NCFPD clears up questions about Prop A

Fallbrook-area voters will be asked this month to approve a new tax of $5 per month, per parcel of owned property to pay for construction, maintenance and improvements of fire stations in the North County Fire Protection District over the next two decades.

But with the vote on the proposed tax, known as Proposition A, fast approaching – voters will soon begin receiving ballots and must mail or deliver them to the office of the Secretary of the North County Fire Protection District by 8 p.m. Oct. 24 – there remain a number of questions and misconceptions that fire officials are working to clear up.

Some of the questions residents have result from simple misunderstandings.

“We’ve gotten a lot of confusion because we sent out sample ballots like we’re required to do,” NCFPD Chief Stephen Abbott said. “Some people think they’re the actual ballot – they’re not. They’re also concerned their name will be on the official ballot, but it won’t.”

Some are more fundamental, though. The tax is necessary, fire officials say, to fund long-standing needed projects at the NCFPD.

In an informational newsletter published ahead of the election, NCFPD officials said most fire district facilities are outdated, and they have documented a need for at least $26.5 million to meet facility standards. Seven of the district’s 11 facilities – including four of its five fire stations – are nearing the end of their originally-intended life span of 50 years.

Proposition A would raise $1 million per year, or about $20 million over the 20 years the tax would be in effect for, if approved.

“One of the questions we get a lot that I’ve read has to do with why haven’t we negotiated with the county, or why don’t we negotiate (to receive) more of the property tax. The bottom line is all of that was determined decades ago with tax exchange rates for properties when the county was first subdivided,” Abbott said. “So for us to negotiate more money would mean someone else is giving more money.”

That would mean potentially taking money from the school district or other agencies.

“It’s just not a realistic possibility,” Abbott said.

The tax is a last resort, Abbott said, that comes after years of budget cuts since the Great Recession.

“We did a significant amount of cutbacks in terms of overhead, in terms of reducing pension benefits, having our employees pay more into that and then of course deferring utility maintenance, extending the life of apparatus and equipment, closing a redundant station when we built the new station,” Abbott said.

The fire district had to cut into its reserves during and after the recession to continue services at the same level, he said.

“A lot of cities cut back,” Abbott said. “They reduced the number of line personnel, staged brownouts – we didn’t do any of that. We cut overhead personnel but not line firefighters.”

The Fire Protection District is running the election independently of the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, but that’s because the Registrar’s office is not running any elections this year while it switches voting systems, according to Assistant County Registrar Cynthia Paes.

“Typically, we are available but for this year we had a moratorium,” Paes said.

While it is true that many public entities in San Diego would opt to have the Registrar of Voters run their elections and ballot initiatives, it’s not mandatory and is not an option this year, Paes said.

While each registered voter in the fire district’s coverage area will have a chance to vote on Proposition A, the tax is only being levied on property owners because that is one of the few options NCFPD has, Abbott said. Since Fallbrook is not an incorporated city, the fire district lacks some options that it would have if it were part of a city.

“We can’t do benefit assessment fees and we can’t do a general tax, like a sales tax, like a city could,” Abbott said.

Will Fritz can be reached by email at [email protected].