PacificSun Weekly 01.27.2012 - Section 1

Page 11

< 9 Sausalito simmers over fire annexation tomatically dies (because that shows more than 50 percent of voters would reject the annexation in an election). That’s the standard operating procedure for LAFCO. Ford, like Pfeifer decries what she calls a failure to conduct an “objective ďŹ nancial analysis.â€? She also says the three-person majority on the city council “made a major decision, and I think the residents have the right to vote.â€? Ford and Pfeifer say the City Council told residents they would be able to vote. “Then, after they found out from a survey, that it might not pass, the council came back from an August recess and rushed this through.â€? But a consultant’s study of the ďŹ re issues submitted to the city council in June says, “Given a brief description of the consolidating process, more than three in ďŹ ve local voters indicate that they support it.â€? Ford echoes other opponents when she says she has misgivings about giving so much of the city’s property tax to an outside agency. “This is not a merger of equals. We now have a contract with some control. We will be absorbed into the district, and we will represent 26 percent of the vote.â€? Sausalito residents can, however, run for seats on the district board if they want to increase Sausalito’s representation. Another sometimes thinly veiled charge against the annexation and the ďŹ re district board comes encapsulated in this from Ford: “[The board] certainly supports the

unions’ views and demands in their workings, in their decisions. The unions have a terriďŹ c amount of control. The unions will support people [who support them].â€? Ford says, “LAFCO’s vision appears to be to consolidate. I think we’re headed down the wrong track with that.â€? Countering the charge that the city and LAFCO have rammed through consolidation, proponents point to what Sausalito Mayor Mike Kelly calls “a long and tortured processâ€? that has extended many years. He points out that if opponents succeed in killing annexation the city could be forced to spend $1.4 million a year (which it doesn’t have) to re-establish an independent ďŹ re department. That’s because the district doesn’t want to renew the agreement or enter into a new one. It prefers annexation. “Citygate evaluated all the choices,â€? says Kelly,â€? and when they got done, the most obvious was annexation.â€? Pfeifer and Ford, however, say there are always options, and the city should explore them rather than cut off possible alternative actions. Because of the snafu with the public notice for the request for reconsideration, which must precede the protest hearing, signature gatherers have an extended deadline, Feb. 13, to submit valid signatures. It is then that LAFCO staff will determine what hurdle, if any, opponents have cleared.< Contact the writer at peter@pseidman.com

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