PD Editorial: An urgent call for help from Bodega Bay’s fire department

If you need to dial 911, you want help right away.

In Bodega Bay, the fire department is dialing 911 — and that should be alarming to anyone who visits the Sonoma Coast.

Bodega Bay firefighters and paramedics handle about 750 calls each year for medical emergencies, vehicle collisions, on- and offshore rescues and ambulance rides to hospitals in Santa Rosa.

Yet the Bodega Bay Fire Protection District is teetering on insolvency and could soon be unable to respond to emergency calls, leaving people to wait for help to arrive from Occidental or Guerneville or another distant fire department.

Sonoma County supervisors cannot allow that to happen.

This isn’t a legal obligation — the fire district is an independent agency — but public safety is government’s primary responsibility, and many of the people dialing 911 are Sonoma County residents on daytrips to the coast. Besides, the county is in the best position to provide bridge funding to maintain emergency service at the coast pending a permanent fix.

The “fix” is adding Bodega Bay to the Sonoma County Fire Protection District, a consolidation favored by both districts.

Before that can happen, Bodega Bay fire must raise its staffing to the national standard and match salaries paid in the Sonoma County fire district. With a structural deficit approaching $1 million a year, Bodega Bay can’t add staff or raise salaries. Soon it won’t be able to answer every 911 call either without an infusion of cash.

This fiscal crisis isn’t a product of mismanagement or residents refusing to pay for emergency services. Indeed, the $524 a year levy paid by Bodega Bay fire district residents is believed to be the largest parcel tax in the state.

Because the district was formed after Proposition 13, it gets back only $310,000 of the $10 million in property taxes collected within its boundaries — a third of the average return for Sonoma County fire districts. Moreover, two-thirds of the district isn’t on the tax roll. Much of that land is state and county parks and beaches, which rely on Bodega Bay firefighters to handle 911 calls but pay nothing for the service.

Most of California’s coastal “destinations” are served by city or county fire departments with layers of resources. Bodega Bay has one ambulance, and when it heads to a hospital, there is no backup nearby.

The fire district has scraped by for years, but its reserves are exhausted, and employees are bailing out for more secure jobs.

In March, west county voters rejected a proposal to raise hotel taxes and split the revenue between schools and the Bodega Bay fire district. It was a poorly crafted proposal that placed too large a burden on out-of-towners and threatened tourism-related businesses already reeling from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

There are better options. For instance, the county could divert a portion of existing hotel taxes to the fire district, while expanding the business improvement area to backfill destination marking groups.

The county could add $1 to the day-use fee at coastal parks to subsidize emergency services.

The state should chip in, too. That’s been a nonstarter elsewhere. Ask the Rancho Adobe Fire District, which answers 911 calls at Sonoma State University. If the state doesn’t provide emergency services on its land, it should compensate local first response agencies.

Consolidation would provide some relief from the fire district’s parcel tax while ensuring a higher level of service for residents and anyone visiting the coast, tourists and day-trippers alike. But it will only happen if the county answers the urgent call for help from the Bodega Bay Fire Protection District.

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