San Carlos to consider outsourcing police and fire to CalFire/ Sheriff's Office

[trooperdude]

State firefighters and San Mateo County sheriff's deputies would respond to emergencies in San Carlos under a budget scenario proposed by the city manager.

San Carlos to consider outsourcing police and fire - San Jose Mercury News

 

[rooivalk]

Typical short sighted "Big Govt" thinking. Eliminate fire and police; that's the typical "easy" answer to the budget shortfalls. Nothing is ever spoken of cutting the social engineering programs or "community" programs.

If San Carlos goes contract, I bet Belmont does, as well.

 

[RolnCode3]

I'm a little lost. Yes it's short term planning for crisis management. But nobody appears to be proposing to eliminate fire and police services. Just provide it in a different way. If the savings are as great as claimed (which is always a moving target in things like this) but doesn't affect service levels, I don't understand the problem. These are desperate times and require people with innovative (or at least different) ideas.

I wholeheartedly disagree with the claim that cutting fire and police is the 'easy' answer. In fact I believe it to be 100% the exact opposite. Cutting police and fire is a new phenomenon. Cutting social programs are usually where large cuts were made. Police and fire are politically powerful organizations and provide services that everyone draws from. Most social programs do not.

 

[trooperdude]

This is nothing new for private sector businesses.

Mergers and Acquisitions have been going on for a long time.

The economy dictates that government follow. It's called deflation.

The next step after merger is outsourcing to other public sector contractors, then the private sector, which is already
occurring in the fire and medical dispatch arena.

Be thankful they are talking CalFire and Sheriff, and not Wackenhut and Xe.