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Consider adopting resolutions appointing the Board of Supervisors as the Board of Directors for the Suisun Fire Protection District, the Montezuma Fire Protection District, and the Vacaville Fire Protection District
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Published Notice Required? Yes ___ No _X_
Public Hearing Required? Yes ___ No _X_
DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION:
The County Administrator’s Office recommends the Board of Supervisors:
1) Consider adopting a resolution appointing the Board of Supervisors as the Board of Directors for the Suisun Fire Protection District;
2) Consider adopting a resolution appointing the Board of Supervisors as the Board of Directors for the Montezuma Fire Protection District; and
3) Consider adopting a resolution appointing the Board of Supervisors as the Board of Directors for the Vacaville Fire Protection District.
SUMMARY
There are currently six separate fire protection districts serving the unincorporated areas of the County which include the Cordelia, Dixon, East Vallejo, Montezuma, Suisun, and Vacaville Fire Protection Districts (FPD). Reorganization of these fire districts has been frequently discussed over the past decades by the Board of Supervisors (Board), as well as by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) and the Solano County Grand Jury. In June of 2021, the Board adopted a resolution of application to reorganize the Cordelia, Vacaville and a portion of the Suisun Fire Protection Districts. Since that time, the Cordelia Fire Protection District (Cordelia FPD) executed a contract with the City of Fairfield to provide all services for the District and therefore, recent discussions have focused on the feasibility of consolidating the Montezuma, Suisun, and Vacaville Fire Protection Districts into one functional district. In anticipation of the reorganization into a single fire district, it is recommended that the Board act now to appoint itself as the board of directors of each of the three districts pursuant to Health & Safety Code §13835 which will facilitate a functional consolidation while the official reorganization process progresses. The impetus to consolidate governance at this time is due to the status of the Suisun FPD’s Board of Directors, which legally can no longer establish a quorum. Additionally, the Montezuma and Vacaville FPDs currently have expired boards and Vacaville FPD does not currently have a permanent chief, experiencing turnover of interim chiefs over the last few years.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
The costs associated with preparing the agenda item are nominal and absorbed by the County’s FY2024/25 Working Budget. Changing the governance of the three fire districts will have no impact on existing revenue sources and the districts will remain three legal entities separate and apart from the County. There will be some administrative costs to the County associated with the reorganization during the transition period. These costs will be absorbed by the County’s FY2024/25 Working Budget. At the time a reorganization is approved by LAFCO, revenue sources would then be combined for utilization by the newly reorganized district.
DISCUSSION:
Summary of existing Fire Protection Districts
There are currently six separate fire protection districts serving the unincorporated areas of the County which include the Dixon, Cordelia, East Vallejo, Montezuma, Suisun, and Vacaville Fire Protection Districts (FPD). Since 1993, Dixon FPD has contracted with the City of Dixon Fire Department to provide all fire-related services within the District. The Dixon FPD Board of Directors are appointed by the Board of Supervisors. In 1994, the Board of Supervisors established themselves as the East Vallejo FPD Board of Directors and began contracting with the City of Vallejo to provide all fire-related services throughout the East Vallejo FPD. In October of 2022, Cordelia FPD entered into an emergency service agreement with the City of Fairfield to provide all fire-related services within the district. With the approval of Solano LAFCO in June of 2024, that emergency agreement was replaced with a long-term agreement. The Cordelia FPD Board of Directors are elected. The remaining three districts, Montezuma, Suisun and Vacaville, are operating as independent agencies, each with a board of directors appointed by the Board of Supervisors.
Fire District Governance
Each of the three fire protection districts under consideration of governance change were formed under the Fire Protection District Law of 1987 or the Bergeson Fire District Law (Health & Safety Code §§ 13800 et seq) which provides that in the case of a district which contains only unincorporated territory in a single county, the district board, unless otherwise an elected board, is appointed by the board of supervisors which may appoint itself as the district board (H&S Code §13835).
The terms for all five members on both the Vacaville and Montezuma Boards have expired, and pursuant to Government Code §1302, each director, whose term has expired, continues to discharge the duties of the office until his or her successor has been appointed and sworn in. In the case of Suisun FPD, however, there are currently two vacancies due to resignations, one vacancy due to a member no longer residing in the district, one director’s term has expired, and one director’s term is expiring on April 15, 2025. A vacancy notice for two of the Suisun FPD’s open positions have been posted since March 4, 2024 and September 12, 2024 respectively, with no applicants. These circumstances present an opportunity for the Board of Supervisors to assume Board responsibilities for each district while a reorganization is processed through LAFCO.
Civil Grand Jury Review
The Civil Grand Jury of Solano County has identified, through several reports published over the last twenty years, findings and recommendations to address the dangers of wildfires and provision of rural fire protection services in Solano County. The common theme that permeates these reports is the recommendation to consolidate fire services in the unincorporated areas of the county to benefit the residents with stronger services, including singular leadership, standardized training and operations, as well as shared resources.
• “Solano County Emergency Services: A Patchwork of Protection” (FY2005/6)
• “Solano County Fire Protection Districts” (FY2007/8)
• “Public Safety Volunteer Fire Emergency Services” (FY2010/11)
• “Suisun Fire Protection District” (FY2012/13)
• “Cordelia Fire Protection District” (FY2015/16)
• “Wildfires on the Horizon, Solano Homes at Risk!” (FY2020/21)
• “Effective Emergency Response Needs City and County Support” (FY2021/22)
Studies: Municipal Service Reviews and Fire Special Study
In June of 2006, a Municipal Service Review was commissioned by the Solano Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) to study fire protection districts in Solano County, which at that time included Cordelia, Dixon, East Vallejo, Montezuma, Ryer Island, Suisun and Vacaville, evaluating policies, practices, management and operations, looking for opportunities for improvement. Emergency Services Consulting, Inc. concluded their study with recommendations, the first being to form a committee to study reorganization.
In October of 2014, a Municipal Service Review was again commissioned by LAFCO to study the six remaining districts: Cordelia, Dixon, East Vallejo, Montezuma, Suisun and Vacaville. Regarding governance structure, the report stated that “During the course of this MSR process, it was identified that full consolidation of all fire providers in Solano County is the preferred governance structure alternative. Consolidation promotes efficiency, professionalism and public safety.”
In December of 2020, a Fire Special Study (Service Review) was commissioned by LAFCO and conducted by Citygate Associates, LLC which performed a deployment and fiscal/governance review focusing on four fire protection districts: Cordelia, Montezuma, Suisun and Vacaville. This study was presented to the LAFCO commission in December of 2020, identifying that the districts would be more efficient with a merger and recommended that LAFCO continue engaging in collaborative discussions on the advantages of a merger. (It is important to note, the technical term “merger” describes a specific action under LAFCO’s process, so staff is recommending the use of the term “reorganization” for this effort.)
Documents can be made available, upon request, with the Clerk’s Office.
History of Successful Reorganization Efforts
Past efforts to consolidate fire protection districts began in the early 1980’s. The Vacaville and Elmira FPDs began discussions in 1984 and through a LAFCO action officially consolidated on May 26, 1986. Additionally, the Montezuma FPD annexed the Ryer Island FPD through a LAFCO action in April of 2007. The latest reorganization effort, while it did not occur, led to the Cordelia FPD contract with the City of Fairfield, described in more detail below.
Collaborative Attempts
Collaborative discussions on a potential reorganization resulted in the following efforts involving various partnerships between LAFCO, the County, and districts as follows:
• An effort between the Cordelia and Vacaville FPDs took place in 2017 to submit an application to LAFCO for reorganization of the two fire protection districts, including resolutions in support of this effort. (2017)
• The Cordelia FPD executed an MOU with the Vacaville FPD to provide mutual leadership and administration services. (2021)
• An application of reorganization was submitted to LAFCO in 2021 to facilitate the reorganization of the Cordelia and Vacaville PFDs, which included a small area of Suisun intended to bridge the geographical gap to create one district along the wildland urban interface area of the county, known as a WUI. This application was never heard by LAFCO but did lead to further discussions to include all of Suisun FPD and the Montezuma FPD, excluding Cordelia FPD due to its efforts to contract with the City of Fairfield. (2021)
• The County hosted meetings in 2022 with countywide fire leadership to facilitate discussions that included a sales tax measure and the reorganization of fire districts. The consensus from city departments was in support of reorganization, benefiting cities from a mutual aid standpoint and reducing the number of agencies required for coordination purposes.
• Solano County placed a revenue measure before the voters in November 2022, which aimed to generate funds that could be used on a variety of public services to include “the protection of residential communities and developed areas in cities and unincorporated areas from the expanding threat of uncontrolled wildfires”. Ultimately, the voters in Solano County did not support the 1/8 cent countywide sales tax, with 54% opposed and 46% in favor. Revenue estimated from the tax ranged between $9 to $10 million dollars per year.
• The County negotiated a contract with a weed abatement vendor to support FPD enforcement efforts. An MOU was drafted for the districts to partner with the County, with Cordelia and Vacaville signing and overall low utilization of this process. This effort was intended to increase enforcement of weed abatement requirements by FPDs on private landowners to facilitate safer conditions in support of fire prevention ahead of each fire season. With this effort not being fully embraced and underutilized, there has been outreach from the community to Board members seeking ways to better address prevention efforts.
• The County has applied for prevention grant funding (CAL FIRE, USDA) to support the creation of additional programs in support of fire protection districts; however, funds are highly competitive and significant awards to Solano County have not occurred, to date.
• A contract was executed between the Cordelia FPD and the City of Fairfield for provision of fire response services. (2024)
• The long serving Vacaville FPD fire chief retired in 2023, leaving a vacancy. An MOU was drafted between the Vacaville FPD and the Suisun and Montezuma FPDs to encourage and initiate a functional reorganization and offering Vacaville support for fire chief leadership. Ultimately, Vacaville proposed amendments to the MOU language and the executed MOU did not include the leadership support.
• An MOU was offered by the County to the three districts to fund a pilot seasonal wildfire program and to provide deliverables including passing resolutions in support of a reorganization as well as to complete a Plan of Service for inclusion with the application to be submitted to LAFCO. Suisun and Vacaville FPDs executed this MOU, while Montezuma FPD did not, although they were a party to its drafting. To date, there are no approved resolutions in support of the reorganization effort and the Plan of Service is still underway.
Efforts Toward Functional Consolidation
A functional consolidation is an effort to combine like services or share specialized resources to improve efficiency and/or reduce costs. This step is a bridge in the process toward formal reorganization, providing an interim plan for operation of the districts. Staff believes the next step toward a functional consolidation is to return to the Board with a memorandum of understanding to define how the three districts should work together during the reorganization process. If the Board approves the recommended action providing for a governance change, it will be necessary to address how the districts will operate in this interim period, and may include but is not limited to what actions will require Board of Director approval, such as for hiring personnel, procurement, and for any changes to operations such as standardization between the districts. Staff recommends the County meet with the three chiefs and return to the Board to present an MOU with recommendations defining the districts’ operational authority, including suggestions for an interim chief and steps toward integration.
ALTERNATIVES:
The Board may choose not to adopt one or all resolutions in support of governance change or can recommend staff return with alternative options. This is not recommended, however, due to the long history of efforts and recommendations to address unincorporated fire protection districts. Appointing the Board of Supervisors as the Board of the three districts facilitates a functional consolidation as the formal process for reorganization continues.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
County staff has been participating in an ongoing series of meetings with LAFCO, and in various efforts with staff and board members of the Cordelia, Montezuma, Suisun and Vacaville fire protection districts. Notice was communicated to a representative of the District Boards.
CAO RECOMMENDATION:
APPROVE DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION