To live or not live in San Bernardino

By Robert Rogers

SAN BERNARDINO — Eager to beef up its ranks, the Fire Department hired 18 firefighters in 2005-06.

Like more than nine out of 10 of their colleagues in the department, the new recruits don’t live in San Bernardino, the city whose taxpayers provide their checks, benefits and pensions.

Gone are the days when this town, once a dusty railroad outpost with a reputation for grit and self-reliance, used its homegrown stock to shoulder its fire and police services — or any services, for that matter.

Since 1999, the city’s public-safety expenses have almost doubled, to $90 million, meaning that the overwhelming majority of city expenditures wind up spent in the other cities where the employees have opted to take up residence.

But what do those expenses have to do with the firefighters not living in town?

Over roughly that same period, crime has leapt while the economy has languished, especially in some city pockets. No one links crime hikes to public safety hikes, but with so little of the city’s payments circulating back in through property taxes and discretionary expenses, at the very least the public employee exodus from San Bernardino hasn’t helped.

That situation coupled with non-residency rates for city’s $60-plus million Police Department similar to those in fire, elicit a mix of concern and resignation from city leaders and independent observers over what it all means to San Bernardino — and what to do about it.

The stage may be set for city leaders to wrestle with the costs of supporting an out-of-town workforce.
Some say high rates of non-residency by well-paid civic workers may have significant negative effects on the city’s economy, schools and general socioeconomic health.

Others, including regional economic expert John Husing, caution that as public employee unions, especially fire and police, gain more power over local politics, the fact that they represent people who work but don’t live in the city could put a strain on local democracy — a modern case of representation without taxation.

But little is being done about it.

“At this time, there is no policy nor any incentive regarding fire personnel living in the city,” said Fire Chief Mike Conrad.

“We have no legal authority to require anything (about where firefighters live),” Conrad added.

Conrad has mixed feelings. He says residency does not affect his department’s ability to respond to emergencies because firefighters live at local stations while on duty. But, he says, he will push to bolster youth recruitment like explorer programs and local-outreach programs to cultivate homegrown talent.

The problem, Conrad said, is that demand for qualified personnel consistently outpaces local supply, forcing the department to look at the entire Western U.S. for new recruits.

According to the Fire Department, just 7 percent, or 12, of its 164 sworn personnel in the $30 million Fire Department, live in San Bernardino. Conrad and his top command staff call other cities home.

But he acknowledges what others say more forcefully.

“he benefit of having some attachment to the community where one works … is probably of value,” Conrad said.

What firefighters don’t have, Conrad said, is the reason given by police leaders as to why such a low percentage of its 326-member force may not live in the city they are paid to protect — that they and their families may be exposed to retribution by the criminals they bust daily.

San Bernardino is by no means alone in its struggle to keep its finest living, not just working, in town. In Rialto, only two of 75 firefighters live in the city. One is the chief, Steve Wells, a lifelong resident who says, unlike Conrad, that residency plays absolutely no role in how firefighters do their jobs.

“Once their on the job, where they live when they’re not working is no factor at all,” Wells said.
Officials in Ontario Fire Department would not disclose how many of their firefighters lived in the city, but did acknowledge that the ratio was lower than 10 percent.

But it’s not just fire and police, officials say. Although City Manager’s Office representatives said they could not provide residency statistics, other city officials say it is likely that most of the 1,498 men and women on the city’s payroll live elsewhere.

Finding local applicants is a challenge, particularly for positions requiring a high level of skill, officials say.
“As a resident and an elected official, it bothers me tremendously that more of our public employees don’t live in the city — and that’s across the board in all departments,” said City Attorney James F. Penman.

But Penman — who specifically excuses police for what he calls “special dangers” — says that community members and civic employees tell him that a series of factors make the city an undesirable place to live.

“What I hear from people who won’t live in town or want to move out of town is that they feel the city is too pro-parolee, too responsive to the desires of the illegal (immigrant) community, and plagued by gangs and crime … and that their children will not be safe in the schools,” Penman said.
A look at a nearby Fire Department may support those claims.

In Redlands, renowned for its quality of life and good schools, about one-third of the firefighters and their families live in the city.

Husing said flight from San Bernardino by the highly-paid, highly-politically powerful public safety workforce negatively impacts San Bernardino in several ways.

Employees in these well-paid fields — sworn fire and police staff have minimum starting salaries of more than $50,000 annually, as well as strong benefit packages — may drain the city economically by living and shopping elsewhere, Husing said.

There is a steep social cost as well, Husing added, as these educated and stable men and women and their families are themselves valuable resources for the communities and school systems in which they participate.

City Councilman Neil Derry, who has enjoyed solid, and financial, support from both the police and fire unions for years, admitted that non-residency hurts the city’s economy, but said the problem is far broader than cops and firefighters.

“The problem is that young professionals in all sectors have left San Bernardino,” Derry said. “The city should work on having the kind of safety, housing, shopping and other benefits that those sorts of residents would want.”

But even Derry, who describes himself as “libertarian” on most issues, said he would support a financial incentive package to lure public employees to sink roots within city limits.

“I would support spending some money on something like that,” Derry said. “It could be worth it, we’ve been too penny wise pound foolish over the years.”

But Derry and Husing’s views dovetail from there. Particularly disturbing to Husing, but not to Derry, is the political dynamic created when an interest-group wields tremendous clout in a city where so few of its members live.

“In San Bernardino, you have police and fire departments with strong, well-financed unions representing workers who don’t live there but have enormous power over who gets elected in city government,” Husing said. “That is disturbing.”

One obvious example is Measure Z, a voter-approved sales-tax increase for public safety. The police union contributed to the campaign, and, thanks to City Council votes by members whose campaigns the union has financed, the Police Department is already benefitting from new projected tax proceeds with everything from state-of-the-art bulletproof vests to new police cars and overtime pay. The expenses are a tax others will pay to provide the department more funds.

Politics aside, Husing said the city is wracked by an economic loss because it is unlikely that public employees from other cities live in San Bernardino to offset local employees who live elsewhere, a problem that similarly afflicts Rialto, for instance.

In Redlands, however, police and fire employee from other cities live there to offset the two-thirds of the fire and roughly half of the police department who live outside the city.

Not so in San Bernardino.

"The taxpayers are, to some degree, supporting the economies of the cities where (San Bernardino) police and fire workers live and spend.”

Husing, who has been a supporter of Mayor Pat Morris’ anti-crime campaign, said its long-term success is probably the best answer to drawing public professionals back to the city.

Some cities offer financial incentives to encourage public servants to plant roots there. San Bernardino does not, except in rare cases for department heads.

Penman said incentive packages might draw a few more employees, but with negligible effect.
He said he does what he can at the City Attorney’s Office.

“If I’m looking at applicants and it’s close competition, I’ll hire the one that lives in the city,” Penman said.
But the tide of public professionals calling another municipality home seems inexorable, Penman added.

“There are people like myself who have been here forever and just love this town; we’re not going anywhere,” Penman said.

“But I find myself constantly defending San Bernardino and trying to convince people to stay.”

[TAG1]Contact writer Robert Rogers at (909) 386-3855 or via e-mail at robert.rogers@sbsun.com.

Full Disclosure: The author of this report, Robert Rogers, lives in a Fontana apartment.