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FYI
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From: stephen wontrobski [mailto:constructionclaimsC @yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2016 10:33 PM
To: dengstromPsealbeach.gov; Clerk -Seal Beach Robin Roberts <rrobertsCdsealbeachca.gov>
Cc: Clerk - Dana Point <kwarc1@danaooint.or9>; Clerk City of Irvine <clerk@citvofirvine.ora >;
cob,resoonsePhoa.ocgov.com; Clerk of the Authority <COA @ocfa.org>
Subject: Seal Beach Public Records Request - OCFA Charges
Dear Ms. Roberts,
Attached is my letter to your city council members and associated Public Records Request concerning OCFA charges to
Seal Beach. Since the City of Irvine and Dana Point are mentioned in the letter, I am copying this letter also to them. I
request that the City Clerks for Seal Beach, Irvine and Dana Point distribute the documents to their City Council
members and include them as my written public comment for their next City Council meeting.
Also included is my June 18, 2014 letter to the OCFA concerning my "Equitable Adjustment Study ", which was
completely ignored by the OCFA. The OCFA refused to provide me and its member city residents with answer to issues
raised in the letter. In fact, not one single item was even responded to me by the OCFA.
Perhaps the time is now appropriate for the OCFA to respond to the issues raised in the letter and provide its comments
on the issues to Supervisor Bartlett, the cities of Seal Beach, Irvine and Dana Point, and the public.
In addition, the failure of the OCFA to address member city overcharges, high labor costs, restrictive union work rules,
and possible OCFA member city liability for OCFA pension UAAL should give other member city councils additional
impetus to studying the high OCFA costs and OCFA UAAL problem and giving serious consideration to the movement to
"EXIT THE OCFA" by adopting a new EMS cost saving model.
I thank you for your assistance in this matter.
Sincerely
Stephen Wontrobski
Stephen M. Wontrobski
27132 Sombras
Mission Viejo, CA 92692
October 11, 2016
Seal Beach City Council Members
City Hall
211 Eighth Street
Seal Beach, CA 90740
Reference: OCFA Overcharges
Public Records Request
Dear City Council Members:
In the past I have raised the need for various OCFA member cities to do an actual cost study of OCFA costs
to determine:
I. If they were currently being overcharged for OCFA services; and, if so,
2. The amount of any equitable adjustment for past overcharges that should be refunded back to them
by the OCFA.
This type of study would require a minor amount of city manager administrative effort, and would
definitively establish whether the OCFA was overcharging an individual OCFA member city for services.
I even provided a past letter on how to conduct the study. I also provided the attached 2014 study
comparing OCFA city member charges per resident population.
The charges for two OCFA cities immediately aroused my concern:
a) Dana Point — Structural Fire Fund City; and
b) Seal Beach — Contract Member City.
Dana Point was the highest OCFA charged Structural Fire Fund City. Seal Beach was the highest OCFA
charged Contract Member City.
Dana Point
The Dana Point City Council members are aware that they are the highest charged of all OCFA member
cities, whether it be a Structural Fire Fund City or a Contract Member City. They are aware of the issue,
and from feedback that I have received, they are looking into the matter.
Seal Beach
I have brought the high OCFA Seal Beach charges on various occasions to the attention of the Seal Beach
OCFA Board of Director and his alternate. However, unlike Dana Point, I have received no feedback as to
whether Seal Beach is even investigating the matter to determine, if they are actually being overcharged by
the OCFA.
I have been told that the OCFA states the reason Seal Beach is charged so much is due to the high
percentage of seniors living in Seal Beach. This does not appear to me to be a credible response.
If the OCFA explanation is correct: Why is Laguna Woods with a 100% senior population paying less than
Seal Beach per resident for OCFA services?
Recommendations
I recommend that you instruct your City Manager to provide you and your residents an actual cost study to
determine if the OCFA has been overcharging Seal Beach for its services. If it has, I believe that as a
minimum, Seal Beach should request that it be rebated from the OCFA any overcharges it has paid over the
last five year period.
Currently, Supervisor Lisa Bartlett is working on a study with OCFA Director Jeff Lalloway from the City
of Irvine to determine how much money will be rebated to individual OCFA overcharged OCFA member
cities. Previously, I voiced my written opposition to having Director Lalloway part of any committee or
group working with Supervisor Bartlett on this issue.
I continue to maintain my opposition on Director Lalloway's involvement in this study. I believe that
Irvine Mayor Choi working with Irvine's City Manager, Sean Joyce, on the study would better serve the
interests of the City of Irvine and all other OCFA member cities.
Finally, I request that you mail me your completed City Manager's OCFA Actual Cost Study for my
review and comment.
Public Records Reauest
With regard to another report I am working on concerning your city, I submit the following public records
request.
Please provide the following documents for the period January 1, 2014 through September 30, 2016 for my
review (not copies).
1. All minutes of the OCFA Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meetings.
2. All correspondence documents, notes, studies, letters, reports, files, e -mails of your City Manager
associated in any manner with the TAC.
3. All documents, e- mails, checks, billings, invoices, studies, etc. associated with OCFA charges to
Seal Beach.
4. All documents, e- mails, letters, reports, studies, etc. related to OCFA charges for any other OCFA
member city.
Your assistance in providing these documents for my review is appreciated.
Sincerely,
Stephen M. Wontrobski
E:sealbeachpl10- I1 -16 -16
cc: Dana Point City Council; Irvine City Council; Orange County Board of Supervisors; OCFA Board of
Directors
Y
STRUCTURAL FIRE FUND CITIES
CITY
OCFA REVENUE
POPULATION
COST /RESIDENT
Aliso Viejo
$
9,078,539
49,493
$183.43
Cypress
$
4,302,153
48,779
$88.20
Dana Point
$
10,324,890
34,048
$303.25
Irvine
$
62,818,290
236,712
$265.38
La Palma
$
1,365,622
15,860
$86.10
Laguna Hills
$
5,819,188
30,951
$188.01
Laguna Niguel
$
12,988,031
64,452
$201.51
Laguna Woods
$
2,614,707
16,493
$158.53
Lake Forest
$
11,764,437
78,853
$149.19
Los Alamitos
$
1,619,355
11,668
$138.79
Mission Viejo
$
14,051,316
95,290
$147.46
Rancho Santa
Margarita
$
8,305,384
48,879
$169.92
San Juan Capistrano
$
6,089,775
35,360
$172.22
Villa Park
$
1,493,780
5,925
$252.11
Yorba Linda
$
9,091,605
66,735
$136.23
CONTRACT CITIES
Buena Park
$
8,531,785
82,155
$103.85
Placentia
$
4,976,100
51,673
$96.30
San Clemente
$
7,241,336
63,522
$114.00
Santa Ana
$
35,186,723
330,920
$106.33
Seal Beach
$
4,108,179
24,664
$166.57
Stanton
$
3,431,389
38,915
$88.18
Tustin
$
5,901,371
78,049
$75.61
Westminster
$
9,045,937
91,377
$99.00
E:STRUCTURAL FIRE FUND CITIES DATA- 5 -27 -14
Stephen Wontrobski
27132 Sombras
Mission Viejo, CA 92692
June 18, 2014
Board of Directors Members
Orange County Fire Authority
1 Fire Authority Road
Irvine, CA 92602
Ref: Equitable Adjustment Study
Dear Board of Directors Members:
I have long questioned the reliability of the OCFA's simplistic average structural member
tax contribution percentage as the controlling measure to determine equitable
adjustment determinations for structural city members. I have also supported equitable
adjustment demands from Villa Park, Aliso Viejo and Laguna Niguel. These cities have
maintained they were actually entitled to equitable relief and were donor cities. These
claims were rejected by the OCFA using its simplistic equitable adjustment formula.
The OCFA has refused my request to conduct an actual cost study for equitable
adjustment purposes. Hence, for further exploration of this equity consideration issue, I
constructed an actual cost per resident study on my own.
The basis of my study was to divide a city's contribution to the OCFA by its city
population. The result was the city cost per resident for EMS and fire services. I
employed population amounts for each city found on the internet. All the population
numbers were for 2012. The contribution amounts were for the 2013 -2014 period found
in the recent OCFA's Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes financial information filing
(OCFA Board of Directors 5/22/14 Meeting, Agenda Item #8).
The results are very enlightening for both the structural and contract city members.
Structural Cities
The average city cost by resident for EMS and fire service per city was $176.02, ranging
from a low of $86.10 for La Palma to a high of $303.25 for Dana Point. With the $176.02
average city cost by resident figure as a basis for equity relief comparison purposes, the
following observations are identified using my study method.
1. The City of Irvine is owed an equitable adjustment.
2. Villa Park, Aliso Viejo and Laguna Niguel appear to be owed an equitable
adjustment, as they have previously demanded.
3. Dana Point appears to be a city needing an equitable adjustment, even more so,
than the City of Irvine. I cannot determine why Dana Point did not request an
equitable relief adjustment, rather than approving the recent JPA Amendment,
which denied it equitable relief.
4. Laguna Hills would appear to be entitled to equitable relief.
5. Under my study method, San Juan Capistrano, Rancho Santa Margarita, and
Laguna Woods would not be entitled to equitable relief. This is contrary to the
relief, which they are being afforded under the OCFA's simplistic formula.
6. The cities of Cypress and La Palma appear to be major cost beneficiaries for
OCFA EMS and fire services. It would be very helpful to the public and member
cities, if the OCFA provided an explanation as to why these cities were able to
achieve such low cost per resident figures.
7. It is very apparent that using my study method yields exactly opposite results to
the OCFA study method.
8. 1 was unable to do a resident cost determination for the unincorporated County
areas, since I did not have population statistics for these areas. It would be very
helpful, if the OCFA provided me the population numbers for the unincorporated
County areas served by the OCFA
Contract Cities
The study shows that the contract cities' EMS and fire protection costs appear to be
subsidized by the structural city members. The only contract city that is not sharing in
this windfall appears to be Seal Beach. At this writing, I do not have an explanation as
to why Seal Beach is not sharing in this apparent windfall for contract cities. In addition,
the City of Tustin has the lowest city cost per resident. Again, it would be very helpful to
the public and member cities, if the OCFA provided an explanation as to why: a) Seal
Beach had such a high cost per resident figure; and b) Tustin had such a low cost per
resident figure.
I also do not have an explanation, as to why the structural city members do not strongly
object to what appears to be a large cost subsidy that they are providing to the contract
cities. It is even more puzzling, when one considers the contract cities' belief that they
are not liable for any of the OCFA UAAL. They believe the OCFA structural member
cities are wholly responsible for the OCFA UAAL. The OCFA legal counsel has been
requested to confirm this belief.
Unanswered Maior Question: Are the contract cities paying their fair share for OCFA
EMS and fire protection services? The OCFA and member cities are requested to
provide input to answer that question.
All of the above questions may be soon addressed and answered, as various city
accountants and OCFA review and comment on this study. Their reviews will bring
greater clarity to city residents and city council members concerning the issue of
equitable adjustment, which is currently being reviewed by the Orange County Superior
Court.
I thank you for your consideration of this matter.
Sincerely,
Stephen M. Wontrobski E:odabodatycosts6 -18 -14
Cc: Orange County Board of Supervisors