at the Cardiff, Leucadia, Balour and Village Park stations.
Instead of having only 1.5 ambulances for 63,000 residents we would have four. Medical response times would improve from the present 10 minutes to 5 minutes for 80 percent of all calls. Closing of the downtown station would help pay for the purchase of the ambulances and save taxpayers money. Residents would get a 100 percent improvement on response times. If you needed fast help would you rather have access to 1.5 or four ambulances?
2. City Council must make firefighters return to the 1995 Response Standard requiring equipment be out of the station within one minute from alarm time. Taxpayers spent more than $8 million in new facilities and this standard has gotten worse slipping to 1.5 minutes during the day and two minutes at night. The old standard required service to 95 percent of fire calls within 4.5 minutes. Today the standard is 80 percent within five minutes. The poor leadership of Chief Muir is taking us backward. If firefighters can’t perform, then City Council should fire Chief Muir.
3. Build a road that will bypass as much of Rancho Santa Fe Road as possible to improve access from Station No. 4 into Olivenhain. This would benefit resident access to the west as well as traffic on Rancho Santa Fe Road. This solution would be a one-time investment and worth every penny. A bad fire threatens all five communities. Better access to fight such a fire protects us all.
Elected officials must act to provide leadership. For a decade City Council members and fire chiefs have known response times are too slow. Dr. Robert Bonde, a founding father of Encinitas, pointed out the shortfalls to the council in reports in 1995, 1996 and again in 2001. He found more money was spent on fire than on crime, ambulance, lifeguard and street improvements combined, yet less than 1 percent of all 911 calls were for fire.
Benjamin Franklin wrote “you will observe with concern how long a useful truth may be known and exist, before it is generally received and practiced on.”
The useful truth is that the Encinitas City Council has known for 15 years that it is failing its residents. It is time for the council to either begin performing responsibly or step aside and let effective leaders represent the people.
City Council thinks they have time to burn on important issues. We the taxpayers don’t agree.
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