Isleton, struggling to manage finances, asks voters for more fire funding with Measure B

The city of Isleton has placed a half-cent sales tax proposal on the ballot, Measure B, for a November special election to fund fire services, even as questions over the local government’s ability to manage its finances remain.

In 2016, the tiny incorporated city on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta passed a half-cent sales tax measure to fund its volunteer fire department. That sales tax, also called Measure B, expired in September. It’s been an essential source of money to allow the formerly beleaguered fire agency to replace years-old equipment and uniforms, city officials said.

But a Bee investigation last year found glaring gaps in Isleton’s fiscal management of the fire funds, including poor documentation, questionable purchases made and little oversight. In March 2020, Measure D, a .75-cent sales tax ballot measure peppered with its own issues to replace Measure B before it expired, was voted down.

In the year and a half since Measure D failed, several concerns over the city’s financial management and the Isleton Fire Department have remained unaddressed, according to multiple members of an oversight committee that oversees the original half-cent sales tax. Isleton officials openly admit in city documents that the city struggles to oversee its finances.

In August, the Isleton City Council convened an emergency special council meeting with short public notice to review the new Measure B proposal in time to get it placed on the ballot for a special November election.

“The reason for the urgency of this action is that the city does not have a financial manager whose duties include monitoring expenses and revenues,” the Aug. 10 city staff report read. “In surveying tax revenue, the staff discovered the expiration date of the fire sales tax measure.”

In a September city memo to members of the Measure B oversight committee, city manager Charles Bergson wrote that none of the city’s multiple pay clerks employed in the last five years has been an accountant “nor had experience in government accounting or tracking separate funds.”

“While the city’s overall fiscal accounting and audits have been found complete on a macro level, the specific tracking of individual funds on the micro level, e.g. Measure B funds, has been challenging to staff,” he wrote.

And a recent memo from a neighboring fire agency raised serious concerns about the competency of the Isleton Fire Department staff, describing a disorganized, and at times dangerous, response to a structure fire led by Chief Scott Baroni.

A devastating fire that swept through a close-knit mobile home park about 6 miles south of Isleton on Oct. 12 adds an additional level of complexity. The fire, which destroyed 42 structures and displaced as many as 150 people, was in the neighboring River Delta Fire Protection District.

But for Isleton residents, of which there are roughly 800, the incident could highlight the importance of a stronger fire protection agency in such a remote region of Sacramento County.

“There is a long history of mismanagement,” said oversight committee member Chris Jones. “I think the city is still kind of digging out from that when it comes to documentation and expenditures. I don’t think they’re trying to pull a fast one, but it wasn’t done in the manner it was supposed to be done.”

In an interview, Bergson said that he’s “aware of what we’ve spent, and I don’t think anything is out of whack.” He added that Measure B failing to pass in November (it requires a two-thirds majority) would be a significant hit to the city’s shoestring $1.6 million budget.

“We don’t mind the scrutiny that comes with it, but there are a couple of large holes to finance,” Bergson said. “To withhold those funds ... it only hurts the city.”

Incident response highlighted lapses

Just after midnight on July 19, a fire broke out at a multi-family building along Jackson Boulevard in Isleton. As flames billowed out on one side of the building, Isleton Fire Department and neighboring fire agencies — River Delta district and the Rio Vista Fire Department — responded.

What followed was a “very chaotic” and potentially dangerous operation, as detailed in an August administrative memo from River Delta that was ultimately presented to Isleton City Council.

The seven-page memo flagged multiple missteps during the effort to put out the fire, alleging Isleton Fire Department firefighters verbally abused River Delta firefighters, an Isleton Fire official incorrectly operated water supply lines, and Isleton Fire failed to inform the River Delta crew that there was an oxy-acetylene tank, which can be explosive, inside the building garage.

Isleton Fire Department Assistant Chief Linden Gardner arrived to the scene wearing shorts, a T-shirt and “no protective gear,” according to the memo, and Baroni’s leadership of the incident demonstrated a “lack of command and control at the scene.” Baroni did not respond to a request for comment.

“From my interviews with our personnel, it was apparent that Isleton Fire personnel and their fire chief did not want to cooperate with our agency,” wrote River Delta Fire District Deputy Chief Matthew Balzarini in the memo.

Bergson said that the memo “raised a lot of significant concerns” and prompted the city to hire former Vallejo police chief Robert Nichelini to conduct a separate investigation that will be released next month, Bergson said. Nichelini is the father of Michael Nichelini, the embattled head of the Vallejo police union who was fired this year from his police lieutenant position after being the subject of multiple internal investigations and is now suing the city.

“That report from River Delta, it raises a lot of eyebrows,” Bergson said. “I’m not a fire guy, so I need to find out about this.”

To Don Cain, a member of the Measure B oversight committee, the details of the memo reveal a city fire department marred by misplaced priorities and a lack of experience.

“It seems like they’re on a drive to get more pretty, shiny new equipment and have a bunch to show off, but they’re not putting in the fundamentals of training,” Cain said.

Over the four years, less than 3% of the more than $250,000 the Isleton Fire Department’s has spent has gone toward training, according to city records prepared for the oversight committee in September. Of the $6,300 spent on training over that time, only a quarter was paid for with Measure B funds, with city general funds making up the difference.

‘We have a history of digging big holes’

Over the last five years, Measure B has allowed the fire department to make important upgrades for the largely volunteer department, Bergson said. The sales tax, which raked in between roughly $57,000 and $104,000 each fiscal year according to state records, allowed the department to buy new uniforms, replace fire hoses and repair parts of the fire department building, he said.

“Things were continuously held with Band-Aids,” Baroni told The Bee last year. “Nothing was ever purchased new, the lifespan of things wasn’t quite as long as with new equipment, we didn’t have money to have outside instructors teach classes.”

But the city has struggled to track Measure B expenses in a comprehensive and systematic way, with descriptions of purchases made using the account often vague or nonexistent.

In March 2020, transaction reports indicate more than $2,000 was spent on “supplies,” but it’s unclear where those supplies were purchased from and what those supplies were. In March 2019, more than $1,500 was spent at Amazon, with no indication as to what was purchased.

Sometimes, transaction reports are more specific: Between December 2018 and April 2021, nearly $1,000 was spent on shirts or sweatshirts, according to city documents. In August 2019, about $75 was spent at Handcuff Warehouse. In June 2020, the department paid $260 to purchase AppleCare+ warranty coverage on two iPads.

The Bee previously reported that Baroni spent more than $8,600 of Measure B funds to purchase fire-related products from a company accused by a Massachusetts town’s counsel of a “scam” in 2018 that led to the city’s volunteer fire department purchasing thousands of dollars in unnecessary and overpriced supplies.

The Measure B oversight committee, tasked with reviewing the revenue and expenditures of the sales tax funds, did not meet between March 2020 and September 2021 because of the pandemic. Bergson said he plans to eventually share all available invoices and receipts from Measure B purchases with committee members to review.

The new Measure B ballot text does not mention an oversight committee, an omission Bergson said occurred because city officials copied ballot language from last year’s Measure D, which also did not include mention of the creation or maintenance of the existing committee.

Bergson said despite the omission, he expects to make the oversight committee permanent if Measure B passes by bringing an ordinance to City Council for approval.

In October 2020, the City Council approved the purchase of a custom-built roughly $400,000 Type 3 fire truck, to be paid over 10 years, with about half of the cost covered by Measure B funding despite the original sales tax expiring in 2021.

A city staff report on the purchase outlines a funding plan assuming Measure B funds would continue to flow into city coffers, as the city makes $47,000 payments each year for over a decade to pay off the new truck.

Isleton would be on the hook to pay off the truck, even if the new Measure B doesn’t pass in November. Bergson said that it’d be “tighter financially” for the city if Measure B isn’t approved, but that the city would be able to weather the payments if that happened.

Purchasing the fire truck was a decision that Jones, the oversight committee member, found “highly irresponsible,” and a reflection of Isleton’s legacy of fiscal mismanagement.

“We have a history of digging big holes and jumping into them,” he said.

Ballots for the initiative were mailed Oct. 4, though in-person voting is available at the Isleton Community Center on Election Day, Nov. 2.

If Measure B passes, the city would collect sales tax revenue for five years starting in April 2022, raising between roughly $84,000 and $107,000 annually, according to city estimates. The special election is Nov. 2.