A battle brewing in Rohnert Park pits a new city manager with a mandate to cut costs against the city's most muscular union that represents public safety officers.
The flashpoint is an analysis, led by City Manager Gabe Gonzalez, into whether the city should contract its police services to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office.
Angry public safety officers say the city is breaking promises it made to citizens and have raised the specter of rising crime and lost jobs should the deal be approved.
"The public needs to know," said Sgt. Dave Welch, a past president of the Public Safety Officers Association, or POA.
Gonzalez said he knows the analysis has rattled the department's 61 officers who, in the city's unusual public safety model, are trained as both police officers and firefighters.
"I am very understanding and sympathetic to them," he said. "Unfortunately, the financial structural deficit issue I inherited needs to be addressed."
The issue is unfolding into the sort of fierce political fight that has punctuated Rohnert Park's half-century history.
This one takes place against a backdrop of a $1million general fund budget deficit, a recent sales tax increase and in a landscape where more than half the department's police officers and firefighters live in the city.
"It's not just numbers, it's community and people as well," said Mayor Gina Belforte.
Gonzalez has shepherded the inquiry so far and the council has yet to weigh in on it, Belforte said.
The idea, broached in February, has advanced with Gonzalez's hiring of a consultant to evaluate Department of Public Safety operations and costs, which consume 54 percent of the city's general fund spending.
Matrix Consulting Group, a national firm with offices in Palo Alto, is being paid $9,500. It started interviewing department staff this week.
"It's stressful," said Public Safety Director Brian Masterson, "not only for myself but for all our officers who feel their jobs are being jeopardized."
Matrix also is reviewing a draft Sheriff's Office proposal to provide law enforcement services and will compare it to what the city has in place.
Rohnert Park's department is a rarity in California, providing both police and fire services since the city's founding.
It is "easier and cost effective for the city," Masterson said, who said it means that the city has 61 firefighters as well as 61 police officers. On Friday, for example, he said, firefighters were pulled in to support a fresh homicide investigation.
The POA is pushing back hard against Gonzalez. Its members say contracting with the Sheriff's Office would violate promises city officials made when campaigning for Measure E, a 0.5 percent city sales tax that was approved by voters last year.
The association contributed financially to the campaign and members walked precincts for the measure, which was partially billed as a way to maintain public safety services.
"What they're doing now runs 180 degrees contrary to those promises," said Welch.
He said officers had been denied access to the Sheriff's Office proposal and the discussions taking place are "backdoor dealings." He said POA public records acts requests for the proposal have been rejected.
"I've been open with them and I've been transparent about the process," said Gonzalez, who joined the city in August and has been praised by the City Council for his efforts.
Officers plan to hand out opposition fliers at a POA-sponsored Easter Egg hunt today, Welch said.
Among other things, the flier states: "By removing local law enforcement presence, Rohnert Park's crime rate may increase."
The dual public safety arrangement has outlasted periodic reviews, most recently in 2006 when the City Council decided that a Sheriff's Office proposal didn't match city needs.
The Sheriff's Office already provides police services to Windsor and, since 2004, Sonoma.
Sheriff Steve Freitas said this week his department did not seek to expand into Rohnert Park but "we're interested." He said there would be some clear advantages to city residents.
"The contract cities have the resources of the department, which is the county's largest department, at their fingertips, so to speak," Freitas said.
Gonzalez would not release a copy of the draft proposal. He said city attorneys say that because it is a draft, its disclosure is not required.
Attorneys for a nonprofit group that advocates for open government said he was incorrect.
"Factual content is not protected," said Terry Francke, general counsel for Carmichael-based Californians Aware.
"All the reasons given for doing the contract, and in fact the actual proposal itself - &‘Here's what we would do, here's we can do' - that's factual," he said.
Gonzalez said it would be inaccurate to describe the steps now being taken as research into contracting out police services. Rather, he said, it is part of a process to find possible cost savings throughout the city.
"This is simply an evaluation of the cost of service for law enforcement," he said. "What does it cost the city and is there an alternative and what's the cost of this alternative?"
He said he plans to do the same with the city's fire services and that all other departments will undergo a similar analysis.
The public safety department has a $15.5 million budget, down 20 percent from two years ago. Just less than $12 million of that goes to police services.
City Council members have not publicly taken positions on the issue, but they have said they support Gonzalez's approach.
"I'm sure it's been very upsetting to public safety," Belforte said. "But on the same token, I think where Gabe's coming from he has a responsibility to look at every single department and really run it up the flagpole and say: &‘What are our alternatives right now?'
" Masterson said he understands what Gonzalez has to deal with."I know the city manager has a tough, tough job," he said.But he expressed confidence that his department would survive intact."I think when it's all done, what we'll find is what we've said all along," he said. "For the last 49 years Rohnert Park has used a public safety model and it's been good for us, the right thing for us."
Masterson said he understands what Gonzalez has to deal with.
"I know the city manager has a tough, tough job," he said.
But he expressed confidence that his department would survive intact.
"I think when it's all done, what we'll find is what we've said all along," he said. "For the last 49 years Rohnert Park has used a public safety model and it's been good for us, the right thing for us."
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