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Extracted from Consolidated Report

This investigation was originally published as part of a larger consolidated report containing multiple investigations. View the consolidated PDF for the complete document.

Score: 0 (0/2/0)
El Dorado County Grand Jury • 2008-2009

Consolidation of Fire Protection Districts

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Findings 8 findings

F1 Page 15
Either a fire protection district or LAFCO can initiate a consolidation study including a cost/benefit analysis. LAFCO has been reluctant to aggressively pursue consolidation of fire protection districts, waiting instead for one or more of them to initiate movement toward consolidation.
F2 Page 15
There is often institutional resistance to changing the status quo of an organization. Consolidation and reorganization are likely to lead to elimination of redundant positions, which typically will not be well received by current employees. Should consolidation occur, these difficulties can be ameliorated by a) selecting at least one director from the district to be a director of the new district, and b) continuing former district volunteer firefighter associations, such as was done with the mergers to form the El Dorado County FPD. 8
F3 Page 16
The County Board of Supervisors supplements revenues for six FPDs on the County west slope and two small districts providing fire protection in the Tahoe Basin, Fallen Leaf Lake CSD and the Meeks Bay FPD. This is a subsidy by the County at large to these particular fire districts. These subsidies raise a fairness issue for taxpayers outside these districts who are supporting their own fire protection district through various taxes while also contributing, through the County’s General fund, an extra amount of money to these subsidized districts.
F4 Page 16
All of the subsidized FPDs receive “special taxes” and/or “special assessments” except Pioneer FPD. These funds are not considered when the subsidy calculation is made. These special funds have been previously authorized on a continuing basis by an election of property owners within the districts. Special taxes require a vote of 2/3 of the property parcel owners. Special assessments are “fire suppression assessments,” which are allowed under State law and require only a property parcel vote of 50 percent plus one. 9
F5 Page 17
The tax revenues for FY 2006/07 for the West Slope FPDs are summarized in Exhibit B. The tax revenues for each district, including special taxes and special assessments, are combined in one column. Note that all but Pioneer FPD and Latrobe FPD receive tax revenues exceeding 13 percent of their tax base, and all but Pioneer FPD have total funding including the County Supplemental Contribution that exceeds 13 percent of their tax base. With the exception of Pioneer FPD and Latrobe FPD, the County supplemental is much smaller than the other tax revenue received by the subsidized districts.
F6 Page 17
With advance notification, the Board of Supervisors can discontinue these subsidies. The County has a fiduciary responsibility to minimize them, preferably without degrading fire protection capabilities. Elimination of the subsidies would require these fire protection districts to either find other sources of revenue in a similar amount, or find equivalent budget savings that would not degrade fire protection capability.
F7 Page 17
Consolidation of the six West Slope subsidized fire districts, and especially mergers into the three financially stronger fire districts on the West Slope, should allow elimination of the fire chiefs and other administrative positions in the subsidized districts. The potential personnel savings that could result are shown in Exhibit C, where the administrative personnel costs for each fire district are shown in column L, with a total amount of $944,084. The County supplemental contributions for these fire districts are shown in column M, and the total amount is similar to the total administrative personnel costs shown in column L.
F8 Page 17
If supplemental payments to the six West Slope fire protection districts are eliminated, the savings to the County general fund will be recurrent, rather than one-time. Over ten years and with an annual increase of 9 percent, the SAVINGS will amount to $14,018,235. If supplemental payments to all eight subsidized fire districts are eliminated, the SAVINGS over ten years will amount to $19,665,148.

Recommendations 3

Agency Responses 6

Government agencies' official responses to this report's findings and recommendations. Click on a response to see the structured breakdown.