Two groups. No pitchforks or torches, but lots of angst.

At last night’s city council meeting, there were two important discussions, both filled with more emotion than facts.

The first was an opportunity for residents to begin to wrap their heads around the possible impacts that high speed rail will have on Burlingame.

The second involved the concept of merging police services with our neighbor to the north, San Mateo.

A summary of the high speed rail discussion would yield that all of the speakers were gravely concerned about the impacts of the project both on their individual property and to Burlingame as a whole. Consensus was that the High Sped Rail authority has not done a good job at outreach and education.  The speakers were almost entirely those who lived East of the tracks with a few living close to the tracks to the west.

The idea of merging police departments was met with opposition from all of the speakers. The speakers, however were made up of active and retired Burlingame Police Department employees.

Both of the issues center around funding or the lack thereof.

High Speed Rail doesn’t, according to the speakers, have adequate funding to do it right and hiring an interim Police Chief rather than utilizing the current interim Chief doesn’t make economic sense either, according to many of the speakers.

One speaker asked why the citizens of Burlingame have not been asked what they think about merging police departments or hiring an outside Police Chief? Some speakers asked why the high speed rail authority didn’t have any answers to the questions posed by citizens and council 

The two groups were eerily similar in their postures.

Although there is no photo of the standing room only meeting, you probably get the picture.

 

 

Comments

[Holyroller]

I applaud the decsion the Elders made last night regarding " The Merge."
I have a hard time getting my thoughts around how this issue had to be debated.
For example..
When anyone goes on a journey to a place they have never been before, don't you look at a map before you leave your home?
A study should have been done long before this issue came up at Council.
Jim Nantell is attempting to RAM this down our throats.
How come?

[Rich]

The Merging of the Burlingame and San Mateo Police Departments has several issues that need to be looked at before moving forward. Council asked the community to come up with some ideas to help with Burlingame retaining its police department.

More and more cities are facing the same type of financial difficulty that Burlingame is experiencing, in fact I heard Los Angeles is in the same boat. When I heard Burlingame had an unfunded liability of $67,000,000 it appears to me that this is a symptom of poor management in the past. Who has been managing the city budget and were was the money going to come from? To me it appears the control of the city’s purse strings was using city Visa Card to pay the Master Card Bill that was used to pay for the American Express Card and now the bills are due.

Some ideas that were mentioned for Burlingame to retain its Police Department were:
• A parcel tax specifically dedicated to retaining the Police Department.
• A reduction of 3 or 4 Street Police Officers, which will impact services.
o This will bring service ratio of Burlingame equal to that of San Mateo, which is .93 per 1000 residents.
o Currently we enjoy and 1.32 ratio.
• A reduction in the Command Staff of the Police Department.
• Merging the City Managers, of Burlingame and San Mateo.
• Financial reduction across ALL departments within the city.
• And last but not least is the filing for Bankruptcy.

It is clear that Burlingame cannot continue to travel down this path and the residents of Burlingame NEED to assist their elected officials making this difficult decision. So that there is a clear trail of information let your elected officials know what you are thinking or feeling about this important issue.

[BoogeyMan]

I agree that Burlingame cannot continue down this path- and neither can the police expect the same level of compensation and benefits with this economy.

Folks have paid enough and most don't have insured pensions and health benefits. Folks work harder these days with less help and less pay due to the economy. The police can have more officers by each officer having smaller salaries and benefits.

In any emergency, the responders will come to the aid of one another in adjoining cities. They train together for this all the time.

They are brave and good people, but the money is not there and the taxpayers (police included, of course) have paid enough.

[Ron Fulderon]

Boogeyman, you concede far too much when you say that you agree that the police can't expect the same compensation and benefits with "this" economy.

Even in a better economy all government employees, police included, have been over compensated. Rules of supply and demand were never enforced when it came to hiring and compensation. Government would have job openings with hundreds of applicants and rather than see that as an opportunity to reduce the offered compensation they would choose the logic of paying the most to achieve parity with other cities and counties. When every city was doing that, not conservatively concerned how they would pay for it down the line, they set themselves up for failure.

Bankruptcy is now inevitable.

[BoogeyMan]

Worse yet- there is a move in the state legislature to make it more difficult for a city to declare bankruptcy. The governor may not allow this move to happen...

But, as you have noted above, the taxpayers have done their job and now it is up to the city manager and council to do their job. Now amount of fees, parcel taxes or church bake-sales is going to fix what hard negotiation must remedy.

Falling on the sword of bankruptcy may make perfect sense.

[Account Deleted]

Timely article from today's WSJ:

"In Lean Times, Police Cuts Spark Debate Over Safety "

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704508904575192351090107196.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

[BoogeyMan]

You can have more police, just pay them less.

From the article: "But no outcry has materialized. Everyone these days is getting by with less. The police should be able to do it, too, said Twan Jones, a 38-year-old community activist. "They have people being paid nice salaries to figure it out."