October 11, 2024 • 44 mins
Who should control the operations of the Emergency Services District—city council or a county-appointed ESD board? Join us as we tackle this pressing question with 30-time Emmy Award winning investigative journalist, Wayne Dolcefino. In this episode we examine the potential fallout from defunding ESD 2, particularly its impact on labor and the equipment essential for public safety. Wayne shares captivating stories from his career and past investigations and shares his perspective on the intricacies of public safety management.
Our conversation shifts to the financial struggles of maintaining crucial emergency infrastructure in Pflugerville, Texas. From the escalating costs of fire trucks and equipment to the challenges faced by emergency services in rapidly growing areas. We discuss the debate over whether city councils or unelected ESD boards should oversee these services, emphasizing the need for transparency and efficiency.
The episode concludes with a deep dive into the contentious taxation debate, focusing on the potential repercussions of removing sales tax funding from the fire department. We analyze the motivations of groups like Pflugerville Residents for Responsible Taxation and the broader impact on essential services. Tune in as we unpack the implications of repealing sales tax revenue for fire departments, providing a comprehensive look at the forces shaping public safety in Pflugerville into the future.
Watch the investigative stories Wayne has produced that hit close to home:
Rewarding Negligence
Firefight in Pflugerville
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Wayne Dolcefino (00:07):
because I interviewed two of the people
who've been most vocal againstesd2 the citizens melody ryan,
who's running for city council,and anthony winn.
Both of them said we've neveralleged any mismanagement or
waste.
Well, if you're not complainingabout mismanagement or waste,
well, if you're not complainingabout mismanagement or waste,
the only remaining thing is thisquestion of who do you want to
(00:31):
run it?
You want city council tocontrol it, rather than an ESD
board, which is appointed by thecounty commissioner, who you
also elect.
That's the last piece in this,but none of that has anything to
do with ESD2 or firefighters,and it should be the last thing
you'd consider doing, not thefirst.
If you want to change the wayESD boards are elected, this is
(00:54):
the wrong enemy.
I mean, if you're mad at thecounty commissioner, go to
commissioner's court andcomplain to him.
If you want to see ESDs elected, call your state representative
, but defund, and I do think itis defunding.
Call it.
If you want to see ESDs elected, call your state representative
, but to defund, and I do thinkit is defunding.
Right, call it what you want.
It's taking away money thatwould be core to their mission.
Fire departments are all aboutlabor and trucks, right, labor
(01:20):
and equipment, but the amount ofmoney it will cost to go down
the road.
These, yes, folks want to godown, and a shakedown is what I
think they're really after.
I think so.
And look, I don't think peopleshould be playing shakedown with
public safety.
I don't think you should put aprice tag on public safety and I
certainly don't think youshould threaten the fire
(01:40):
department to do more for less.
I just don't.
Chris Wolff (01:46):
Welcome back to Pflugerville on Fire.
I'm your host, chris Wolfe.
I promised an exciting episodeat the end of last week and we
are ready to deliver Drum roll.
Our surprise guest is Mr WayneDolcefino himself.
You've probably seen a coupleof his videos that have hit
close to home lately.
(02:07):
This guy is something else.
He's got 30 Emmy Awards, fiveCharles Green Awards, a lot of
other awards that we don'treally know what they are, but,
needless to say, ap Honors andTexas Association of
Broadcasters Awards, threemedals from the Organization of
Investigative Reporters andEditors.
(02:28):
And when he says he's got a lotof experience, wayne was
working for ABC 13 in Houstonfor 27 years leading their
undercover investigativejournalism.
This guy has investigatedcorruption, waste, malfeasance,
fraud when it comes togovernment entities.
(02:49):
If Wayne Dulcifino is snoopingaround, people start shaking in
their boots.
I was a little starstruck, laceyand I met him, or we didn't
meet him.
We saw him speak at aPflugerville City Council event
and I almost wanted to hop upand ask him for his autograph
right then and there, and hesaid that he was going to do
some snooping around and it gota lot of people pretty nervous
(03:10):
at the fire department becausehe's not always been kind to
fire departments, but we got toask him some really direct
questions.
He came on the show straightshooter.
I know you're going to love theepisode.
The man is a walking talkingsoundbite.
Fun fact he was also a radio DJat our very own KLBJ here in
(03:32):
Austin and he started Dolce FinoConsulting back in 2012.
Hmm, bet you didn't know allthat.
All right, so also before I turnyou loose with Wayne, I want to
let you know that we did get afan question, which is fantastic
.
We want people to ask questions.
Unfortunately, we can'tactually write back.
We have to say it on the show.
(03:55):
So stay tuned for the end ofthe episode.
We'll answer our fan questionabout what happens should the
fire department get people tovote against repealing the sales
tax revenue.
Since they raise taxes, whatare they going to do with the
extra money?
Answer coming your way at theend of the show.
Stay tuned, enjoy it.
(04:15):
All right, wayne Dulcifino,welcome to the show.
Wayne Dolcefino (04:19):
I am so stoked to be here.
Chris Wolff (04:20):
I love it man, you know, I have to tell you, I work
with a group of inspectors thatused to live in Houston.
I got three former HFD guys andthey said you're bringing Wayne
DelSafino on your show, are youcrazy?
Wayne Dolcefino (04:34):
Yeah, I had a little tangle with the fire
inspectors back.
It's a long time ago now, butwe did an investigation of them,
some of them.
Not your friends, I'm sure no.
But we did an investigation ofthem, some of them.
Not your friends, I'm sure no,no, maybe their grandfathers,
who knows.
But they were hanging out intapas bars and then falsifying
their records and some of theplaces they claimed they
inspected had actually beenclosed for a couple years and
(04:55):
there was like grass growing.
They were claiming they wereinvestigating Passing fires.
They were investigating barsfor overcrowding, and it's kind
of hard to be overcrowded whenyou've been shut down for a year
and a half.
That's wild, and so we provethat all up.
It's what you get when youactually look at the records.
Chris Wolff (05:11):
Well, people told me, wayne Dulcefino is a knife
that cuts both ways.
So just watch out, becausehe'll tell you like it is.
Wayne Dolcefino (05:21):
And that's exactly why we want you on the
show.
I've always tried to Look atthe end of the day.
Sometimes I get on one side orthe other because I think the
facts sort of support it.
But I understand a lot offights and I understand that
there are often two sides andone side may just be misinformed
or they may mean well, but justdon't get it right.
Chris Wolff (05:43):
Yeah, how long have you been doing this
investigative journalism?
Wayne Dolcefino (05:47):
So I've been.
I hate to say it, because whenyou get old, those years add up.
Well, I got assaulted a fewweeks back and someone wrote why
did you hit the elderly man?
So apparently now I'm elderly,which was quite depressing.
That hurts man.
So apparently now I'm elderly,which was quite depressing, but
(06:09):
45 years.
I started in journalism when Iwas 19 and I'm 67.
So do the math, man 48 years.
Chris Wolff (06:14):
So you've been at this, so you've seen, uh, you've
seen corruption.
Uh, you've seen governmentagencies.
Wayne Dolcefino (06:20):
There ain't a story I hear anymore and I kind
of don't know what the play is.
Wow, I mean I can pretty much.
I always had a gift when I'd gointo a place to know who the
crooks were.
I don't know what that is,where that comes from, but I
always sort of smelled thecrooks.
Right, you could smell thepeople that are innocent, you
could smell the people that knowwho the crooks are but don't
(06:43):
want to say anything, and thenyou could see who the crooks are
and I can spot that fairlyearly in a crowd.
Chris Wolff (06:50):
I first got introduced to you when you did
the story on John San Marigo andthat's the gentleman, the
Pflugervillian, our communityneighbor, who died in the back
of an allegiance ambulance and Ithought you really did a great
job.
You know you bring in, you tiethe personal part, but you also
tell a story and inform people,like what's going on.
Wayne Dolcefino (07:11):
So we've been investigating ambulances around
the state for months and monthsand in Fort Worth, but our first
investigation was in PortArthur with a Cadian ambulance
and they just flat out falsifiedtheir response time records and
we knew that, and we knew thatsome of the records they
falsified were ambulance callsthat took especially long and in
(07:35):
a case like San Marino somebodydied right, which obviously is
and we found the people rightand we found the father and the
son and we interviewed them.
When we heard about Allegiance,we looked at Allegiance and
some other places and, by theway, acadian has, like, fought
us every step of the way.
They are so ingrained Some ofthese companies get into these
(07:57):
contracts with these cities andthey are so ingrained, call it
good old boy, call it redneckmafia call it whatever you
wantrained call it good old boy,call it redneck mafia, call it
whatever you want, not gettingthem out of there, but they are,
they're in.
So getting a cadian out um, thepeople that helped me do that.
Like the fire chief, he gotwhacked like right after that, I
don't mean killed, like I'mright I'm from brooklyn, so I,
(08:18):
so I use that could meansomething different, it's
interchangeable.
But he got fired.
But, um, so we came and andlook, it was really important
for us to find lynn samarigo totell the story and to tell the
story of of what happens incities when they sign a deal
with an ambulance company andthey don't really want to know
(08:40):
the whole truth.
And that's, I think, forflugille residents, the other
side of the story, right, somepeople on council wrote it off.
Oh, just one bad paramedic.
Move on right.
Sorry, he died.
Move on Right.
Chris Wolff (08:55):
Well, yeah, he's fired, don't worry about it.
Wayne Dolcefino (08:57):
nothing to see here In any disaster, anytime
something goes wrong and youlook at the one guy or the one
woman, you say, okay, was itsimply that?
Or is it something about theway they train these people, or
don't train them?
That lets these kind of thingshappen.
And I think that's where thepeople on city council, who said
(09:19):
nothing to see here, it's justone, one accident, they filed
the guy, he's gone, no problem.
That's where I think theyshortchanged the residents and
subsequently we've learned thatthey've shortchanged them in a
lot of ways on that contract.
Chris Wolff (09:34):
I tell people all the time that's not an isolated
incident, man, you know, and Ialways saw that from the
operational side as afirefighter and a paramedic, but
I never thought, you know, inthe back of your mind I think
most citizens are like oh, ourelected officials absolutely
want us to be safe.
You would never think that theywould cut corners in that area.
Wayne Dolcefino (09:56):
You make the assumption that they did what
any person with a brain wouldhave done, would have said is
this really an isolated thing?
Some crazy paramedic whoslipped through the crack, or,
um, I'm not getting trained,right, how are they getting
trained?
Who are we sending to rescuepeople, right?
Um, what do we really knowabout this ambulance company and
(10:18):
how they operate?
Have they had problems in othercities?
Right, which is something we'relooking at now in a lot of
places that have allegiance.
They just don't keep records,right, yes, For response time
records, they go.
What's a response time record?
Right, they don't do that.
(10:38):
Right, here, what they do issay give us response time
records, but we're not going toactually look at the sort of the
data.
We're just going to take yourword for it, that's your
response time records.
That's negligent, in my view.
This stuff is too important tolet somebody, a private
ambulance company with afor-profit motive, tell you well
, we did it in seven minutes.
(10:58):
We get to wayne's house until30 minutes, when you're supposed
to be getting there at eight.
Right, that's some reallyimportant stuff.
(11:20):
All those should beinvestigated, right.
What?
What went wrong?
What's going on here?
And they said they waived therequirement and that was done by
the city manager and her people, not by city council.
They didn't even know and Ithink that is negligence.
I'm sorry, that's bureaucraticnegligence, and I think it was
(11:40):
done.
If I may opine, I think it wasdone because they don't want to
admit they screwed up by goingdown the allegiance route,
rather than just paying more tothe government-run folks that
have been doing a great job witheverything else they do.
I think that's why they waivedit, because allegiance didn't
(12:00):
want to do it, because theydidn't want to snitch on
themselves, right, and the citydoesn't really want to know.
No, I'm just crossing theirfingers that they're in another
John Samarigo around the corner,right.
Chris Wolff (12:11):
Yeah, hey, we promised an ambulance.
We'll get there and it will,and just people are supposed to
take that.
So that video led you to followup and do a follow up video on
the events that are happening.
Our listeners know there's ameasure on this ballot that's
going to repeal sales taxrevenue for the fire department.
It takes 40 percent of therevenue out.
(12:32):
So what did you that led you toinvestigate the fire department
?
What did you find out, wayne?
Wayne Dolcefino (12:37):
So look, after I did my first video, I got
like an earful from some guynamed Terry Newsome mostly Terry
basically saying you know, youknow, the only reason we're
using these, this less goodend-to-end service, if I can use
Brooklyn terms is because theother guys want too much money
and they're the SD2, and they'reevil and blah, blah, blah.
(12:59):
And so we started looking atthis whole fight that had been
going on, which had gotten somelocal media coverage, but not a
lot, and I think the averagePflugerville resident doesn't
really know what to do here.
And look, I get the residents'concern about taxes right.
(13:20):
Pflugerville is the secondhighest tax area, but it's the
second biggest city in TravisCounty, so, like duh, it's going
to have higher taxes.
It just is right, are there?
Chris Wolff (13:31):
places with a lot higher taxes?
Wayne Dolcefino (13:33):
Absolutely right.
And is public safety expensive?
Yes, as I said in the video,fire trucks.
When the Pflugerville FireDepartment started, it cost like
$5,000.
When they stopped using bucketsand went to trucks right $5,000
.
Now they're like more than amillion and they take years to
get.
Chris Wolff (13:52):
Yeah, even if you want one it's insane.
Wayne Dolcefino (13:54):
But like inflation, you think inflation
is bad.
At home it's ridiculous inpublic safety.
Um, you know a walkie-talkieone costs twenty thousand
dollars.
You can't go to.
Best buy to get them yeah, it's, it's unreal and so so it was.
So it was time for us to take alook at it and then not tell
people how to vote, because I'ma little reluctant to do that,
(14:16):
but sort of is that a fire truck?
Chris Wolff (14:17):
There goes our guys .
They see, my truck is here.
I love it.
Wayne Dolcefino (14:21):
But oh, they're honking because of that.
That's great.
But to basically guide them asto what, if I was them, I would
do, because I've been in ahead-on car accident, right.
My mother had cancer and neededto be rescued.
My head-on car accident I waspretty much almost dead on the
chopper.
(14:41):
Some volunteer dudes in Dale,texas saved me, right, who are
obviously well-trained At leastthey were good at what they did.
So I have total appreciationfor a fire.
I mean, I'll do investigationsof your inspector buddies, but
when it comes to fire guys andfirst responders, I am all in on
(15:03):
them.
I want them well-paid, I wantthem to have the best equipment
money can buy and I want them tobe as trained as we can
possibly be.
And if I have to sacrificesomething to have that, just
from a personal perspective I'mall in.
Chris Wolff (15:17):
well, I love to hear you say that because I've
got I've got 19 year old kidsthat are on some of my crews, uh
, and they hear everything thatyou know this flutterville
residents for responsibletaxation are saying and they
internalize that it's like thiscommunity is against us.
Why would I want to continue towork here?
And so when people like youknow stand behind the
(15:39):
firefighters, it means a lot.
Wayne Dolcefino (15:41):
Well, look, I think that the politics and the
control local control thing isgetting in the way of what makes
sense, right?
If you think about it,flugelhorn residents have been
part of ESD2 for what?
Four decades, five decades along time, right?
(16:03):
How long have they had ESDs?
And ESDs are weirdly set up bythe legislature, right?
They were only supposed to havea cap on how much they could
charge in property taxes and itdidn't really account for
explosions in growth, right?
So you have to come up withsome alternative ways to fund it
(16:23):
.
If people would look at thePerriman report, and I don't
know Mr Perriman, I don't workfor him, whatever, right.
But if you look at the cost perperson of the service and you
compare, let's say, georgetownto Pflugerville, and it's a lot
cheaper for Pflugervilleresidents, right, than it is for
(16:44):
residents in Georgetown to payfor fire service, so that, to me
, is the best barometer.
Sure, I don't like paying taxes, right?
I mean none of us do, right.
I don't like money goes toWashington, it goes a big, giant
black hole.
Who knows where it goes, right?
But public safety to me isdifferent in a lot of ways and
(17:04):
it's the first thing I want tofund.
And if I'm told as a residentlook, you may not like that we
have these different taxes, butwhen you add them up and you
compare them to a city of likesize, you compare fire to fire,
you're paying less.
Chris Wolff (17:23):
So what are you really bitching about?
And so so, on the record, Wayne, you know we've got you down as
a as a straight shooter andinvestigative journalist for 40
years.
Did you find any mismanagementof money or nefarious activity
on the part of the department orthe board?
Wayne Dolcefino (17:42):
So I did not go into depth into the
financials.
I mean, we looked at them andwe met with the ESD2 financial
person but I can say this I wasintrigued and the reason I
didn't in part was because Iinterviewed two of the people
who've been most vocal againstESD2.
You know, like the on theground troops right, the
(18:05):
citizens Melody Ryan, who'srunning for city council, and
Anthony Wynn, and I asked themboth that question.
Who's running for city council?
And Anthony Nguyen?
And I asked them both thatquestion Because normally in my
world people come to me and saysomebody is mismanaging money or
somebody is stealing money orgiving contracts to their
kinfolk or that kind of stuff,and both of them said we've
(18:27):
never alleged any mismanagementor waste.
Well, if you're not complainingabout mismanagement or waste,
the only remaining thing is thisquestion of who do you want to
run it right?
You want city council tocontrol it rather than an ESD
board right, which is appointedby the county commissioner who
(18:48):
you also elect.
Right, and that's the lastpiece in this.
But none of that has anythingto do with ESD2 or firefighters
and it should be the last thingyou'd consider doing, not the
first right, if you want tochange the way ESD boards are
elected, and I go both ways onthis.
Okay, I'm a straight shooterwho, in this case, shoots
(19:10):
different directions.
Okay, I don't like unelectedboards.
In Houston we have a portauthority that spends a gobs of
money.
They're not elected.
I don't like it.
I don't like paying taxes toanyone who's not elected.
I'll be honest with you, I'mthat guy.
Okay, metro board transitsystem.
They got a $2 billion bondelection not elected.
I don't like it at all.
Right, I've railed against it.
(19:31):
But when it comes to publicsafety, I have had experiences
in my journalistic career thattell me, let's not be so quick
to rush.
Okay, and I'll tell you realquick the experience.
I investigated Cypress Creek EMSin Houston.
I blew them up and they endedup losing the contract.
(19:53):
Okay, after four or five yearsof a vicious ugly battle.
Right, there was an ESD boardabove them.
The ESD elections are alwayscompletely low voter turnout
elections.
Nobody knows where to go tovote.
They vote at a fire station.
No one knows where to go.
So maybe 400 or 500 hundredpeople vote.
Right, if you have the intentof controlling that election, it
(20:18):
is very easy to them, right.
So they control that turnout.
They elect a bunch of Yahoopuppets that were over them who
then looked the other way to allthe corruption.
That's what they did there.
(20:39):
Some people on ESD boards arepeople that are really into fire
stuff, and it's possible thatthe reason the commissioner
hasn't changed them is becausethey've really done a good job,
right.
Chris Wolff (20:55):
It's in the interest of that commissioner to
have board of commissionersthat hold down that little part
of the district so they don'tget complaints.
Wayne Dolcefino (21:01):
Yeah, if trucks were breaking down right,
if people were dyingunnecessarily, if the fire guys
were taking 20 minutes to puttheir pants down, pants on and
go down the ladder people aregoing to talk to their county
commissioner, sure?
Chris Wolff (21:15):
and that will create change right so, and the
crazy thing about a board memberis they can be taken out a wave
of a hand right.
Wayne Dolcefino (21:23):
They can't look, is it the perfect recipe?
No, but what.
The vote will cripple the firedepartment and it's being done
as essentially, in my view, ashakedown.
Right, it's a shakedown, you'reright.
It's like you go in the storeand say you know what that loaf
of bread is five dollars.
(21:43):
I ain't gonna pay five dollars,but I'm hoping that when I walk
out the door you're gonna runto run out after me and say oh
okay, I'll send you the loaf ofbread for $4, right, the HEB
guy's going to come running out,right.
Chris Wolff (22:02):
Not going to happen , Wayne, you and I both have
older kids, so this may not.
You and I aren't thedemographic, but do you remember
the story of the grasshopperand the ant?
I do actually.
Right, so you've got agrasshopper.
That's like you know.
Everything's great.
What are you doing and why areyou carrying all that stuff?
And it's like man, winter'scoming one day, I feel like you
know, if you compare to contrast, you know our city council,
(22:22):
with the board of commission,they're like the ant that's
putting away people like you'vegot millions of dollars.
Wayne Dolcefino (22:38):
Just run ambulances and people like we
need these money, you know, incase and um.
And then we have things likewinter storm, covet 19 and
council races in small towns areeasily manipulated.
Again, the voter turnout is low.
Okay, um, I'm investigating inconroe right now.
Uh, these, these outside watercompanies that want to sell
water control now pretty mucheveryone on Conroe City Council
right.
They funded their campaign,it's not hard to do.
(23:02):
In a municipality election,because it's believed that there
isn't that kind of pressurethat can be put on the
commissioner as easily becausethey're a county elected
official, not a city electedofficial.
I know it gets a little deepand complex, but look, it's the.
(23:26):
The old expression cut yournose.
Don't cut your nose to spotyour face right.
Old expression.
Don't cut your nose to spotyour face right.
This ain't a perfect systemNone of them are but I would
vote if I was living inPflugerville.
I would vote against taking awaythe sales tax because I would
not want to lose the investmentI have made over the last three
(23:48):
or four decades on trucks and onfire stations, under the theory
that if I play tough, if I playlike mob boss with the fire
department, right, they're gonnasay okay, please, let us stay,
we're gonna.
We'll do it for two milliondollars less, right, and we'll
give you ambulances too.
Um, when the history tells youthat the last time the city of
(24:11):
Pflugerville played that game,what did ESD 2?
What did they do?
They took their ambulance thatwas here and said we're going to
put it where.
People are paying for it.
So why wouldn't the same thinghappen?
And I'm not saying that ESD 2would do that.
Chris Wolff (24:27):
Like to spite people, but there is a financial
cost to providing services it'sa difference between a
politician and a firefighter,and that's why I have such a
hard time in the world ofpolitics, like we're going to do
exactly what we said we'regoing to do and why it's not a
game.
No one's trying to playanything.
This is what we got.
Wayne Dolcefino (24:47):
This is what we're trying to do yeah, look,
if the, if the fire chief waslike going out for steak dinners
and margaritas every night,that might be a different story,
right, if that was going on,sure, but there's no evidence of
that anywhere here.
This is just a department that,from what I can see, right in
(25:08):
looking at their equipment andtheir willingness to explain
things to me and show me recordsand anything I've asked for
they've given me.
I've interviewed the fact thatyou've twice.
Chris Wolff (25:17):
Transparency stars from the comptroller's office.
Wayne Dolcefino (25:19):
Some people complain that they didn't get
records fast enough from the ESD.
Look, I've been in battles withESDs, esd 48.
And, katie, their lawyers havetwisted me in so many different
directions, just trying to keepthings from me.
Okay, I get it Right.
Government agencies don't likepeople in their putting.
(25:39):
They just don't.
It just is what it is right.
But to take away the sales tax,firefighters get laid off,
right, fire stations close andeven if people say, well, they
said they'd go bankrupt beforeand they didn't, and I say, okay
, maybe the chief is right.
50% wrong, right, maybe, okay,I'll give you that.
(26:03):
So it's 20% of the firefightersare gone and maybe one and a
half stations we close.
Do people in Pflugervillereally want a fire station
closed?
They don't want that.
And do they want it to be theirfire station?
Do they want the fire?
Chris Wolff (26:18):
station?
Which fire station?
Pull it out of the hat.
Wayne Dolcefino (26:20):
You want to have like a lottery where we put
everybody's neighborhood in apot and then say which
neighborhood loses their firestation.
People want firefighters therefast and they want them to know
what the hell they're doing.
And look.
I also and I mentioned in thevideo did a story a long time
ago about the badly maintainedfire trucks in the Houston Fire
(26:42):
Department.
And fire truck goes to a sceneand a cheap piece of equipment a
couple of bucks it cost at thetime was broken and they never
fixed it.
The damn fire truck couldn'tspray water.
Two little kids died.
They burned up.
I've seen the pictures of thoselittle kids.
Chris Wolff (27:03):
I say to myself you know what I want the best of
the best, because you took thetime to look at those pictures,
wayne.
Wayne Dolcefino (27:11):
I looked at them because I was very heavily
involved with that family.
In fact, I helped that familyeven get lawyers back at the
time, right, who sued the hellout of the department.
But I also, as a result, gotseveral new fire stations and
new fire trucks.
Okay, because the result ofthat story was a better system.
Right, it made changes, right.
(27:31):
So I say, in the absence ofwaste or mismanagement, then
this is folly.
I would not take away the salestax.
I'm not a big endorser ofthings, but if I was living here
(27:52):
, based on what I've seen so far, sorry, I wouldn't do it.
And I think, if you do do it,where are you going to go?
Are you going to start havingyour own fire trucks?
Chris Wolff (28:01):
you're going to have two.
Wayne Dolcefino (28:02):
Fregerville fire departments.
You know how much it would costto stand up a fire department.
Chris Wolff (28:06):
You know how much more debt you know and taxes
we'd all be paying.
Wayne Dolcefino (28:10):
Yeah, and insurance rates would go up in
the meantime because their firetrucks aren't waiting around the
corner and ambulances areexpensive.
I just think really the oldexpression is the right
expression Don't cut off yournose to spot your face.
Chris Wolff (28:23):
And I think you know all of this is coming from
a pretty small group.
You know Fluvial Residents forResponsible Taxation.
Did you look at that group atall?
Wayne Dolcefino (28:33):
Look, I think the group, I think the citizens
I've talked to mean, well, okay,they don't like paying higher
taxes, they don't like all thesedifferent government entities
charging them taxes, right,they'd rather have one tax bill.
You know, like, I have a housein Dripping Springs and they
have like Pernell's Electric,whatever they are, and they do
everything.
You got to use them, you'restuck.
(28:53):
You got to use your own energycompany, you got to use them.
It's like the mob, right, yougot to use that company and it's
all.
But they do everything, right.
So, okay, I pay one guy thatdoes all this stuff.
So I understand those desires.
But you look behind these fewpeople and it is just a few
people and you say, well, who'sfunding this?
(29:15):
Really like well-financedcampaign against the fire
department.
And you find these developersright.
And look, I am not a huge fan ofdevelopers because they don't
do virtually anything justbecause you know motherhood and
apple pie.
Okay, developers do thingsbecause there's a play for them.
I'm sorry, they just do.
(29:35):
And I'm sure there aretaxpayers too, and I don't mean
to insult them or their families, but I ain't stupid, okay, and
I know what they do.
I ain't stupid, okay, and Iknow what they do no-transcript
(30:07):
neighborhoods that they want todevelop.
That's where the best stuffgoes, right?
Maybe people who lived inPflugerville for 20 years live
in an older neighborhood, oldersubdivision, and they're going
to get left out because theseguys are building master plan
other communities, right withthe explosion and stuff.
I've tried to talk to both ofthem.
(30:29):
Look, developers are shy, asyou know, right?
So I've called these twodevelopers, timmerman and
Tiemann.
Timmerman and his family andcompany has like 42 grand in
this thing and Tiemann has like80 something thousand in it
81,000, I think that's 120something thousand dollars out
(30:50):
of the 135,000 dollars that'sbeen spent.
Okay, so like 90% of the moneycame from these two folk.
Okay, I called them and I wasall ready to hear their give me,
give me this, give me the spin,give me the story, tell me what
the deal is Right, because Ialways already here there.
Chris Wolff (31:05):
Give me, give me this, give me the spin give me
the story, tell me what the dealis right, because I always call
everybody right.
You got your chance.
Tell us what's going.
Wayne Dolcefino (31:09):
A lot of people don't call me back, but I
call them, right?
Neither one of them call meback, and so I say that's
interesting, maybe they're justa little camera shy, but I want
to talk to them over the phone.
They wouldn't talk.
I think it's incumbent upon thecitizens to say I want to hear
from them, right, not melodyryan, who's running for council,
(31:30):
not anthony winn I want.
Chris Wolff (31:33):
Without this money it would just be 20 people
complaining about taxes in aroom I mean it'd be a facebook
group and I'm not.
Wayne Dolcefino (31:41):
I'm not saying they don't mean.
Well, I think they are confusedby all the different taxes.
Right, but the system that wasset up was set up to have
different taxes because as longas the ESD is capped and they
can't float a bond, right, theycan't decide to close a fire
station tomorrow.
(32:01):
Hey, we're just going to closea fire station.
You folks on the east side, Iknow we opened it last year, but
I'm sorry, we can't do it, theycan't do that.
So their funding mechanism,right, is a certain cap on
property taxes.
That's it.
So, unless you want a firedepartment in Pflugerville that
has like one truck and a dude ina pickup truck throwing water
(32:24):
off the side, you have to keepup with the explosion of growth
and for the demand.
Chris Wolff (32:30):
And I think that sales tax revenue is a pretty
elegant way to do that.
You don't know where that moneyis going.
You don't feel that when youpay your escrow.
Wayne Dolcefino (32:39):
Yeah, and look , I don't really take a position
on which way they should do it.
Property taxes.
I just assume pay one thing andbe done with it.
That's just me and maybe theyshould revisit the legislature
the cap on the ESD taxes.
Chris Wolff (32:55):
Well, as much as the state is growing, you're
probably right.
Wayne Dolcefino (32:59):
I will say this, though when Pflugerville
approved the sales tax increasein 2014, right, I do think the
people that I've interviewedMelanie and Anthony just are
wrong about what that ballotmeasure said.
People say, oh, that was forambulance service, we should
have a refund on that money andlook what.
(33:22):
What the ESD2 did is.
What fire departments acrossthe country are doing, and
probably in other places too, issay, look, we believe in first
responders, right?
So if the fire truck gets therefirst, do you really want a
whole fire truck full of peoplewho say to the guy who's having
(33:44):
the heart attack on the ground,right there, he's, like you know
, gasping for air?
And they say, darn, I don'treally know what to do.
I'm the hose guy, right, Icarry the hose and I spray the
water, right, and the other dudeknows how to climb the ladder,
right.
That's where we're fired.
We're fire guys, right, andwe'll just have to wait another
(34:05):
five or 10 minutes for theambulance to get here.
So the thought was and it wassmart actually let's make as
many firefighters as paramedicsas we can so that when they get
there first which they often dobecause the fire station may be
closer the ambulance is not inthe fire station sometimes, so
we can start working on theheart attack guy and save your
(34:27):
husband or your father.
Do you really want to risk thatfive or six minutes?
So that's what that electionwas all about and that's why you
have training academies.
That's why you makefirefighters paramedics, so they
have the medical training to dostuff the right way.
And I've seen what I call theblack book of screw-ups.
(34:50):
That allegiance has done thatthe fire department sort of
maintained over the last year,whatever it was.
And I've got to tell you, ifthat was my mama and I knew they
made those mistakes I'd bepissed off and I just think this
is the wrong enemy.
I mean, if you're mad at thecounty commissioner, go to
(35:12):
commissioner's court andcomplain to him.
If you want to see ESDs elected, call your state representative
.
But to defund and I do think itis defunding.
Call it what you want.
I know they don't like thatterm.
Chris Wolff (35:24):
If you look at the dictionary, it's defunding right
.
Wayne Dolcefino (35:28):
It's defunding , it's taking away money that
would be core to their mission.
Fire departments are all aboutlabor and trucks, labor and
equipment.
That's the vast majority oftheir budget, and so if you cut
into 40% into someone's budget,you're cutting into people.
(35:48):
I don't care how many people,whether it's 50 people or 80
people or 30 people, whatever itis, you're cutting into people.
If you get rid of firefighters,you want to maintain trucks.
You've got to start thinkingabout closing fire stations, or
maybe closing them at 6 o'clock.
How about that?
Why don't we have fire stationsin Pflugerville?
Chris Wolff (36:07):
That's how they used to do it back in the day
Open until 6 pm and then after6,.
Wayne Dolcefino (36:11):
If there's a fire at your house, you're
screwed.
Yep, how about that?
Chris Wolff (36:14):
Wait, there'll be a company coming from across town
.
So, wayne, let me ask you, didyou get into, like I know you
used tried to get in with thecity manager and talk to the
staff?
Wayne Dolcefino (36:25):
Now the city manager interesting Never has
returned a phone call, rightNever.
And I think the city managerhas some explaining to do about
this.
Look, if there is another death, well one's enough, right,
Right, but this is a tickingtime bomb with these private
ambulance companies.
(36:45):
If the city doesn't have a realcontrol over their training, a
real documentation of whatthey're responding to and why it
was late, we may not even knowthat another john samarigo
hasn't already happened.
We may not know that the?
Chris Wolff (37:01):
yeah, we don't know .
I could tell you stories, wayne.
Wayne Dolcefino (37:04):
Yeah, but you're right, we don't know that
, yeah, right I mean, if lynnsamarigo wouldn't, you know
lowering up and doing all thatkind of stuff, then we may not
know how many people were in thehospital longer or suffered
longer because the wrongmedicine was putting them in at
the beginning.
Right, these are everydaydecisions.
Right now, somebody listeningto us may be interrupted by a
(37:26):
family member gasping for air,and they need emergency care.
Chris Wolff (37:30):
I want the best trained people I can get and and
I've said this on this showbefore Wayne, I've got nothing
against Allegiance as far as thefor-profit.
They were way better thanAcadian was.
But there's just such adifference between having a crew
that's managed by an officer ina firehouse that trains fire
two hours a day, trains medicaltwo hours a day.
It's night and day differencewhat you get.
Wayne Dolcefino (37:52):
Yeah, I would prefer having my ambulances
dispatched by my fire department.
And if they say they need theextra money to do it, that's not
a hill, I want to die on right.
If they say they want a bunchof tax money, raise sales taxes
so they can have like apickleball court, sure, I was in
a city the other day where theywanted to spend $1.2 million in
(38:14):
a small little town of like 500people for a pickleball court
and I was going like, really,are you nuts Right Now, that's
something to fight about.
This vote should go down justfor that reason alone.
If that's what they say isneeded to do it the right way,
then I say do it the right way.
Chris Wolff (38:36):
Wayne, I personally can't wait for the voters.
You know come early voting andcome November 5th, because I'm
really hoping that what we do iswe get just a landslide of
Fleurville residents that, atthe end of the day, support
their first responders and wecan see that.
Wayne Dolcefino (38:51):
Look, I do worry.
I do worry that people get allexcited about the idea of
reducing tax, okay, but they'renot reducing it.
They're simply moving it overto city council with no
guarantee that they're going touse it.
They may decide to use it foreconomic development and cut
deals with those developersRight, they may do that.
(39:13):
And then what happens then?
Then you're now stuck with witha worse fire department and
still a private ambulanceservice that has some questions
that need to be answered.
So this isn't taking away taxmoney, folks.
This is just saying, instead ofjohn collecting it, we're going
to give it to Kelsey Jean, okay, and with Kelsey Jean, she's
(39:36):
not even promising us she'sgoing to use it for that, right,
and Kelsey Jean doesn't havenear the equipment and other
stuff that the other guy has Iforgot his name.
Whatever analogy.
Chris Wolff (39:46):
I was drawing, I think we started with John, with
John Right.
Wayne Dolcefino (39:49):
So whatever John had Right, john may have 20
different trucks to do it andI've got nothing.
Kelsey Jean's got nothing, butwe're going to go ahead and give
her the tax money.
It doesn't make any sense, froma pure investment standpoint,
of what you've already put inthrough this ESD-2.
If this was 30 years ago andthe ESD-2 had just started, I
(40:10):
would have said, okay, make amove, but the amount of money it
will cost to go down the road,these, yes, folks want to go
down and a shakedown is what Ithink they're really after.
I don't think people should beplaying shakedown with public
safety.
I don't think you should put aprice tag on public safety and I
(40:31):
certainly don't think youshould threaten the fire
department to do more for less.
I just don't.
Chris Wolff (40:38):
Well, wayne, I know you're a busy guy.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show.
I love your videos.
We're going to link both ofthem in the show notes and we
sure appreciate everything youdo, because I don't know that
this topic would have gotten thecoverage had you not
investigated it.
Wayne Dolcefino (40:54):
Well, look, I hope our videos help educate
people.
There's some history in there,there's some context in there
and I think when they look atall the facts, they're going to
know what the.
I didn't say in the video whatpeople should do, but I think
people get the hint.
All right, it was a pretty welltelegraphed hint, but I think
they should get the hint what Iwould do and I would vote no.
Chris Wolff (41:17):
Well, thank you so much, Wayne.
Appreciate you, sure.
So that's our show for thisweek.
I hope you all enjoyed it.
Man, another great interview inthe can.
Really happy that how this showhas progressed and I want to
let you know we're actually kindof starting to wrap it up over
here at Pflugerville on fire.
We're just a couple of weeksout from the election.
(41:38):
Early voting is right aroundthe corner, but don't leave,
because stay tuned.
We've got more great guestscoming up next week and the week
after that.
At the beginning of the episodeI promised that we were going to
answer a fan question, and sowe submitted that to Jessica.
The question was hey, if youguys are successful in defending
(42:02):
the sales tax revenue for thefire department not defunding
the fire department, but youalready raised property taxes
what are you then going to dowith the leftover money?
So we sent that to Jessica, andJessica you know she's quite a
professional she hedged.
Ultimately, it's up to theboard to decide.
What the staff is going torecommend they do is what they
(42:24):
always do.
If they have a surplus at theend of the year, they put that
into the next year's budget andthey draw down from that money
before they, you know, calculatethe new property tax rate.
So that's to say that if youknow, we defend the fire
department's income and they endup with a surplus because they
(42:45):
raised property taxes, they'regoing to recommend hey, let's
take the surplus and not messwith people's property taxes
after that.
So a big topic of debate, onethat I'll give a shout out to
Council Member David Rogers he'salways hitting me up on is you
guys are going to make a ton ofsales tax revenue.
And Jessica says we're notgoing to make a ton of sales tax
(43:08):
revenue.
So I'm a patient dude, let'ssee what happens, let's see
who's right about where theycome out at.
Jessica is more conservative inher estimation, so she kind of
hedges when, in her answer tothis, she said we're not really
expecting a lot of change in thesales tax revenue amount.
So we'll see.
The state of Texas, that my myproducer, lovely and talented
(43:31):
Lacey Wolf, works for the stateof Texas, that my producer,
lovely and talented Lacey Wolf,works for the state.
So it'd be interesting to see.
I'm no expert, so I like tolisten to people, I like to get
all the facts.
I like to then make my ownopinion, and luckily I don't
have to make an opinion on thisuntil sales tax out next year
and then I'll have a good ideawho I should be listening to
(43:52):
when it comes to forecastingthese things.
So I hope that answers thequestion.
I hope you enjoyed the episode.
I'm so happy to have all theselisteners tuning in and stay
tuned, because we've got anothergreat one coming up next week.
I'm excited to bring it to you.
Thank you so much to all of ourfans here at Pflugerville on
Fire and hopefully, if you stillhave questions about the
(44:15):
election, hopefully they've beenanswered by now.
Get your neighbors talk to yourfriends, get them to like,
subscribe and share the showPflugerville on Fire.
See you next week.
because I interviewed two of the people
who've been most vocal againstesd2 the citizens melody ryan,
who's running for city council,and anthony winn.
Both of them said we've neveralleged any mismanagement or
waste.
Well, if you're not complainingabout mismanagement or waste,
well, if you're not complainingabout mismanagement or waste,
the only remaining thing is thisquestion of who do you want to
(00:31):
run it?
You want city council tocontrol it, rather than an ESD
board, which is appointed by thecounty commissioner, who you
also elect.
That's the last piece in this,but none of that has anything to
do with ESD2 or firefighters,and it should be the last thing
you'd consider doing, not thefirst.
If you want to change the wayESD boards are elected, this is
(00:54):
the wrong enemy.
I mean, if you're mad at thecounty commissioner, go to
commissioner's court andcomplain to him.
If you want to see ESDs elected, call your state representative
, but defund, and I do think itis defunding.
Call it.
If you want to see ESDs elected, call your state representative
, but to defund, and I do thinkit is defunding.
Right, call it what you want.
It's taking away money thatwould be core to their mission.
Fire departments are all aboutlabor and trucks, right, labor
(01:20):
and equipment, but the amount ofmoney it will cost to go down
the road.
These, yes, folks want to godown, and a shakedown is what I
think they're really after.
I think so.
And look, I don't think peopleshould be playing shakedown with
public safety.
I don't think you should put aprice tag on public safety and I
certainly don't think youshould threaten the fire
(01:40):
department to do more for less.
I just don't.
Chris Wolff (01:46):
Welcome back to Pflugerville on Fire.
I'm your host, chris Wolfe.
I promised an exciting episodeat the end of last week and we
are ready to deliver Drum roll.
Our surprise guest is Mr WayneDolcefino himself.
You've probably seen a coupleof his videos that have hit
close to home lately.
(02:07):
This guy is something else.
He's got 30 Emmy Awards, fiveCharles Green Awards, a lot of
other awards that we don'treally know what they are, but,
needless to say, ap Honors andTexas Association of
Broadcasters Awards, threemedals from the Organization of
Investigative Reporters andEditors.
(02:28):
And when he says he's got a lotof experience, wayne was
working for ABC 13 in Houstonfor 27 years leading their
undercover investigativejournalism.
This guy has investigatedcorruption, waste, malfeasance,
fraud when it comes togovernment entities.
(02:49):
If Wayne Dulcifino is snoopingaround, people start shaking in
their boots.
I was a little starstruck, laceyand I met him, or we didn't
meet him.
We saw him speak at aPflugerville City Council event
and I almost wanted to hop upand ask him for his autograph
right then and there, and hesaid that he was going to do
some snooping around and it gota lot of people pretty nervous
(03:10):
at the fire department becausehe's not always been kind to
fire departments, but we got toask him some really direct
questions.
He came on the show straightshooter.
I know you're going to love theepisode.
The man is a walking talkingsoundbite.
Fun fact he was also a radio DJat our very own KLBJ here in
(03:32):
Austin and he started Dolce FinoConsulting back in 2012.
Hmm, bet you didn't know allthat.
All right, so also before I turnyou loose with Wayne, I want to
let you know that we did get afan question, which is fantastic
.
We want people to ask questions.
Unfortunately, we can'tactually write back.
We have to say it on the show.
(03:55):
So stay tuned for the end ofthe episode.
We'll answer our fan questionabout what happens should the
fire department get people tovote against repealing the sales
tax revenue.
Since they raise taxes, whatare they going to do with the
extra money?
Answer coming your way at theend of the show.
Stay tuned, enjoy it.
(04:15):
All right, wayne Dulcifino,welcome to the show.
Wayne Dolcefino (04:19):
I am so stoked to be here.
Chris Wolff (04:20):
I love it man, you know, I have to tell you, I work
with a group of inspectors thatused to live in Houston.
I got three former HFD guys andthey said you're bringing Wayne
DelSafino on your show, are youcrazy?
Wayne Dolcefino (04:34):
Yeah, I had a little tangle with the fire
inspectors back.
It's a long time ago now, butwe did an investigation of them,
some of them.
Not your friends, I'm sure no.
But we did an investigation ofthem, some of them.
Not your friends, I'm sure no,no, maybe their grandfathers,
who knows.
But they were hanging out intapas bars and then falsifying
their records and some of theplaces they claimed they
inspected had actually beenclosed for a couple years and
(04:55):
there was like grass growing.
They were claiming they wereinvestigating Passing fires.
They were investigating barsfor overcrowding, and it's kind
of hard to be overcrowded whenyou've been shut down for a year
and a half.
That's wild, and so we provethat all up.
It's what you get when youactually look at the records.
Chris Wolff (05:11):
Well, people told me, wayne Dulcefino is a knife
that cuts both ways.
So just watch out, becausehe'll tell you like it is.
Wayne Dolcefino (05:21):
And that's exactly why we want you on the
show.
I've always tried to Look atthe end of the day.
Sometimes I get on one side orthe other because I think the
facts sort of support it.
But I understand a lot offights and I understand that
there are often two sides andone side may just be misinformed
or they may mean well, but justdon't get it right.
Chris Wolff (05:43):
Yeah, how long have you been doing this
investigative journalism?
Wayne Dolcefino (05:47):
So I've been.
I hate to say it, because whenyou get old, those years add up.
Well, I got assaulted a fewweeks back and someone wrote why
did you hit the elderly man?
So apparently now I'm elderly,which was quite depressing.
That hurts man.
So apparently now I'm elderly,which was quite depressing, but
(06:09):
45 years.
I started in journalism when Iwas 19 and I'm 67.
So do the math, man 48 years.
Chris Wolff (06:14):
So you've been at this, so you've seen, uh, you've
seen corruption.
Uh, you've seen governmentagencies.
Wayne Dolcefino (06:20):
There ain't a story I hear anymore and I kind
of don't know what the play is.
Wow, I mean I can pretty much.
I always had a gift when I'd gointo a place to know who the
crooks were.
I don't know what that is,where that comes from, but I
always sort of smelled thecrooks.
Right, you could smell thepeople that are innocent, you
could smell the people that knowwho the crooks are but don't
(06:43):
want to say anything, and thenyou could see who the crooks are
and I can spot that fairlyearly in a crowd.
Chris Wolff (06:50):
I first got introduced to you when you did
the story on John San Marigo andthat's the gentleman, the
Pflugervillian, our communityneighbor, who died in the back
of an allegiance ambulance and Ithought you really did a great
job.
You know you bring in, you tiethe personal part, but you also
tell a story and inform people,like what's going on.
Wayne Dolcefino (07:11):
So we've been investigating ambulances around
the state for months and monthsand in Fort Worth, but our first
investigation was in PortArthur with a Cadian ambulance
and they just flat out falsifiedtheir response time records and
we knew that, and we knew thatsome of the records they
falsified were ambulance callsthat took especially long and in
(07:35):
a case like San Marino somebodydied right, which obviously is
and we found the people rightand we found the father and the
son and we interviewed them.
When we heard about Allegiance,we looked at Allegiance and
some other places and, by theway, acadian has, like, fought
us every step of the way.
They are so ingrained Some ofthese companies get into these
(07:57):
contracts with these cities andthey are so ingrained, call it
good old boy, call it redneckmafia call it whatever you
wantrained call it good old boy,call it redneck mafia, call it
whatever you want, not gettingthem out of there, but they are,
they're in.
So getting a cadian out um, thepeople that helped me do that.
Like the fire chief, he gotwhacked like right after that, I
don't mean killed, like I'mright I'm from brooklyn, so I,
(08:18):
so I use that could meansomething different, it's
interchangeable.
But he got fired.
But, um, so we came and andlook, it was really important
for us to find lynn samarigo totell the story and to tell the
story of of what happens incities when they sign a deal
with an ambulance company andthey don't really want to know
(08:40):
the whole truth.
And that's, I think, forflugille residents, the other
side of the story, right, somepeople on council wrote it off.
Oh, just one bad paramedic.
Move on right.
Sorry, he died.
Move on Right.
Chris Wolff (08:55):
Well, yeah, he's fired, don't worry about it.
Wayne Dolcefino (08:57):
nothing to see here In any disaster, anytime
something goes wrong and youlook at the one guy or the one
woman, you say, okay, was itsimply that?
Or is it something about theway they train these people, or
don't train them?
That lets these kind of thingshappen.
And I think that's where thepeople on city council, who said
(09:19):
nothing to see here, it's justone, one accident, they filed
the guy, he's gone, no problem.
That's where I think theyshortchanged the residents and
subsequently we've learned thatthey've shortchanged them in a
lot of ways on that contract.
Chris Wolff (09:34):
I tell people all the time that's not an isolated
incident, man, you know, and Ialways saw that from the
operational side as afirefighter and a paramedic, but
I never thought, you know, inthe back of your mind I think
most citizens are like oh, ourelected officials absolutely
want us to be safe.
You would never think that theywould cut corners in that area.
Wayne Dolcefino (09:56):
You make the assumption that they did what
any person with a brain wouldhave done, would have said is
this really an isolated thing?
Some crazy paramedic whoslipped through the crack, or,
um, I'm not getting trained,right, how are they getting
trained?
Who are we sending to rescuepeople, right?
Um, what do we really knowabout this ambulance company and
(10:18):
how they operate?
Have they had problems in othercities?
Right, which is something we'relooking at now in a lot of
places that have allegiance.
They just don't keep records,right, yes, For response time
records, they go.
What's a response time record?
Right, they don't do that.
(10:38):
Right, here, what they do issay give us response time
records, but we're not going toactually look at the sort of the
data.
We're just going to take yourword for it, that's your
response time records.
That's negligent, in my view.
This stuff is too important tolet somebody, a private
ambulance company with afor-profit motive, tell you well
, we did it in seven minutes.
(10:58):
We get to wayne's house until30 minutes, when you're supposed
to be getting there at eight.
Right, that's some reallyimportant stuff.
(11:20):
All those should beinvestigated, right.
What?
What went wrong?
What's going on here?
And they said they waived therequirement and that was done by
the city manager and her people, not by city council.
They didn't even know and Ithink that is negligence.
I'm sorry, that's bureaucraticnegligence, and I think it was
(11:40):
done.
If I may opine, I think it wasdone because they don't want to
admit they screwed up by goingdown the allegiance route,
rather than just paying more tothe government-run folks that
have been doing a great job witheverything else they do.
I think that's why they waivedit, because allegiance didn't
(12:00):
want to do it, because theydidn't want to snitch on
themselves, right, and the citydoesn't really want to know.
No, I'm just crossing theirfingers that they're in another
John Samarigo around the corner,right.
Chris Wolff (12:11):
Yeah, hey, we promised an ambulance.
We'll get there and it will,and just people are supposed to
take that.
So that video led you to followup and do a follow up video on
the events that are happening.
Our listeners know there's ameasure on this ballot that's
going to repeal sales taxrevenue for the fire department.
It takes 40 percent of therevenue out.
(12:32):
So what did you that led you toinvestigate the fire department
?
What did you find out, wayne?
Wayne Dolcefino (12:37):
So look, after I did my first video, I got
like an earful from some guynamed Terry Newsome mostly Terry
basically saying you know, youknow, the only reason we're
using these, this less goodend-to-end service, if I can use
Brooklyn terms is because theother guys want too much money
and they're the SD2, and they'reevil and blah, blah, blah.
(12:59):
And so we started looking atthis whole fight that had been
going on, which had gotten somelocal media coverage, but not a
lot, and I think the averagePflugerville resident doesn't
really know what to do here.
And look, I get the residents'concern about taxes right.
(13:20):
Pflugerville is the secondhighest tax area, but it's the
second biggest city in TravisCounty, so, like duh, it's going
to have higher taxes.
It just is right, are there?
Chris Wolff (13:31):
places with a lot higher taxes?
Wayne Dolcefino (13:33):
Absolutely right.
And is public safety expensive?
Yes, as I said in the video,fire trucks.
When the Pflugerville FireDepartment started, it cost like
$5,000.
When they stopped using bucketsand went to trucks right $5,000
.
Now they're like more than amillion and they take years to
get.
Chris Wolff (13:52):
Yeah, even if you want one it's insane.
Wayne Dolcefino (13:54):
But like inflation, you think inflation
is bad.
At home it's ridiculous inpublic safety.
Um, you know a walkie-talkieone costs twenty thousand
dollars.
You can't go to.
Best buy to get them yeah, it's, it's unreal and so so it was.
So it was time for us to take alook at it and then not tell
people how to vote, because I'ma little reluctant to do that,
(14:16):
but sort of is that a fire truck?
Chris Wolff (14:17):
There goes our guys .
They see, my truck is here.
I love it.
Wayne Dolcefino (14:21):
But oh, they're honking because of that.
That's great.
But to basically guide them asto what, if I was them, I would
do, because I've been in ahead-on car accident, right.
My mother had cancer and neededto be rescued.
My head-on car accident I waspretty much almost dead on the
chopper.
(14:41):
Some volunteer dudes in Dale,texas saved me, right, who are
obviously well-trained At leastthey were good at what they did.
So I have total appreciationfor a fire.
I mean, I'll do investigationsof your inspector buddies, but
when it comes to fire guys andfirst responders, I am all in on
(15:03):
them.
I want them well-paid, I wantthem to have the best equipment
money can buy and I want them tobe as trained as we can
possibly be.
And if I have to sacrificesomething to have that, just
from a personal perspective I'mall in.
Chris Wolff (15:17):
well, I love to hear you say that because I've
got I've got 19 year old kidsthat are on some of my crews, uh
, and they hear everything thatyou know this flutterville
residents for responsibletaxation are saying and they
internalize that it's like thiscommunity is against us.
Why would I want to continue towork here?
And so when people like youknow stand behind the
(15:39):
firefighters, it means a lot.
Wayne Dolcefino (15:41):
Well, look, I think that the politics and the
control local control thing isgetting in the way of what makes
sense, right?
If you think about it,flugelhorn residents have been
part of ESD2 for what?
Four decades, five decades along time, right?
(16:03):
How long have they had ESDs?
And ESDs are weirdly set up bythe legislature, right?
They were only supposed to havea cap on how much they could
charge in property taxes and itdidn't really account for
explosions in growth, right?
So you have to come up withsome alternative ways to fund it
(16:23):
.
If people would look at thePerriman report, and I don't
know Mr Perriman, I don't workfor him, whatever, right.
But if you look at the cost perperson of the service and you
compare, let's say, georgetownto Pflugerville, and it's a lot
cheaper for Pflugervilleresidents, right, than it is for
(16:44):
residents in Georgetown to payfor fire service, so that, to me
, is the best barometer.
Sure, I don't like paying taxes, right?
I mean none of us do, right.
I don't like money goes toWashington, it goes a big, giant
black hole.
Who knows where it goes, right?
But public safety to me isdifferent in a lot of ways and
(17:04):
it's the first thing I want tofund.
And if I'm told as a residentlook, you may not like that we
have these different taxes, butwhen you add them up and you
compare them to a city of likesize, you compare fire to fire,
you're paying less.
Chris Wolff (17:23):
So what are you really bitching about?
And so so, on the record, Wayne, you know we've got you down as
a as a straight shooter andinvestigative journalist for 40
years.
Did you find any mismanagementof money or nefarious activity
on the part of the department orthe board?
Wayne Dolcefino (17:42):
So I did not go into depth into the
financials.
I mean, we looked at them andwe met with the ESD2 financial
person but I can say this I wasintrigued and the reason I
didn't in part was because Iinterviewed two of the people
who've been most vocal againstESD2.
You know, like the on theground troops right, the
(18:05):
citizens Melody Ryan, who'srunning for city council, and
Anthony Wynn, and I asked themboth that question.
Who's running for city council?
And Anthony Nguyen?
And I asked them both thatquestion Because normally in my
world people come to me and saysomebody is mismanaging money or
somebody is stealing money orgiving contracts to their
kinfolk or that kind of stuff,and both of them said we've
(18:27):
never alleged any mismanagementor waste.
Well, if you're not complainingabout mismanagement or waste,
the only remaining thing is thisquestion of who do you want to
run it right?
You want city council tocontrol it rather than an ESD
board right, which is appointedby the county commissioner who
(18:48):
you also elect.
Right, and that's the lastpiece in this.
But none of that has anythingto do with ESD2 or firefighters
and it should be the last thingyou'd consider doing, not the
first right, if you want tochange the way ESD boards are
elected, and I go both ways onthis.
Okay, I'm a straight shooterwho, in this case, shoots
(19:10):
different directions.
Okay, I don't like unelectedboards.
In Houston we have a portauthority that spends a gobs of
money.
They're not elected.
I don't like it.
I don't like paying taxes toanyone who's not elected.
I'll be honest with you, I'mthat guy.
Okay, metro board transitsystem.
They got a $2 billion bondelection not elected.
I don't like it at all.
Right, I've railed against it.
(19:31):
But when it comes to publicsafety, I have had experiences
in my journalistic career thattell me, let's not be so quick
to rush.
Okay, and I'll tell you realquick the experience.
I investigated Cypress Creek EMSin Houston.
I blew them up and they endedup losing the contract.
(19:53):
Okay, after four or five yearsof a vicious ugly battle.
Right, there was an ESD boardabove them.
The ESD elections are alwayscompletely low voter turnout
elections.
Nobody knows where to go tovote.
They vote at a fire station.
No one knows where to go.
So maybe 400 or 500 hundredpeople vote.
Right, if you have the intentof controlling that election, it
(20:18):
is very easy to them, right.
So they control that turnout.
They elect a bunch of Yahoopuppets that were over them who
then looked the other way to allthe corruption.
That's what they did there.
(20:39):
Some people on ESD boards arepeople that are really into fire
stuff, and it's possible thatthe reason the commissioner
hasn't changed them is becausethey've really done a good job,
right.
Chris Wolff (20:55):
It's in the interest of that commissioner to
have board of commissionersthat hold down that little part
of the district so they don'tget complaints.
Wayne Dolcefino (21:01):
Yeah, if trucks were breaking down right,
if people were dyingunnecessarily, if the fire guys
were taking 20 minutes to puttheir pants down, pants on and
go down the ladder people aregoing to talk to their county
commissioner, sure?
Chris Wolff (21:15):
and that will create change right so, and the
crazy thing about a board memberis they can be taken out a wave
of a hand right.
Wayne Dolcefino (21:23):
They can't look, is it the perfect recipe?
No, but what.
The vote will cripple the firedepartment and it's being done
as essentially, in my view, ashakedown.
Right, it's a shakedown, you'reright.
It's like you go in the storeand say you know what that loaf
of bread is five dollars.
(21:43):
I ain't gonna pay five dollars,but I'm hoping that when I walk
out the door you're gonna runto run out after me and say oh
okay, I'll send you the loaf ofbread for $4, right, the HEB
guy's going to come running out,right.
Chris Wolff (22:02):
Not going to happen , Wayne, you and I both have
older kids, so this may not.
You and I aren't thedemographic, but do you remember
the story of the grasshopperand the ant?
I do actually.
Right, so you've got agrasshopper.
That's like you know.
Everything's great.
What are you doing and why areyou carrying all that stuff?
And it's like man, winter'scoming one day, I feel like you
know, if you compare to contrast, you know our city council,
(22:22):
with the board of commission,they're like the ant that's
putting away people like you'vegot millions of dollars.
Wayne Dolcefino (22:38):
Just run ambulances and people like we
need these money, you know, incase and um.
And then we have things likewinter storm, covet 19 and
council races in small towns areeasily manipulated.
Again, the voter turnout is low.
Okay, um, I'm investigating inconroe right now.
Uh, these, these outside watercompanies that want to sell
water control now pretty mucheveryone on Conroe City Council
right.
They funded their campaign,it's not hard to do.
(23:02):
In a municipality election,because it's believed that there
isn't that kind of pressurethat can be put on the
commissioner as easily becausethey're a county elected
official, not a city electedofficial.
I know it gets a little deepand complex, but look, it's the.
(23:26):
The old expression cut yournose.
Don't cut your nose to spotyour face right.
Old expression.
Don't cut your nose to spotyour face right.
This ain't a perfect systemNone of them are but I would
vote if I was living inPflugerville.
I would vote against taking awaythe sales tax because I would
not want to lose the investmentI have made over the last three
(23:48):
or four decades on trucks and onfire stations, under the theory
that if I play tough, if I playlike mob boss with the fire
department, right, they're gonnasay okay, please, let us stay,
we're gonna.
We'll do it for two milliondollars less, right, and we'll
give you ambulances too.
Um, when the history tells youthat the last time the city of
(24:11):
Pflugerville played that game,what did ESD 2?
What did they do?
They took their ambulance thatwas here and said we're going to
put it where.
People are paying for it.
So why wouldn't the same thinghappen?
And I'm not saying that ESD 2would do that.
Chris Wolff (24:27):
Like to spite people, but there is a financial
cost to providing services it'sa difference between a
politician and a firefighter,and that's why I have such a
hard time in the world ofpolitics, like we're going to do
exactly what we said we'regoing to do and why it's not a
game.
No one's trying to playanything.
This is what we got.
Wayne Dolcefino (24:47):
This is what we're trying to do yeah, look,
if the, if the fire chief waslike going out for steak dinners
and margaritas every night,that might be a different story,
right, if that was going on,sure, but there's no evidence of
that anywhere here.
This is just a department that,from what I can see, right in
(25:08):
looking at their equipment andtheir willingness to explain
things to me and show me recordsand anything I've asked for
they've given me.
I've interviewed the fact thatyou've twice.
Chris Wolff (25:17):
Transparency stars from the comptroller's office.
Wayne Dolcefino (25:19):
Some people complain that they didn't get
records fast enough from the ESD.
Look, I've been in battles withESDs, esd 48.
And, katie, their lawyers havetwisted me in so many different
directions, just trying to keepthings from me.
Okay, I get it Right.
Government agencies don't likepeople in their putting.
(25:39):
They just don't.
It just is what it is right.
But to take away the sales tax,firefighters get laid off,
right, fire stations close andeven if people say, well, they
said they'd go bankrupt beforeand they didn't, and I say, okay
, maybe the chief is right.
50% wrong, right, maybe, okay,I'll give you that.
(26:03):
So it's 20% of the firefightersare gone and maybe one and a
half stations we close.
Do people in Pflugervillereally want a fire station
closed?
They don't want that.
And do they want it to be theirfire station?
Do they want the fire?
Chris Wolff (26:18):
station?
Which fire station?
Pull it out of the hat.
Wayne Dolcefino (26:20):
You want to have like a lottery where we put
everybody's neighborhood in apot and then say which
neighborhood loses their firestation.
People want firefighters therefast and they want them to know
what the hell they're doing.
And look.
I also and I mentioned in thevideo did a story a long time
ago about the badly maintainedfire trucks in the Houston Fire
(26:42):
Department.
And fire truck goes to a sceneand a cheap piece of equipment a
couple of bucks it cost at thetime was broken and they never
fixed it.
The damn fire truck couldn'tspray water.
Two little kids died.
They burned up.
I've seen the pictures of thoselittle kids.
Chris Wolff (27:03):
I say to myself you know what I want the best of
the best, because you took thetime to look at those pictures,
wayne.
Wayne Dolcefino (27:11):
I looked at them because I was very heavily
involved with that family.
In fact, I helped that familyeven get lawyers back at the
time, right, who sued the hellout of the department.
But I also, as a result, gotseveral new fire stations and
new fire trucks.
Okay, because the result ofthat story was a better system.
Right, it made changes, right.
(27:31):
So I say, in the absence ofwaste or mismanagement, then
this is folly.
I would not take away the salestax.
I'm not a big endorser ofthings, but if I was living here
(27:52):
, based on what I've seen so far, sorry, I wouldn't do it.
And I think, if you do do it,where are you going to go?
Are you going to start havingyour own fire trucks?
Chris Wolff (28:01):
you're going to have two.
Wayne Dolcefino (28:02):
Fregerville fire departments.
You know how much it would costto stand up a fire department.
Chris Wolff (28:06):
You know how much more debt you know and taxes
we'd all be paying.
Wayne Dolcefino (28:10):
Yeah, and insurance rates would go up in
the meantime because their firetrucks aren't waiting around the
corner and ambulances areexpensive.
I just think really the oldexpression is the right
expression Don't cut off yournose to spot your face.
Chris Wolff (28:23):
And I think you know all of this is coming from
a pretty small group.
You know Fluvial Residents forResponsible Taxation.
Did you look at that group atall?
Wayne Dolcefino (28:33):
Look, I think the group, I think the citizens
I've talked to mean, well, okay,they don't like paying higher
taxes, they don't like all thesedifferent government entities
charging them taxes, right,they'd rather have one tax bill.
You know, like, I have a housein Dripping Springs and they
have like Pernell's Electric,whatever they are, and they do
everything.
You got to use them, you'restuck.
(28:53):
You got to use your own energycompany, you got to use them.
It's like the mob, right, yougot to use that company and it's
all.
But they do everything, right.
So, okay, I pay one guy thatdoes all this stuff.
So I understand those desires.
But you look behind these fewpeople and it is just a few
people and you say, well, who'sfunding this?
(29:15):
Really like well-financedcampaign against the fire
department.
And you find these developersright.
And look, I am not a huge fan ofdevelopers because they don't
do virtually anything justbecause you know motherhood and
apple pie.
Okay, developers do thingsbecause there's a play for them.
I'm sorry, they just do.
(29:35):
And I'm sure there aretaxpayers too, and I don't mean
to insult them or their families, but I ain't stupid, okay, and
I know what they do.
I ain't stupid, okay, and Iknow what they do no-transcript
(30:07):
neighborhoods that they want todevelop.
That's where the best stuffgoes, right?
Maybe people who lived inPflugerville for 20 years live
in an older neighborhood, oldersubdivision, and they're going
to get left out because theseguys are building master plan
other communities, right withthe explosion and stuff.
I've tried to talk to both ofthem.
(30:29):
Look, developers are shy, asyou know, right?
So I've called these twodevelopers, timmerman and
Tiemann.
Timmerman and his family andcompany has like 42 grand in
this thing and Tiemann has like80 something thousand in it
81,000, I think that's 120something thousand dollars out
(30:50):
of the 135,000 dollars that'sbeen spent.
Okay, so like 90% of the moneycame from these two folk.
Okay, I called them and I wasall ready to hear their give me,
give me this, give me the spin,give me the story, tell me what
the deal is Right, because Ialways already here there.
Chris Wolff (31:05):
Give me, give me this, give me the spin give me
the story, tell me what the dealis right, because I always call
everybody right.
You got your chance.
Tell us what's going.
Wayne Dolcefino (31:09):
A lot of people don't call me back, but I
call them, right?
Neither one of them call meback, and so I say that's
interesting, maybe they're justa little camera shy, but I want
to talk to them over the phone.
They wouldn't talk.
I think it's incumbent upon thecitizens to say I want to hear
from them, right, not melodyryan, who's running for council,
(31:30):
not anthony winn I want.
Chris Wolff (31:33):
Without this money it would just be 20 people
complaining about taxes in aroom I mean it'd be a facebook
group and I'm not.
Wayne Dolcefino (31:41):
I'm not saying they don't mean.
Well, I think they are confusedby all the different taxes.
Right, but the system that wasset up was set up to have
different taxes because as longas the ESD is capped and they
can't float a bond, right, theycan't decide to close a fire
station tomorrow.
(32:01):
Hey, we're just going to closea fire station.
You folks on the east side, Iknow we opened it last year, but
I'm sorry, we can't do it, theycan't do that.
So their funding mechanism,right, is a certain cap on
property taxes.
That's it.
So, unless you want a firedepartment in Pflugerville that
has like one truck and a dude ina pickup truck throwing water
(32:24):
off the side, you have to keepup with the explosion of growth
and for the demand.
Chris Wolff (32:30):
And I think that sales tax revenue is a pretty
elegant way to do that.
You don't know where that moneyis going.
You don't feel that when youpay your escrow.
Wayne Dolcefino (32:39):
Yeah, and look , I don't really take a position
on which way they should do it.
Property taxes.
I just assume pay one thing andbe done with it.
That's just me and maybe theyshould revisit the legislature
the cap on the ESD taxes.
Chris Wolff (32:55):
Well, as much as the state is growing, you're
probably right.
Wayne Dolcefino (32:59):
I will say this, though when Pflugerville
approved the sales tax increasein 2014, right, I do think the
people that I've interviewedMelanie and Anthony just are
wrong about what that ballotmeasure said.
People say, oh, that was forambulance service, we should
have a refund on that money andlook what.
(33:22):
What the ESD2 did is.
What fire departments acrossthe country are doing, and
probably in other places too, issay, look, we believe in first
responders, right?
So if the fire truck gets therefirst, do you really want a
whole fire truck full of peoplewho say to the guy who's having
(33:44):
the heart attack on the ground,right there, he's, like you know
, gasping for air?
And they say, darn, I don'treally know what to do.
I'm the hose guy, right, Icarry the hose and I spray the
water, right, and the other dudeknows how to climb the ladder,
right.
That's where we're fired.
We're fire guys, right, andwe'll just have to wait another
(34:05):
five or 10 minutes for theambulance to get here.
So the thought was and it wassmart actually let's make as
many firefighters as paramedicsas we can so that when they get
there first which they often dobecause the fire station may be
closer the ambulance is not inthe fire station sometimes, so
we can start working on theheart attack guy and save your
(34:27):
husband or your father.
Do you really want to risk thatfive or six minutes?
So that's what that electionwas all about and that's why you
have training academies.
That's why you makefirefighters paramedics, so they
have the medical training to dostuff the right way.
And I've seen what I call theblack book of screw-ups.
(34:50):
That allegiance has done thatthe fire department sort of
maintained over the last year,whatever it was.
And I've got to tell you, ifthat was my mama and I knew they
made those mistakes I'd bepissed off and I just think this
is the wrong enemy.
I mean, if you're mad at thecounty commissioner, go to
(35:12):
commissioner's court andcomplain to him.
If you want to see ESDs elected, call your state representative
.
But to defund and I do think itis defunding.
Call it what you want.
I know they don't like thatterm.
Chris Wolff (35:24):
If you look at the dictionary, it's defunding right
.
Wayne Dolcefino (35:28):
It's defunding , it's taking away money that
would be core to their mission.
Fire departments are all aboutlabor and trucks, labor and
equipment.
That's the vast majority oftheir budget, and so if you cut
into 40% into someone's budget,you're cutting into people.
(35:48):
I don't care how many people,whether it's 50 people or 80
people or 30 people, whatever itis, you're cutting into people.
If you get rid of firefighters,you want to maintain trucks.
You've got to start thinkingabout closing fire stations, or
maybe closing them at 6 o'clock.
How about that?
Why don't we have fire stationsin Pflugerville?
Chris Wolff (36:07):
That's how they used to do it back in the day
Open until 6 pm and then after6,.
Wayne Dolcefino (36:11):
If there's a fire at your house, you're
screwed.
Yep, how about that?
Chris Wolff (36:14):
Wait, there'll be a company coming from across town
.
So, wayne, let me ask you, didyou get into, like I know you
used tried to get in with thecity manager and talk to the
staff?
Wayne Dolcefino (36:25):
Now the city manager interesting Never has
returned a phone call, rightNever.
And I think the city managerhas some explaining to do about
this.
Look, if there is another death, well one's enough, right,
Right, but this is a tickingtime bomb with these private
ambulance companies.
(36:45):
If the city doesn't have a realcontrol over their training, a
real documentation of whatthey're responding to and why it
was late, we may not even knowthat another john samarigo
hasn't already happened.
We may not know that the?
Chris Wolff (37:01):
yeah, we don't know .
I could tell you stories, wayne.
Wayne Dolcefino (37:04):
Yeah, but you're right, we don't know that
, yeah, right I mean, if lynnsamarigo wouldn't, you know
lowering up and doing all thatkind of stuff, then we may not
know how many people were in thehospital longer or suffered
longer because the wrongmedicine was putting them in at
the beginning.
Right, these are everydaydecisions.
Right now, somebody listeningto us may be interrupted by a
(37:26):
family member gasping for air,and they need emergency care.
Chris Wolff (37:30):
I want the best trained people I can get and and
I've said this on this showbefore Wayne, I've got nothing
against Allegiance as far as thefor-profit.
They were way better thanAcadian was.
But there's just such adifference between having a crew
that's managed by an officer ina firehouse that trains fire
two hours a day, trains medicaltwo hours a day.
It's night and day differencewhat you get.
Wayne Dolcefino (37:52):
Yeah, I would prefer having my ambulances
dispatched by my fire department.
And if they say they need theextra money to do it, that's not
a hill, I want to die on right.
If they say they want a bunchof tax money, raise sales taxes
so they can have like apickleball court, sure, I was in
a city the other day where theywanted to spend $1.2 million in
(38:14):
a small little town of like 500people for a pickleball court
and I was going like, really,are you nuts Right Now, that's
something to fight about.
This vote should go down justfor that reason alone.
If that's what they say isneeded to do it the right way,
then I say do it the right way.
Chris Wolff (38:36):
Wayne, I personally can't wait for the voters.
You know come early voting andcome November 5th, because I'm
really hoping that what we do iswe get just a landslide of
Fleurville residents that, atthe end of the day, support
their first responders and wecan see that.
Wayne Dolcefino (38:51):
Look, I do worry.
I do worry that people get allexcited about the idea of
reducing tax, okay, but they'renot reducing it.
They're simply moving it overto city council with no
guarantee that they're going touse it.
They may decide to use it foreconomic development and cut
deals with those developersRight, they may do that.
(39:13):
And then what happens then?
Then you're now stuck with witha worse fire department and
still a private ambulanceservice that has some questions
that need to be answered.
So this isn't taking away taxmoney, folks.
This is just saying, instead ofjohn collecting it, we're going
to give it to Kelsey Jean, okay, and with Kelsey Jean, she's
(39:36):
not even promising us she'sgoing to use it for that, right,
and Kelsey Jean doesn't havenear the equipment and other
stuff that the other guy has Iforgot his name.
Whatever analogy.
Chris Wolff (39:46):
I was drawing, I think we started with John, with
John Right.
Wayne Dolcefino (39:49):
So whatever John had Right, john may have 20
different trucks to do it andI've got nothing.
Kelsey Jean's got nothing, butwe're going to go ahead and give
her the tax money.
It doesn't make any sense, froma pure investment standpoint,
of what you've already put inthrough this ESD-2.
If this was 30 years ago andthe ESD-2 had just started, I
(40:10):
would have said, okay, make amove, but the amount of money it
will cost to go down the road,these, yes, folks want to go
down and a shakedown is what Ithink they're really after.
I don't think people should beplaying shakedown with public
safety.
I don't think you should put aprice tag on public safety and I
(40:31):
certainly don't think youshould threaten the fire
department to do more for less.
I just don't.
Chris Wolff (40:38):
Well, wayne, I know you're a busy guy.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show.
I love your videos.
We're going to link both ofthem in the show notes and we
sure appreciate everything youdo, because I don't know that
this topic would have gotten thecoverage had you not
investigated it.
Wayne Dolcefino (40:54):
Well, look, I hope our videos help educate
people.
There's some history in there,there's some context in there
and I think when they look atall the facts, they're going to
know what the.
I didn't say in the video whatpeople should do, but I think
people get the hint.
All right, it was a pretty welltelegraphed hint, but I think
they should get the hint what Iwould do and I would vote no.
Chris Wolff (41:17):
Well, thank you so much, Wayne.
Appreciate you, sure.
So that's our show for thisweek.
I hope you all enjoyed it.
Man, another great interview inthe can.
Really happy that how this showhas progressed and I want to
let you know we're actually kindof starting to wrap it up over
here at Pflugerville on fire.
We're just a couple of weeksout from the election.
(41:38):
Early voting is right aroundthe corner, but don't leave,
because stay tuned.
We've got more great guestscoming up next week and the week
after that.
At the beginning of the episodeI promised that we were going to
answer a fan question, and sowe submitted that to Jessica.
The question was hey, if youguys are successful in defending
(42:02):
the sales tax revenue for thefire department not defunding
the fire department, but youalready raised property taxes
what are you then going to dowith the leftover money?
So we sent that to Jessica, andJessica you know she's quite a
professional she hedged.
Ultimately, it's up to theboard to decide.
What the staff is going torecommend they do is what they
(42:24):
always do.
If they have a surplus at theend of the year, they put that
into the next year's budget andthey draw down from that money
before they, you know, calculatethe new property tax rate.
So that's to say that if youknow, we defend the fire
department's income and they endup with a surplus because they
(42:45):
raised property taxes, they'regoing to recommend hey, let's
take the surplus and not messwith people's property taxes
after that.
So a big topic of debate, onethat I'll give a shout out to
Council Member David Rogers he'salways hitting me up on is you
guys are going to make a ton ofsales tax revenue.
And Jessica says we're notgoing to make a ton of sales tax
(43:08):
revenue.
So I'm a patient dude, let'ssee what happens, let's see
who's right about where theycome out at.
Jessica is more conservative inher estimation, so she kind of
hedges when, in her answer tothis, she said we're not really
expecting a lot of change in thesales tax revenue amount.
So we'll see.
The state of Texas, that my myproducer, lovely and talented
(43:31):
Lacey Wolf, works for the stateof Texas, that my producer,
lovely and talented Lacey Wolf,works for the state.
So it'd be interesting to see.
I'm no expert, so I like tolisten to people, I like to get
all the facts.
I like to then make my ownopinion, and luckily I don't
have to make an opinion on thisuntil sales tax out next year
and then I'll have a good ideawho I should be listening to
(43:52):
when it comes to forecastingthese things.
So I hope that answers thequestion.
I hope you enjoyed the episode.
I'm so happy to have all theselisteners tuning in and stay
tuned, because we've got anothergreat one coming up next week.
I'm excited to bring it to you.
Thank you so much to all of ourfans here at Pflugerville on
Fire and hopefully, if you stillhave questions about the
(44:15):
election, hopefully they've beenanswered by now.
Get your neighbors talk to yourfriends, get them to like,
subscribe and share the showPflugerville on Fire.
See you next week.
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