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Cost of Emergency Service in Lamorinda

Orinda is paying 73% more than Moraga for equivalent fire protection service from MOFD and 37% more than Lafayette pays for the same service from ConFire.  This is costing Orinda taxpayers between $4.5 and $6 million a year, money that should be spent on wildfire prevention in Orinda.  How is this happening?

 

Both MOFD and Con Fire are primarily funded by an allocation of the property taxes paid by the property owners served by the districts.  These include the “basic” allocation (set by Prop 13 in 1978) plus a special parcel tax going to MOFD.

 

In fiscal year 2024/2025, MOFD will receive about $34.4 million in property tax revenue; $33.3 million from the ad valorem property tax and an additional $1.1 million from the special MOFD Fire Flow Parcel Tax.  The majority of MOFD’s service is provided by 17 emergency responders (firefighters with emergency medical training) stationed in 5 stations.  There are some ancillary services spread evenly across the district, but the vast majority of service is provided by the 17 responders and the majority of the cost is their compensation and the costs associated with the service they provide.  This cost averages $2.02 million per firefighter position (three shifts so three firefighters plus coverage for vacations, holidays and sick leave).

 

However, the cost is not evenly divided between Orinda and Moraga who split MOFD’s costs. 22.60% of Orinda’s property tax, $22.0 million out of a total of $97.5 million, in 2024/25, goes to MOFD, plus $620,000 in parcel tax; a total of $22.6 million.  Orinda is served by nine firefighters in three stations at an average cost of $2.52 million per firefighter.  In contrast, 18.83% of Moraga’s property tax, $11.3 million out of a total of $59.4 million in 2024/25, goes to MOFD, plus $480,000 in parcel tax; a total of $11.7 million.  Moraga is served by eight firefighters in two stations at an average cost of $1.46 million per firefighter, 58% of the cost to Orinda.

 

Orinda’s population is 19,400, 2,150 residents per responder.  Moraga’s population is 17,000, 2,125 residents per responder, receiving the same service as Orinda for 58% of the cost.

 

Similar service is provided to Lafayette by ConFire.   14.09% of Lafayette’s property tax, $16.6 million out of a total of $117.8 million in 2024/25, goes to ConFire.  ConFire staffs three stations in Lafayette with three firefighters in each station, plus provides ambulance service with a partnership with AMR.  The average cost per firefighter is $1.84 million, about ten percent less than MOFD’s cost and 23% less than MOFD’s cost to Orinda.  If Orinda paid $1.84 million per firefighter its cost would be the same $16.6 million Lafayette is paying, $6 million less than Orinda pays MOFD.

 

Why is Orinda paying so much more than either Lafayette or Moraga?

 

Some, including some of Orinda’s elected representatives to MOFD, currently “justify” the inequity by saying “taxes are not always fair”.  Maybe taxes might be “unfair” in some cases, but when this same problem arose in 1997 with Orinda paying more to ConFire than ConFire was spending on Orinda, the Orinda City Council took action to make them fair to Orinda. 

 

At the time Orinda was receiving sub-standard medical response service from ConFire. There were no paramedics on the engines and ambulance service came from Walnut Creek, sometimes taking up to 20 minutes to arrive.  Approximately $4.25 million of Orinda property tax was going to ConFire which provided the same nine firefighters that are serving Orinda today; a cost of about $475,000 per firefighter.  Moraga was paying about $3.8 million for 8 firefighters, also $475,000 per firefighter, including a paramedic firefighter on each of two engines plus two paramedic firefighters in a local ambulance.

 

Orinda wanted the same service Moraga was receiving at the same cost, so the Orinda City Council worked with Moraga, LAFCO and the County Board of Supervisors to put the creation of MOFD on the ballot.  The voters were promised by all five members of the City Council, plus two future members (Severson and Worth), that if they agreed to form MOFD that all of their property taxes allocated to “fire protection” (which was then and still is mainly emergency medical response) would be used for service in Orinda, FOREVER.  Unfortunately, the only mechanism put in place to “guarantee” this allocation was the election of a five-member board by “division”, with two of the divisions being in Orinda and the third split between Orinda and Moraga, but with the majority of voters in that division being in Orinda.  In other words, Orinda voters could control the MOFD board and thus the proper allocation of tax revenue.

 

So what happened to cause Orinda to go from paying the same per firefighter as Moraga in 1997 to paying 75% more by 2025?

 

Politically, the reasons millions of dollars of Orinda taxes have been siphoned to Moraga are:

  1. Our elected representatives on the MOFD board never kept track of what taxes from Orinda were going to MOFD and how MOFD services were spread between Orinda and Moraga.

  2. Our elected representatives on the City Council, including the seven who told the voters their taxes would NEVER be used outside Orinda again if MOFD was formed, also never kept track of how MOFD was serving us and how our tax dollars were being used.

 

The concept of locally elected representatives who would look out after their constituents’ best interests, especially since those best interests include those of the elected representatives themselves and their families, seems to make sense.  Why it has not worked, why our elected representatives year after year send millions of Orinda tax dollars to Moraga, is a mystery.  And why our elected representatives on the City Council allow this to happen, without comment or consideration, is equally confusing.

 

Technically, how the disparity happened can be explained.

 

First of all, was the fact that before MOFD was formed, 745 homes in South Orinda were served by the Moraga Fire Protection District, not by ConFire like the rest of Orinda.  They were so served because they are equidistant between Moraga’s Station 41 and Orinda’s Station 44 (about 3 minutes on Moraga Way from each).  They probably have the best service in MOFD.  But before MOFD was formed, they were receiving service from paramedic-staffed engines from Moraga and the Moraga ambulance was in Station 41, 3 minutes away, not the AMR ambulance that had to come from Walnut Creek.  These homes provided $475,000 of the $3.8 million in property taxes funding the Moraga Fire Protection District.  Without this money, Moraga’s revenue would be reduced to $3.35 million; $420,000 per firefighter.  And with this money, Orinda’s revenue would be increased to $4.7 million, $520,000 per firefighter.  As soon as Orinda was served by MOFD and not ConFire, there was no reason for the 745 homes in South Orinda to be considered “part of Moraga”.  They were now back to Orinda with primary service from Orinda’s Station 44.  And already Orinda was paying 25% more than Moraga ($520,000 per firefighter vs. $420,000).

 

Next was the imposition of a parcel tax on Orinda.  The reason for this was that over the years ConFire had allowed Orinda’s capital equipment to degrade.  Moraga did not want to share in the cost of upgrading this equipment.  An article in the Orinda News, before the vote, quoting a member of the Orinda fire board, stated that this parcel tax would be reduced or even eliminated after the equipment was upgraded.  This never happened.  The additional tax, $480,000 in 1997, increased Orinda’s total cost per firefighter to $574,000 per firefighter, 37% greater that Moraga’s $420,000 cost.  This was on Day One of MOFD’s operations, 28 years ago, and no one commented on it.

 

Over those 28 years the third impact resulted from Orinda’s property tax base, and therefore property taxes going to MOFD, increasing faster than Moraga’s, with service remaining static.  Orinda’s ad valorem property taxes to MOFD have increased 376% from $4.6 million to $22.0 million while Moraga’s have increased “only” 285%, from $2.9 million to $11.3 million.  Parcel taxes have increased only slightly, bringing the total increase for Orinda down to 340% vs. Moraga’s 250%.  With the same service as 28 years ago, nine firefighters serving Orinda and eight serving Moraga, the cost per firefighter in Orinda and Moraga are $2.52 million and $1.47 million respectively; Orinda’s cost having increased to 76% in excess of Moraga’s.

 

With the average revenue per firefighter for MOFD being $2.02 million, Orinda is overfunding MOFD by nine times $0.50 million, or $4.5 million (the same amount Moraga is underfunding its commitment, which was also that Moraga tax dollars would be used only in Moraga).  And if Orinda could pay the same (via a well thought out contract) to ConFire as Lafayette is ($16.6 million for the same 9 firefighters in three stations), Orinda would have $6 million to use for additional services such as an aggressive wildfire prevention / fuel mitigation program.

 

If Orinda was to do today what it did 28 years ago, review service options, and it had three choices, what would it do?

  1. Pay MOFD $2.51 million per firefighter, $22.6 million per year (current Orinda payment).

  2. Pay MOFD $2.00 million per firefighter, $18.0 million per year (MOFD’s cost).

  3. Pay ConFire $1.84 million per firefighter, $16.6 million per year (current Lafayette payment to ConFire).

 

How does Orinda justify sticking with Option 1?

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