The East Contra Costa Fire District (ECCFD) has financial problems because it pays more for retirement benefits than it does in salaries to current employees. With most of its staff eligible to retire on the 3% at 50 formula and at least two current retirees receiving more than $100,000 annually, the district is functioning as more of a retirement plan than as a firefighting unit. Rather than economize on its pension benefits, district leadership has closed fire stations and made repeated attempts to extract more taxpayer funds.
Actuaries for the Contra Costa County Employees’ Retirement Association (CCCERA) havecalculated a 130% pension contribution rate for ECCFD firefighters for the upcoming 2017-18 fiscal year. This means for every dollar the ECCFD pays in firefighter salaries, it must pay $1.30 to the pension fund. Of the $12.9 million the district plans to spend in 2017-18, $4.6 million is earmarked for retirement related expenses, which include health insurance as well as pension contributions.
District officials have tried to address ECCFD’s spending problem by trying to raise more revenue. In 2012, voters rejected the district’s proposed $197 parcel tax by a 56-44 margin. Despite this defeat, the district was able to temporarily reopen a couple of its shuttered fire stations with a $7.8 million federal grant. After exhausting the grant funds in 2014, ECCFD returned with hat in hand to area voters. In March 2015, officials mailedballots to 38,529 area homeowners asking them to approve a $95 per year assessment. Only about one quarter of the ballots were returned, and 53% of those voting rejected the proposal.
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