A recent, but long overdue, external audit has discovered $6.2 million in a county bank account that the financially strapped East Contra Costa Fire District should have received as savings from staff reductions and fire station closures over the past three years.
The revelation, coming after years of station closures, deep budget cuts and failed ballot measures to raise revenue, drew a strong response from state Assemblyman Jim Frazier, D-Oakley, who had been seeking to pass a bill in the Legislature to help the district stay afloat.