Calif. city considers outsourcing fire protection
SAN CARLOS, Calif. — State firefighters and San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies would respond to emergencies in San Carlos under a budget scenario proposed by the city manager.
Outsourcing police and fire protection services would save the city an estimated $3 million to $5.5 million, said City Manager Mark Weiss, who on late Friday released his “two paths” plan to close a $3.5 million deficit in the 2010-11 fiscal year budget.
The alternative, or other path, is to cut $3.5 million from the city’s $28 million budget by, among other things, laying off eight full-time employees, closing the city’s youth center and ending broadcasts of City Council meetings. The cost-cutting proposals will be discussed at a community town hall meeting on Saturday.
Weiss said he prefers the outsourcing plan because the city needs to “do something bolder” than just tap reserve accounts and cut its general fund budget, as it has done each of the past 11 years.
“This approach, with this death by 1,000 cuts, is not sustainable,” Weiss said Monday. “The organization and each department in it implodes. That will affect the whole of the city, including police and fire.”
