I urge fellow residents to be skeptical of our City Council’s motives for questioning the value of the services provided by our county fire department.

It’s had the smell of a witch hunt from the beginning, and I fear the main effort is to shift millions of dollars of public spending to the direct control of the council and could be subject to ever deeper graft, waste and corruption.

We live in an extremely dangerous fire zone but thankfully have an efficient integrated regional fire department that has saved us from San Diego-type wildfire disasters several times.

Fire protection in our area is a regional issue and doesn’t just stop at the city’s boundaries, so the council’s bean counting seems misplaced, and I have to wonder what’s really behind it. William Prat Newbury Park