First phase of fire
reorganization plan approved
By Joe
Naiman
The Alpine Sun
SAN DIEGO COUNTY — San Diego County’s Local Agency Formation
Commission approved the reorganization of territory not served
by a public fire department into the San Diego County Regional
Fire Authority.
A unanimous LAFCO board vote Oct. 6 approved the
initial reorganization of approximately 942,000 acres into the
regional fire department, authorized latent powers for
structural fire protection and emergency medical services within
service-specific zones of an existing County Service Area,
adopted a sphere of influence for the latent powers zone of
County Service Area No. 135, and directed LAFCO staff and/or
consultants to initiate a Municipal Service Review of structural
fire protection and emergency medical services within the
unincorporated portion of the county.
“I certainly think that this is the first step,” said
Board of Supervisors chairman Greg Cox, who is also an alternate
commissioner on the LAFCO board. “It will provide the service to
those areas which do not have fire service right now.”
The LAFCO legal process for the reorganization began in
February 2005 with approval from the Board of Supervisors to
initiate a change. The original proposal was to consolidate all
28 fire protection agencies in the county’s unincorporated area
along with the unserved areas (territory served by a volunteer
fire department).
The San Diego County Fire Chiefs Association and the
San Diego County Fire Districts Association submitted a proposal
to divide the reorganization into two phases, incorporating 17
of the agencies and the unserved territory in Phase I to provide
service to the unserved and most underserved areas while
evaluating the remaining agencies in Phase II to determine
whether or not consolidation is the most beneficial option.
The studies were not affected by the Board of
Supervisors’ decisions in September 2005 and June 2006 to
provide $8.5 million for contracts with the California
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to augment service in
areas not adequately protected. The county supervisors have also
committed $200,000 in Community Development Block Grants each
year for needs of the fire service and an additional $200,000,
derived from the savings of refinancing the county’s Otay
prison, into a trust fund for fire agencies.
The initial Phase I agencies included four municipal
water districts which also provide fire protection and emergency
medical services. The study determined, however, that under
state law the removal of individual powers from multipurpose
districts is not authorized.
Seven additional agencies sought to be excluded from
reorganization or deferred to Phase II. All seven of those
agencies have voter-approved assessments and meet the
substantially similar proposal’s service levels.
In May 2007 LAFCO voted 6-1 to approve consolidating
six fire agencies and the unserved area for Phase I and to
authorize latent powers for fire protection and emergency
medical services within a zone of the county’s special district
covering regional communications.
The six agencies which were to be consolidated in Phase
I were the East County, Pine Valley, and San Diego Rural fire
protection districts and the County Service Areas serving
Boulevard, Campo, and Mount Laguna. The East County Fire
Protection District has since merged with the San Miguel
Consolidated Fire Protection District, which will be considered
for inclusion in the county agency in Phase II.
The May 2007 LAFCO approval also called for the
inclusion of 943,876 acres of unserved territory into the new
agency, although volunteer fire departments would retain their
autonomy and are expected to work together with the paid
firefighters covering those areas. The total area in the Phase I
plan exceeds 1,400,000 square miles, or approximately two-thirds
of the county’s unincorporated area.
The consolidation, however, was conditioned upon a
secure funding source. The most recent cost estimates determined
a total annual cost of $23.8 million for Advanced Life Support
service (the withdrawal of the East County Fire Protection
District from the proposal reduced the previous estimate of
$26.5 million). The figures do not include approximately $37
million in capital costs, mostly for station upgrades.
The reorganization places six fire stations into the
regional authority, each of which will be staffed by two reserve
firefighters and one volunteer or reserve firefighter, and the
territory also includes four CalFire stations.
County Service Areas must be formally dissolved before
being incorporated into the regional department. The County
Service Areas would be merged with the fire authority in Step
II, which would likely be implemented in 2010 or 2011.
Each of the fire stations would be staffed by two reserve
firefighters and one volunteer or reserve firefighter.
The two fire protection districts, which must also
undergo the dissolution process, would be reorganized in Step
III, likely by 2011 or 2012. Each of the stations would be
staffed by two career firefighters and one volunteer or reserve
firefighter.
An additional 18 CalFire stations would consist of
three career firefighters.
Because Phase I was divided into the three steps, some
fire agencies which were reluctant to be part of an unproven
regional district have expressed interest in being considered
for the later steps of Phase I rather than Phase II, although
Board of Supervisors approval would be needed to add those
agencies to the reorganization sub-phases. The agencies include
the County Service Area, which serves Palomar Mountain and the
Julian-Cuyamaca Fire Protection District.
The LAFCO hearing also included discussion about
unincorporated islands surrounded by incorporated cities or by
an incorporated city and a Phase II fire agency. The LAFCO
motion directed staff to return to the board with information
from cities and fire districts determining their interest in
annexing such areas.
“Those islands have been there for a long, long time,
and they’ve been served by whomever for a long, long time,” said
Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who didn’t wish to see the issue of the
islands delay the activation of latent powers for the rest of
the unserved territory.
Discussion also involved properties in Alpine and Otay
Mesa for which separate annexation proceedings are being
considered. The islands surrounded by the Alpine Fire Protection
District will not be part of Phase I, although annexation to the
Alpine fire agency is under consideration.
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