CSA No. 135 advisory board created

The primary focus of the Oct. 21 San Diego County Board of Supervisors action on improving fire and emergency services in unincorporated San Diego County was the application to San Diego County’s Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) to consolidate two East County fire districts into the San Diego County Regional Fire Authority, but the supervisors’ 5-0 vote also created the County Service Area (CSA) No. 135 Fire Advisory Board.

The San Diego Rural Fire Protection District and the Pine Valley Fire Protection District each have five board members, and those 10 board members would be part of the CSA No. 135 Fire Advisory Board along with two members nominated by the Fifth District supervisor and one member nominated by the First District supervisor. As the terms of the San Diego Rural and Pine Valley directors expire, the CSA No. 135 Fire Advisory Board will transition to an eventual seven members with four being appointed by the Second District supervisor.

“I’m extremely pleased to see this action before the board today,” said Supervisor Dianne Jacob, whose Second Supervisorial District includes the San Diego Rural and Pine Valley agencies. “What this means is better fire protection for almost half of the geographical area of San Diego County.”

In 2008, the Board of Supervisors approved a hybrid proposal to reorganize fire protection service in unincorporated San Diego County. Rather than creating a new district, the supervisors utilized the existing County Service Area No. 135, known as the San Diego County Regional Communications System.

CSA No. 135 covers the entire unincorporated area of the county as well as several incorporated cities who have joined the 800 MHz communications system which allows emergency and public safety agencies to communicate with one another. The San Diego County Regional Fire Authority became a zone of CSA No. 135, and LAFCO needed to approve only the expansion of latent powers for the county service area and the dissolution of any fire agencies consolidated rather than approve a new district.

Territory served by a volunteer fire department but not by a public agency is legally considered an unserved area, and the first phase approved by LAFCO in 2008 placed approximately 942,000 acres served by the DeLuz, Intermountain, Ocotillo Wells, Ranchita, Shelter Valley, and Sunshine Summit volunteer fire departments into the San Diego County Regional Fire Authority. The volunteer fire departments retained their autonomy and began working together with the paid firefighters covering those areas.

The Board of Supervisors is the governing body of a County Service Area, although the CSAs have advisory boards with local members appointed by the Board of Supervisors. In 2011, the CSAs providing fire protection and emergency medical service to Boulevard, Campo, Mount Laguna, Palomar Mountain, and San Pasqual were dissolved and brought into the SDCRFA. (The analysis determined that the CSAs serving Elfin Forest and Pepper Grove would best be served by an adjacent fire protection district rather than by the backcountry-based SDCRFA.)

The third phase will dissolve willing fire protection districts and bring those areas into the SDCRFA. The San Diego Rural Fire Protection District and the Pine Valley Fire Protection District have submitted applications to LAFCO for dissolution. The completion of the third phase would expand the SDCRFA area to approximately 1.56 million acres.

“I think it demonstrates this board’s solid commitment to expand fire protection services in the unincorporated area of the county,” Jacob said.

LAFCO is expected to approve the consolidation of the San Diego Rural and Pine Valley districts during fiscal year 2014-15. Further Board of Supervisors action may be necessary to amend the contract with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to provide equivalent county positions for the existing fire district employees, and for the county to assume California Public Employees’ Retirement System liability for qualifying fire district employees.

The County Service Area No. 135 Fire Advisory Board will become effective upon the dissolution of the two fire districts. “We’re fortunate to have a number of highly qualified firefighting professionals in North County,” said Fifth District supervisor Bill Horn. “I’m looking forward to selecting two of them who know the terrain, the people of North County, and the history of wildfires in this region. Their expertise will be important for the safety of this region in the years to come.”

Because the advisory board is a public agency, its meetings will be public. “It also provides a forum for the public to plan, discuss, and implement changes,” Jacob said.

The implementation of the third phase will also change the official reference of SDCRFA volunteer firefighters to “Volunteer Reserve Firefighters”. The “reserve” term usually indicates that a firefighter has certifications and training consistent with career firefighters.