Mayor Ahmad Gives State of the City Address

The City of San Carlos is dedicated to becoming financially sustainable and is taking unprecedented and creative steps to get there, said Mayor Omar Ahmad Thursday night in this year's State of the City Address.

Speaking from a headset and in front of 150 person audience at the Hiller Aviation Museum and Institute, Ahmad bounced from slide to slide in a digital presentation that heralded San Carlos' efforts in combating a growing deficit as cutting edge, innovative and often unpopular, especially with the institutions that city politicians have attacked head-on.

The city's soon to be devolved joint-fire department took center stage. To achieve financial solvency,  Ahmad said, the city has to fill a $1 million hole from the fire department. San Carlos and Belmont are currently breaking up the joint powers agreement that has managed the two-city fire department. 

Belmont is considering a stand-alone agency, while San Carlos is exploring alternative options, such as contracting with neighboring Redwood City, or even Cal Fire.

30% over the last 5 years as the department’s total budget has grown

He told the crowd that the city's share in the department has grown 30 percent over the last five years. Salaries have ballooned to 18 percent in the last five years, he said, with the average total compensation for a basic firefighter reaching $210,000 per year.

Yet residents still fear a city with no fire department. Quoting several resident comments on small index cards, Ahmad said he remembers hearing someone say "save the JPA at at any cost."

"I don't understand that," he said. "I'm trying to save San Carlos. I feel like i've been beating my head against the wall since November."

Going forward, the cheapest option might be to contract with Cal Fire, he said, which could provide annual service for somewhere between $3 million and $4 million per year.

San Carlos is experiencing the same emergency and fire trends as many other cities. Emergency response, not fire suppressing, currently makes up roughly 54 percent of calls in San Carlos, which demands systemic change, Ahmad said. The shifting demand could be handled cheaper and more efficiently with light, high-speed response vehicles, manned by paramedics.

San Carlos has been at the forefront of city innovation, with the ongoing changes in the fire department being the latest, Ahmad said. The city cut police cost by contracting with the San Mateo County Sheriff's Department, it has scaled back salaries on compensation of each and every city employee by between 5 and 8 percent and it is already moving into a third tier of employee retirement benefits, Ahmad said, whereas most cities are just starting to consider a second. When a city passes a new retirement benefit structure for new employees, that represents a tier.

According to a recent study by the LIttle Hoover Commission, San Carlos was one of only 16 California cities to decrease employee benefits, Ahmad said.

It sparked emotion in some residents and professionals.

"I am really proud to be a resident of this city," said Ron Collins, president of the San Carlos Chamber of Commerce, one of the event sponsors. "I think we are light-years ahead of other municipalities."