Fire officials push Sonoma County supervisors for funding

Officials in charge of more than a half-dozen agencies providing fire protection in rural and urban parts of Sonoma County made a pitch to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday for a total of $3.5 million in new funding, an allocation they said was overdue after years of county underfunding of fire services.

The pitch came six days before supervisors are set to begin their budget deliberations for the 2015-16 fiscal year. The lobbying effort was a more cohesive and direct push by fire chiefs and administrators for additional funding, after years of requests by individual agencies, including the county’s own department, which has a firefighting force made up of volunteers.

Bodega Bay Fire Chief Sean Grinnell, whose department has been one of the few to receive some extra county funding in recent years, said getting the topic onto the agenda for next week’s budget hearing was a step forward.

“I like the idea at least they’re considering putting money aside,” Grinnell said.

The county currently pays no general fund money toward fire services, which are provided by a network of 41 agencies, including volunteer companies, independent districts and city departments. Almost all face escalating costs - for personnel, training and equipment - that threaten to outstrip their funding, drawn from a combination of tax revenue, grants and, for the volunteer companies especially, fundraisers.

Previous requests by fire officials for a share of county general fund money have been rebuffed. This year’s campaign comes at a potentially pivotal point for rural agencies, who have stepped up the call on the county to offer a vision for the future of rural fire services.

Tuesday’s pitch included a request from chiefs of the independent districts in the county for up to $1.8 million to cover dispatch costs and tax revenue losses. A county-formed advisory panel composed of rural and urban fire officials also asked the Board of Supervisors for up to $1.7 million to cover potential tax revenue losses stemming from proposed territorial annexations by some agencies.

Supervisors did not pledge to fund the requests, but some of their comments heartened fire chiefs in the audience.

“I think they were listening. I felt pretty good,” said Gold Ridge Fire Chief Dan George, who helped make the $1.8 million funding request on behalf of the chiefs overseeing 20 independent districts.

Supervisor Shirlee Zane, whose mostly urban district includes a smaller number of fire agencies, said she was greatly troubled about the county’s funding of fire services.

“We haven’t kept up with the needs in our rural communities,” she said, adding that the county had to provide more financial stability for the fire departments.

In the least populated pockets of the county, those departments are comprised of 15 volunteer companies overseen by the county’s largely administrative Department of Fire and Emergency Services. It uses property taxes and grants to cover the majority of expenses, including storage and equipment costs, but the companies depend in large part on pancake breakfasts and numerous other fundraisers to fill out their budgets.

“We’ve got a great deal for a long time,” Supervisor David Rabbitt said of the services provided for the money spent. He suggested the county will need to add some amount of money for rural fire protection.

Some of the fire officials on hand Tuesday oversee districts or city departments that cover a majority of the county’s population, including Santa Rosa and its outskirts.

County Administrator Veronica Ferguson said the issue would be part of next week’s budget discussions. But she stopped short of saying she would recommend supervisors put more money into fire services next year. In previous comments to fire district leaders this year, she said no money should be spent until an ongoing county fire services study is completed next year. That study is expected to result in recommendations on the county’s future structure and funding needs of its fire services.

Ferguson said the staff recommendation for the budget discussion would be completed later this week.

Ernie Loveless, president of the association representing the independent districts in the county, urged supervisors to approve the $1.8 million funding request and not tie financial support to the county study, which he fears could be delayed. The money is needed now, he said.

“My intent now is to pay close attention and to appear before the board on their budget hearing on this issue so it doesn’t get dropped,” Loveless said after the meeting.

Loveless and George had told the board the $1.8 million would cover the annual cost of dispatching fees paid by the 41 agencies - which this year was about $750,000 - and tax money lost to the agencies about 20 years ago in a statewide shift of some revenue to education and law enforcement. This fiscal year, the forgone funds amounted to $1.1 million.

“We’d like that back from the county,” Loveless said.

The request for $1.7 million came from a 70-member advisory panel of chiefs and fire officials working on the countywide fire services study.

The money would offset preliminary estimates of what the county could lose should annexation proposals in the works by Sea Ranch, Geyserville and Schell-Vista fire agencies move forward.

Those agencies provide service in areas they seek to annex. Such moves would potentially shift property tax money to the expanding agencies and away from the county coffers that support volunteer companies.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rossmannreport.