YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
Vol. 15, No. 48
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BUSD leader loses staff support
Modernizing The District
Howdy partner
by Ruth Roberts Staff Writer
Employees of the Byron Union School District (BUSD) have taken a vote of no confidence against Superintendent Debbie Gold, saying that a lack of trust, transparency and leadership has caused them to lose faith in their district’s leader. “Her ability to make decisions that are in the best interest of the school district – financial and otherwise – are in question,” wrote BUSD employee Lara Robinson in an email to The Press. The vote was presented during a recent school board meeting and, according to union representatives, was called following a request from the Byron Teachers Union (BTU) and the California School Employees Association (CSEA). Approximately 70 percent of the district’s teachers and employees voted on the censure. Of
Upgrades and renovations are planned at each of the LUHSD school sites. Page 4
Random Act Of Kindness Photo by Tony Kukulich
F
ound off Sellers Avenue in Brentwood, this wide-eyed burrowing owl was perfectly poised for a photograph by Press photographer Tony Kukulich. Sometimes called “howdy birds” because they seem to nod in greeting from the entrances of their burrows, these cuties are popular fixtures in East County.
see BUSD page 30
Fire district to develop strategic plan by Kyle Szymanski Staff Writer
The East Contra Costa Fire Protection District (ECCFPD ) intends to craft a strategic and economic plan to guide the organization into the future. The financially struggling agency, which comprised eight stations in 2008, is now down to just three stations to serve nearly 115,000 residents over 249 square miles. The district is still in the process of selecting a strategic planning agency to assist in the effort, but it plans to bring the community and area stakeholders together to identify desired service level increases. The plan will prioritize those additional services, explain how long they would take
to implement, and include the current and future costs associated with the changes. “Once the strategic and economic plan is in staging and we understand the priorities, then the board would have to decide if it wants to act upon them,” said Fire Chief Brian Helmick. The fire board is expected to approve a strategic planning services proposal in January as part of the first step in the process. Currently, the district struggles to provide adequate service.
For 16.5 hours in September, all three district engines were tied up, which meant incoming calls during those hours were handled by firefighters outside the district or by ambulances alone. W h e n ECCFPD crews do respond, they are failing to meet the targeted national response time of five minutes – instead, responding to calls in 7.5 to 25 minutes, Helmick said. A 2016 independent study of deployment performance and headquarters staffing adequacy
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December 1, 2017
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recommended that the district have nine stations. “The strategic and economic plan will provide a roadmap to meet the master plan, which is more of a vision statement of the number of stations we should have and the response times we should try to meet,” Helmick said. A key problem for the district is that its property-tax allocation was set with the approval of Proposition 13 in 1978, when volunteer departments were sufficient to cover all of East County. Since 2012, residents have shot down a revenue-generating parcel tax, a benefit assessment and a utility-user tax. Expert help, however, could be on the way. see Fire page 30
FOG Recycling
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Ironhouse Sanitary District hosts light bulb and grease recycling event on Dec. 2.
Community members help a stranger left stranded when his RV breaks down. Page 5
Falcons Head To NCS Finals
Freedom High advances to NCS finals after clinching semifinal against Antioch. Page 21 Breaking News ...................11 Calendar................................31 Classifieds.............................26 Cop Logs................................29 Health & Beauty..................13 Milestones............................14 Opinion..................................20 Pets.........................................10 Sports.....................................21
Health Forum
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Public forum scheduled to discuss issues relating to mental illness.