Construction Property management Development
MSH Group
201 W, Richmond Avenue, Suite C
Pt. Richmond CA 94801
510215 $124 office
510219 5169 fax
January 26, 2011
Chief Daryl Louder
Contra Costa Fire Protection District
2010 Geary Road
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523,
Re: Parcel Tax Survey
Dear Mr. Louder:
My name is Mark Howe and I own a 16.5 acre, 220,000 SF industrial park in the CCFPD
in North Richmond.
L agree that Fire Protection is an essential service and although I have never had a fire, I
am sure that you provide first class service.
I want to tell you about my experience with CCFPD inspectors that regularly inspect
my site for fire code compliance.
One of my inspectors S.A. (initials of inspector - currently retired) arrived one morning
in his starched white uniform driving a white district labeled sedan to do his annual
inspection. It wasn’t long before I noticed that the inspector had a “chip on his
shoulder” so to speak. After some prying he disclosed to me that the district had
recently denied him a promotion to Captain, which after 27 years of service was going
to reduce the calculations used to determine his monthly pension amount and that he
said, “ I am going to come out here to West County and make everybody's life a living
hell until the district promotes me to captain.” He made good on his threat and
enforced every last detail of the fire code and more. He forced “Giant Trade Center” to
make $2.5M underground sprinkler upgrades which in turn forced the sale of the
complex. He forced me: to spend $150,000 replacing all my sprinkler heads in 5 acres of
buildings, fire sprinkler a loading dock, install tamper switches on all my risers & PIV's,
replace the central station alarm and comply with building code issues. His attitude
was one of vengeance and harm. He established deadlines that were unreasonable and
made my life miserable for 12 months while complaining the whole time I was
responding in bad faith to his requests.My current inspector from CCFPD, G.L. when I told him about my experience with
inspector S.A. and how I thought 3%@50 caused the problem, went on the offense just
as S.A. had done the prior year. This year I paid $25,000 to satisfy the demands of
inspector G.L.
Today I don’t personally talk to the CCFPD inspectors. I send my young attractive
female general manager to interact with them. And she has been instructed not to
mention the district's 3%@50 pension plan and say “yes sir” to every request.
Bad blood and vindictive are the adjectives that come to mind when I think of the
CCPFD not fire protection!
Before I decide on how to respond to your survey, I need to see a listing of the current
pay of all district employees and the type of defined benefit pension plans that they
have. Ineed this information to see if the district is spending the taxes they already get
wisely.
Could you also explain why the districts’ salaries are not listed on the Contra Costa
‘Times’ website that lists government employee compensation?
Once I receive this information I will respond to your survey that estimates my
proposed annual parcel tax at $5,823.43.
Sincerely,
(Ue kh
Mark Howe
CC: John Gioia, District One Supervisor Contra Costa County
Katrinka Ruk, Council of Industries
Kris Hunt, contra Costa Taxpayer Association
Daniel Borenstein, Contra Costa Times