REGION: Supervisors set to put parcel tax on ballot

Measure would raise $50 million for firefighting

By EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer | Tuesday, August 5, 2008 6:13 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- A proposed tax to pay for a new regional fire agency could be headed to the ballot in November if the county Board of Supervisors approves the plan on Wednesday.

The proposal would set up the framework for firefighting in the region by creating a joint powers authority that would be funded by the $52-per-parcel tax.

At their meeting Tuesday, the supervisors unanimously approved changes to the language of the measure, including the makeup of the agency's governing board.

Attorneys for the county will make those changes to the document before the supervisors vote on it Wednesday.

"The countywide authority has been talked about for years, and I think it's time to move beyond discussion and actually implement it," said San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, who attended the supervisors' meeting on Tuesday and spoke in support of the plan.

Sanders and Supervisor Ron Roberts headed the Regional Fire Protection Committee, which developed the proposal.

If approved by two-thirds of the county's voters, the parcel tax is expected to generate about $50 million a year.

The revenues would be evenly divided between the communities that generate the money and the regional authority, which would use its share to buy equipment and buy or lease firefighting aircraft. But the plan does not specifically name what equipment would be purchased.

Supporters say those kinds of decisions would be left to the authority's governing board.

The supervisors appeared to have overcome their differences over the proposal, which generated a heated debate at their July 22 meeting.

At that meeting, Roberts said he wanted the governing board to include representatives of all 18 cities and the county. Supervisor Dianne Jacob proposed an 11-member board giving four seats to rural fire agencies.

On Tuesday, the supervisors approved a "hybrid" plan that would create a 10-member board, with one representative from the county, one from the city of San Diego, four from the other cities in the county and four from the fire districts.

Other changes to the plan included:

-- An annual increase to the parcel tax that would be tied to the cost of living index;

-- Adding five nonvoting members of the governing board who would represent American Indian tribes, the Navy, the Marines, the U.S. Forest Service and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection;

-- A requirement that the four cities on the governing board should come from four different areas: North County coastal, North County inland, East County and South County.

Several people spoke against the plan during the meeting, including members of a group led by former San Diego Fire Chief Jeff Bowman of Escondido.

The group, called the San Diego Regional Fire Safety Forum, says the $50 million that would be generated by the parcel tax is not enough and the plan lacks a guarantee that more professional firefighters would be hired.

"It does not seem to have any measurable goals," said Rick Fisher, president of the Carlsbad Firefighters Association and a member of the forum. "It does not tell us how many new firefighters we will put on the ground, how many new fire engines we will put in the county, how many fire stations will be built or if we will improve our response times."

Other fire officials, including representatives of the San Diego County Fire Chiefs Association and the San Diego Fire Districts Association, spoke in support of the proposal.

"There are going to be detractors that will state that this isn't enough, and I agree," said Augie Ghio, president of the fire chiefs association. "It isn't enough money to do what we know needs to be done in this region, but it is another step in the right direction."

Officials say the parcel tax is needed to boost the region's fire services. The county recently approved a plan to merge a dozen rural fire agencies and increase its spending on fire resources from about $8 million a year to $15.5 million.

The proposed tax would be in addition to that money.

In May, the supervisors also unanimously approved a plan to spend $3 million to lease three firefighting airplanes.

Under that plan, county officials leased two water-dropping planes, Canadian-built CL-415 Bombardier Superscoopers, from the government of Quebec for three months beginning in September.

A supervising aircraft, an Aero Commander 690, was be leased from Mountain Aviation, a private firm in Colorado. That airplane recently began flying in the county, Ghio said.

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.