Second phase of fire agency reorganization plan sent to LAFCO County fire agency to use Lakeside FPD for prevention resources

Two 5-0 votes by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors Jan. 25 continued the county’s efforts towards a more coordinated fire and emergency medical services system.

One action initiated the second step of the fire department reorganization plan in unincorporated San Diego County, sending the proposed consolidation of five County Service Areas with the existing county agency to the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). The other action authorizes a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the San Diego County Regional Fire Authority and the Lakeside Fire Protection District to share plan review, inspection, and other related services.

“It’s making the county a whole lot safer,” said County Supervisor Bill Horn.

The County Service Areas providing fire protection to Palomar Mountain, San Pasqual, Mount Laguna, Boulevard, and Campo will be merged with the existing zone of County Service Area No. 135 which currently includes territory previously served only by six volunteer fire departments. LAFCO, which is responsible for jurisdictional changes, will hold a hearing on dissolving the County Service Areas and expanding latent powers for fire protection and emergency medical services within that area of CSA No. 135. County Service Area No. 135, the San Diego County Regional Communications System, was formed in 1994 to provide the authority and financial framework to implement the 800-megahertz radio communications system used for public safety and other public service.

“Real honored to be part of it and see the board move forward with the next phase of this plan,” said county fire chief Howard Windsor.

The plan to reorganize fire protection agencies in unincorporated San Diego County is being performed in a phased approach. The Board of Supervisors gave LAFCO the approval to initiate a change in February 2005. 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 but not by a public agency is legally considered an unserved area), but 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 would be the most beneficial option. In August 2005 the LAFCO board approved that proposal.

The determination of agencies to be included in Phase I changed during subsequent hearings, and in June 2008 the county supervisors approved a hybrid plan dividing Phase I into three stages. The first stage brought 943,876 acres of unserved territory into the new agency, although volunteer fire departments retained their autonomy and began working together with the paid firefighters covering those areas. The area covered by the DeLuz, Intermountain, Ocotillo Wells, Ranchita, Shelter Valley, and Sunshine Summit volunteer fire departments became a zone of County Service Area No. 135, and the latent powers of that zone of CSA No. 135 were expanded to include fire protection and emergency medical services.

Stage Two of Phase I was to merge the County Service Areas providing fire protection. County Service Areas are dependent special districts, meaning that they have an advisory board but that the San Diego County Board of Supervisors is the actual governing board for the CSA. Two of the CSAs dedicated to fire protection and emergency medical service were not included in Stage Two; the CSA serving Elfin Forest is served through a contract with the Elfin Forest Volunteer Fire Company and annexation discussions are ongoing with neighboring fire agencies, and a contract with the City of Santee provides service to the CSA which was created when the Santee Fire Protection District was replaced by the City of Santee’s Fire Department and a mechanism was needed to provide service to the dissolved district’s area outside the city limits.

Subzones will be created so that the benefit assessment fees currently collected within the Palomar Mountain, San Pasqual, and Mount Laguna areas will be spent solely within those areas.

“We believe this action will continue to improve fire and emergency medical services,” said county fire services coordinator Ken Miller.

Stage Three of Phase I is expected to be implemented in 2012 and will include independent fire protection districts. The San Diego Rural Fire Protection District and the Pine Valley Fire Protection District are slated for Stage Three, and the Julian-Cuyamaca Fire Protection District has expressed potential interest in being included.

The total area in the Phase I plan exceeds 1,400,000 square miles, or approximately two-thirds of the county’s unincorporated area.

“This is a step-by-step approach,” said Supervisor Pam Slater-Price.

“The Stage Two merger shows we’re on track,” said Supervisor Dianne Jacob. “We’re making great strides towards the eventual goal of a regional joint powers authority.”

In addition to the jurisdictional consolidation, the county has been exploring functional consolidation options for dispatch, training, incident command, and other activities. In April 2009 the county supervisors authorized a regional deployment study to assess the delivery of fire and emergency medical services throughout the county, and the study was presented to the Board of Supervisors in May 2010. The supervisors accepted the report and directed the county’s Chief Administrative Officer to develop an implementation plan. On September 14 the county supervisors implemented portions of that plan, including the authorization for county staff to begin discussions with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and with regional fire protection agencies to form a joint powers authority (JPA) for various fire protection services. The JPA would address administration, management, and operational issues such as emergency management, weed abatement, equipment maintenance, training, communications and technology, fire code consolidation and enforcement, and other fire protection issues.

Although a JPA would have its own board, a memorandum of understanding between two public agencies does not require a JPA. The San Diego County Regional Fire Authority and the Lakeside Fire Protection District agreed to share and exchange plan review, inspection, and other related services in order to save costs, share expertise, and decrease customer processing time. The county agency is working with other fire departments throughout the region to identify additional opportunities to share resources.

“We are finding a model that works that we can afford,” said Supervisor Ron Roberts.

“San Diego County has entered into a new era in fire protection,” said Ray Fernandez, the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for the county’s Public Safety Group. “We’re more prepared than ever.”

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