Candidate for
Board Member; Point Montara Fire Protection District; 4 Year Term

I believe that the Board of Directors should consist of citizen taxpayers who are, after all, the owners of the Fire District.

I find it an alarming trend that firefighters and former firefighters of our District and the Half Moon Bay Fire District, with which we have a contractual alliance, are seeking positions on our Fire Board.

While I do not belittle the their knowledge of emergency services, I do believe it creates a conflict of interest inasmuch as one of the primary duties of the Board is to negotiate contracts with the employees.

I believe the Board should fairly represent all of the citizens of our community and not one political group, such as the Teamsters Union, which represents the firefighters already.

Secondly, while I was serving on our Fire Board, I initiated an alliance with the Half Moon Bay Fire District in 1996. Now that the alliance has proven to work smoothly and has vastly increased the level of emergency services to our community, I believe it is time to consider a full legal consolidation of both Districts into one District with one Board of Directors serving the entire coastside.

It only makes sense in the dangerous social climate that we live in today to have a coordinated emergency service for the coastside.

Finally, we should look at the level of taxation imposed by the Measure H parcel tax to see if it can be modified in light of the recent increase in general tax revenues due to new construction and re-assessments on sale.

Joe Loomis

Moss Beach