Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

FPUD to prepare community benefit latent powers application

The Fallbrook Public Utility District will be preparing an application for San Diego County's Local Agency Formation Commission which would allow FPUD to expand its latent powers to provide for public community facilities.

FPUD's board voted 5-0 July 22 to authorize the preparation of the application to LAFCO, although the application itself will be reviewed prior to a separate FPUD vote.

"The board reaffirmed the decision to move forward based on the request of those groups," said FPUD general manager Jack Bebee.

FPUD's May 2018 meeting included a presentation by the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce and other community groups proposing the possibility that FPUD might take responsibility for community maintenance. That could include a community benefit district to handle community beautification and maintenance items.

Voter approval would be required to create a community benefit district which would also include an assessment, although a LAFCO board action to expand FPUD's latent powers would only require a public vote if sufficient protest signatures were gathered and submitted to LAFCO so an expansion of FPUD's latent powers to form a community benefit district will only happen if public support at the ballot box is expected.

The May 2018 meeting included representation from the Fallbrook Beautification Alliance, the Fallbrook Land Conservancy, the Fallbrook Village Association, the Fallbrook Trails Council, Save Our Forests, and County Service Area No. 81 (which covers parks in Fallbrook, DeLuz, and Rainbow) as well as the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce.

The groups identified approximately 15 maintenance projects, including trash and graffiti removal, which would be undertaken. FPUD created an ad hoc committee chaired by FPUD board member Don McDougal and with FPUD director Jennifer DeMeo as the committee's vice-chair. The committee also included Donna Gebhart from the Fallbrook Trails Council and Joe Comella from County Service Area No. 81.

In October 2018, FPUD's board voted 4-0 with Milt Davies absent to direct staff to begin on an application and to work with LAFCO to determine what would be required for an application.

FPUD currently has water provision, wastewater collection and treatment, and water reclamation latent powers. The California Public Utilities Code gives a public utility district the potential powers of acquiring, constructing, owning, operating, controlling or using works to supply its residents and businesses with light, water, power, heat, transportation, telephone service or other means of communication, and garbage or other refuse matter disposition.

A public utility district may also acquire, construct, own, complete, use, and operate a fire department, a street lighting system, public parks or playgrounds, golf courses, swimming pools, public recreation buildings, other buildings to be used for public purposes, and works to provide for the paving and drainage of roads, streets, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and other public places.

LAFCO must grant FPUD additional latent powers. An FPUD application to LAFCO for such latent powers would need to address forecasted revenues and expenses, sources of revenue projections such as property taxes and user fees, and the future of CSA No. 81.

In 1976, LAFCO created County Service No. 81, which obtains its funding from a share of property tax revenue. The governing body of a county service area is the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, although a CSA No. 81 advisory board is comprised of local residents appointed by the Board of Supervisors.

FPUD's October 2015 meeting included a discussion on the process for activating park and recreation latent powers, and a request for additional information resulted in a December 2015 workshop with no voting items.

In 1999 FPUD responded to a community request for locally-elected control rather than county operation of Fallbrook assets by hearing presentations on a proposal to transfer Fallbrook Community Airpark from the county to FPUD, although after scheduling a meeting for action the FPUD board voted 3-2 to reject further steps. The current desire for additional latent powers involves a funding mechanism rather than local control.

The FPUD application to LAFCO would also include FPUD's cost to provide the local funding for the community facilities, the expected cost to FPUD customers, the identification of existing providers of local funding for community faculties and the fiscal impact to the customers of the existing providers, a summary of whether the activation of latent powers would involve the activation or divestiture of other FPUD latent powers, a plan to finance the activation of latent powers, and alternatives to activating the latent powers.

Because portions of CSA No. 81 are outside the FPUD boundaries, a LAFCO action to authorize park and recreation latent powers would also include the determination of whether the CSA No. 81 boundaries would be adjusted.

LAFCO may, depending on the scope of the proposed latent powers, also require a municipal service review to be prepared. A municipal service review evaluates services and anticipated needs. A sphere of influence study determines the boundaries best served by a particular agency.

Municipal service review and sphere of influence updates are prerequisites to a jurisdictional change other than annexation of land within the sphere of influence, and LAFCO also periodically conducts sphere of influence updates for all cities and special districts.

In June 2018, LAFCO approved a five-year schedule for updated sphere of influence studies for each of the county's cities and special districts. FPUD is slated for a sphere of influence update study during fiscal year 2019-20 and CSA No. 81 would be studied during 2021-22.

The June 2018 action also gave the LAFCO board future discretion to amend the study schedule to address reorganization applications or changes in priorities, so a study of potential latent powers expansion could be coordinated with FPUD's sphere of influence update.

The July 22 board action will allow Bebee and the community groups to finalize the details of the application. "I've got to work with them to draft the application," he said.

"The application's got to get approved by all the community groups that made the request," Bebee said. "All their boards are going to have to review and approve it before it comes to our board."

The activities from the parks and recreation latent powers would cost approximately $550,000 annually. FPUD receives a portion of property tax payments from district landowners and the community groups have requested that some of that property tax revenue be used for the community activities.

"It's not a new tax. You're taking away existing revenue," Bebee said.

"There is a cost," Bebee said. "That money pays for infrastructure."

A new tax would require a public vote. Raising water rates would only require a majority board vote although a cost of service study which shows the relationship between the rates and the agency's cost to provide water would be required to raise rates without a public vote.

"Either they would have to cut back on our infrastructure replacement by that amount or try to find other ways to cover that cost. Those are the options," Bebee said.

If water rates are raised to cover the cost of property tax revenue being used for community benefit projects rather than infrastructure, the estimated increase is $5 per meter per month.

An agency resolution is required to approve a formal application to LAFCO. The resolution must be adopted after a public hearing noticed at least 21 days in advance.

"There will have to be a public hearing," Bebee said.

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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