If there was any doubt ...

DANETTE GOULET

Each week I receive various e-mails and phone calls about my column

-- some people love it, others not so much. That’s to be expected and

I appreciate the response either way.

Once in a while, the unfortunate subject calls to discuss my views

and set me straight.

This week I received one such e-mail, the irony of which is so

great I can’t bring myself to regret the error.

In case anyone doubted how difficult to read the city’s new fee

schedule really is, let me provide the perfect example.

As I explained last week, the city provided the council with

multiple lists of city fees -- old and new, proposed and actual. The

council, and interested public presumably, was expected to decipher

these lists and understand what the new fees are that will bring in

an additional $2.6 million in revenue in 2003-04.

In preparing my column last week, I looked over the those lists. I

reported a figure from one list that contains three categories. Under

the first column, “fee description,” it reads Fire Truck Company

Response. Under the second column, “fee amount,” it states $269 per

hour. The third column, “comments,” is blank.

So, just because a fee is on the list does mean it is charged.

(Makes perfect sense, right?) Of course, why there are fees listed

that are not charged I haven’t the faintest idea.

Fire Chief Duane Olsen wrote to me this week and asked that I

clear up this matter. Residents are not charged for emergency fire

responses “and for residents to think so could be detrimental to

public safety,” he wrote.

He is absolutely correct, and I hope no one really thinks I will

be putting out my own fires. I have the utmost respect and admiration

for firefighters and know they are far better equipped to handle

their job than I am.

I’m not so sure I could say that about everyone.

Despite this list of fees Olsen assured me, “The hourly fees

currently charged for fire engine and fire truck responses are for

illegal discharge of hazardous materials, responses to DUI incidents

and special events that require an engine company to stand by.”

And those fees are based on the unit that responds as it pays for

personnel and apparatus used.

I asked Olsen to further clarify any fees actually charged to

residents, such as for medical responses, but I guess he’s busy

putting out fires.

Whether residents are charged any of the other “fees” on this list

is anyone’s guess. But I guess that’s the point.

* DANETTE GOULET is the city editor. She can be reached at (714)

965-7170 or by e-mail at danette.goulet@latimes.com.