Legal fight ramps up in Mendocino County over tax funding to support fire districts

A proposed Mendocino County ballot measure aimed at beefing up funding for struggling rural fire districts has yet to be officially named or circulated for signatures but it’s already mired in an escalating legal battle that has stymied its progress.

The proposal, spearheaded by officials representing four rural fire districts, would require that county supervisors consider giving the county’s nearly two dozen fire districts a 30 percent share of a half-cent public safety tax approved by California voters in 1993.

If passed, the measure would reverse a long-standing arrangement in Mendocino County, where supervisors, after Proposition 172 was approved, decided to exclude fire districts from the funding source, which last year generated more than $7 million. The funding currently is divided among the Sheriff Office, District Attorney’s Office, jail and probation department.

The fire officials behind the proposal, who serve in leadership roles for districts in Hopland, Brooktrails, Comptche and Mendocino, say that arrangement is unfair and that Proposition 172 funds were meant in part to support rural fire districts, though many statewide - including those in Sonoma County - later were carved out the picture.

Proponents are hoping to have the measure placed on the ballot for next November, when the Lake County wildfires this past summer still will be in recent memory.

But the attempt to revise the funding arrangement has raised hackles among Mendocino County leaders. Acting County Counsel Katharine Elliott sued the proponents last week to halt the measure, contending it unlawfully infringes on elected officials’ decision-making authority.

“The proposed initiative is unconstitutional and impermissibly attempts to legislate regarding discretionary administrative and executive functions of constitutionally elected state officers, and is therefore beyond the power of the electorate to approve,” the Dec. 15 lawsuit states. Letting the measure go to a vote  would result in a waste of taxpayer dollars, the suit contends.

On Tuesday, Mendocino County Judge Jeanine Nadel, a former county counsel herself, granted Elliott a temporary court order relieving her of an obligation to prepare the ballot title and summary for the proposed measure until the issues can be considered in more detail at hearing scheduled for Jan. 22.

In response to Elliott’s lawsuit, at least one proponent of the ballot measure plans to file a federal lawsuit, alleging the county lawsuit has violated constitutional rights to free speech and to petition the government, said Christopher Neary, attorney for proponents of the ballot measure.

“It’s a sort of prior restraint on free speech,” he said.

Neary said the lawsuit erroneously claims the measure dictates that supervisors give the fire districts at least 30 percent of the public safety tax revenue. The measure merely requires that the county consider funding the fire districts and to hold public hearings if they decide not to do so, he said.

If the attempt to quash the measure before it gets off the ground is successful, then the county would effectively have used government power to stop people from exercising their rights, Neary said.

It’s not the first time a proposed initiative has been aborted through court action and it’s a good thing in cases where a proposal is obviously unconstitutional, Neary said. The firefighters’ measure is not such a case, he said.

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors did not take part in the decision to sue over the proposed ballot measure, according to Supervisor John McCowen, who said that in this particular case Elliot did not need board sanction to act. McCowen added that he believes the case has merit.

“It just makes sense we would settle this question before everyone votes on it,” he said.

He said he does not believe Elliot’s legal challenge infringes on the ballot measure proponents’ rights.

“This is not a free speech issue. The proponents can say anything they want,” McCowen said. “They can bring forward any petition they want.”

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MendoReporter.