FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
David Kapler, Fire Chief, 510-337-2102
Lisa Goldman, Deputy City Manager, 510-747-4700

In response to a misquote by a local anti-development group "Save Our City Alameda" alleging that the Fire Chief said that the City was in imminent danger of falling into bankruptcy, Alameda Fire Chief, David Kapler, released a statement today correcting the misquotation and explaining the department’s process for managing this fiscal year’s budget reductions.

"As Chief of the Alameda Fire Department, I would like to provide the community with clear and accurate information as it pertains to Fire Department "brown-outs". Recently an internal memo which I wrote found its way to a local Alameda activist group. Excerpts of my memo were altered and sent to local news media. This group quotes me as saying that the City of Alameda "is" facing bankruptcy. In fact, what it said is, "if the City of Alameda does not adjust spending, it "would" be facing bankruptcy, in as little as 36 to 48 months." I have been informed by the Finance Director that technically the City would be facing complete depletion of General Fund reserves, not bankruptcy. In either case, the end result would be far worse than is now contemplated.

To put citizens at ease, I would like to explain how the brown-outs will be implemented. The Alameda Fire Department currently staffs 10 response units per day, with 27 firefighters. During brown-out periods, no more than one response unit will be closed leaving nine response units in service to respond to emergencies. At no time will there be fewer than 24 firefighters on duty. No fire stations are being closed. All fire stations will remain open and staffed. Response units that are temporarily closed will be in stations that have multiple response units. Therefore, there will be very little impact on service levels or response times. In the event of a medical emergency, a paramedic will still arrive at your side within minutes. In the event of a fire, citizens will still receive the same number of response units and highly trained firefighters that they receive now. Impacts may occur when there is an unusually high level of call volume in the city, just as it does now. In fact, these new challenges have caused us to make a number of other improvements in both the City and County wide system that will help ensure continued quality services to our citizens.

The City of Alameda management team has been monitoring and analyzing revenues vs. expenditures and developing contingency plans for the worsening economic recession for over a year. When revenues fall below expenses, tough choices have to be made. Citizens can be pleased that due to diligence and courage, the City of Alameda is making the tough choices, and taking the necessary and prudent steps to ensure it will remain fiscally sound into the future."