Dick Spotswood: Consolidation of fire departments a positive move for improved service
The march toward consolidation of Marin police and fire services continues.
The latest effort to make public safety more economically and operationally efficient occurred when the city of Mill Valley agreed to be annexed to the Southern Marin Fire Protection District. The district now includes Tamalpais Valley, Almonte, Homestead Valley, Strawberry, Fort Baker, Marin Headlands, Sausalito and now the city of Mill Valley.
As Mill Valley City Manager Todd Cusimano said of the consolidation’s joint service agreement, “The primary intent was to provide improved service through the consolidation (for example, increasing firefighters for each engine from two to three, and improved fire safety/mitigation services).
“In the first fiscal year of consolidation, 2023-24, the city will transfer $6.6 million to the fire district. … (Mill Valley anticipates) savings over the long term, as we will no longer pay for increases in salary/benefits, insurance and equipment escalations.”
Cusimano previously served as chief of the Central Marin Police Authority. That agency, based on a joint-powers agreement, successfully combined police departments in that part of the county.
In greater Mill Valley, fire service governance will continue with an elected seven-member board. Due to a vacancy caused by board member Stephen Willis’ resignation, after publicly interviewing multiple applicants, former Mill Valley Mayor Clifford Waldeck was appointed to serve on the board until 2024, when three directors’ seats are up for election.
The next obvious target for annexation into Southern Marin Fire is the Tiburon Fire Protection District serving the municipalities of Tiburon and Belvedere. Expect the district’s five board members to vigorously oppose any consolation effort.
Another combination that would enhance economic and operational efficiencies is the merger of Marinwood Community Services District’s fire service with the adjacent San Rafael Fire Department. This amalgamation has long been proposed and for just as long, rejected by the Marinwood District’s five-member, elected board of directors.
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In the quest to build more affordable housing, governments need to pursue innovative ways to incentivize investments in workforce and low-income homes.
Sausalito first-term council member and former rocket scientist, Ian Sobieski, is chairman of the Band of Angels; the first club of technology angel investors in Silicon Valley. “Angel investors” are people who invest their time and money helping entrepreneurs bring positive change to the world.
Sobieski spends time thinking about money and how on a large scale it can improve American society. He’s promoting a concept by Mill Valley’s Bob Silvestri that first surfaced on MarinPost.org.
“If we want to change the fundamental way affordable housing is paid for, there’s a huge reservoir of money that would pour into the sector if the IRS Section 1031 ‘like kind exchange’ rules were tweaked to allow ‘non’ like-for-like 1031 exchanges into ‘just’ affordable housing projects.”
“Currently, if you sell your rental property for $1 million more than you bought it, you can participate in a 1031 like-kind exchange, transfer it into another rental property and pay no tax. You can repeat this process potentially deferring the tax indefinitely. But, if you sell Amazon stock for $1 million more than you bought it for, you must pay tax on the gain. If the 1031 rule was narrowly changed to allow gains from stock sales to be deferred if the gain was invested in affordable housing, this would unlock a huge amount of capital for affordable housing projects.”
The concept is a practical incentive to finance the most needed new housing. Capital gains taxes are separately levied by the state and the IRS. Rep. Jared Huffman and Assemblymember Damon Connolly, working with state Sen. Mike McGuire, could help make this happen by introducing legislation to modify both IRS Rule 1031 and California’s Revenue and Taxation Code.