Full support for police and fire
A city can argue about almost every line in its budget. This is not one of them.
Rancho Santa Margarita does not run its own police department or its own fire department. Patrol comes from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department under a contract the council renews every year. Fire and paramedics come from the Orange County Fire Authority, funded by a dedicated share of the property tax rather than out of the city’s own budget. That is the arrangement the city was built on and I am not proposing to change it.
What it does mean is that the largest single item the city itself buys comes back for a council vote on a regular cycle. I want to be in the room for that vote, understanding what is in the agreement, what changed since last year, and what we are actually getting for it. Reading a contract that size is not a burden for me. It is what I do on a Tuesday.
I am running on spending less than we take in, so let me be plain about how the two fit together. Asking hard questions about a contract is not the same as looking for somewhere to cut, and public safety is not where I am looking. If the budget has to give somewhere, it gives somewhere else. I want to be able to explain this number in public, in detail, because being able to explain it is how you defend it.
The people doing the work deserve a council that shows up informed, says yes clearly, and does not treat them as a line item to be discovered at budget time.
What I will do
- Support full funding for the Sheriff’s contract, and say so before the vote rather than after it.
- Back OCFA at the board that actually governs it, and protect the property-tax share that pays for it.
- Read the law-enforcement agreement in full every year, including what changed, and be able to explain it in public.
- Ask what service level the city is buying, in plain terms, so residents can see it rather than infer it from a total.
- Keep public safety out of the part of the budget that gets squeezed when a shortfall shows up.