LAFCO begins public review of draft MSR updates for FPUD, RMWD, NCFPD, CSA No. 81

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

San Diego County’s Local Agency Formation Commission has released the draft municipal service review updates of Fallbrook special districts for public review.

Discussion on updating the municipal service review information for the Fallbrook Public Utility District, the Rainbow Municipal Water District, the North County Fire Protection District, and County Service Area No. 81 was part of the Dec. 6 LAFCO board meeting although releasing the report for public review did not require a vote.

The next LAFCO meeting, Feb. 7, is after the conclusion of the 45-day public review period, so if LAFCO staff can process comments and changes in time, the MSR updates would likely be adopted at that meeting.

“I think it’s a pretty comprehensive review,” said Jim Desmond, who is one of two county supervisors on the LAFCO board. “It’s timely and needed to be done.”

The draft document includes 14 recommendations which wouldn’t be considered when the final MSR update is adopted but would likely be considered in the future. The recommendations are that LAFCO should coordinate with the County of San Diego and with the San Diego Association of Governments to develop buildout estimates specific to each specific agency and incorporate the information into a future municipal service review which would include assessing potential impacts from the recent state legislation allowing for accessory dwelling units, to reconcile the loss of avocado acreage during the five-year report period (approximate 20% of total acreage at the beginning of the period) with LAFCO’s policies to promote and enhance agricultural resources and incorporate that into LAFCO’s current two-year planning grant to assess agricultural trends in San Diego County.

Other recommendations are to coordinate with the County of San Diego to identify permitted groundwater wells and septic systems within the FPUD and Rainbow service areas and incorporate that information into a future municipal service review, to address FPUD’s recycled water service activities as part of a future policy update regarding agency functions, to work with the fire district to develop performance measurements for hazardous materials response and vegetation management while incorporating that analysis into a future MSR, to obtain additional information on the number of mutual water companies in the Fallbrook area, to revisit NCFPD fire protection and emergency medical service activities and costs as part of an update to a countywide fire service study, that NCFPD should consolidate its two existing taxing authority zones into one, and that opportunities for additional consolidations in the Fallbrook region are possible although the report did not suggest any proposals.

More recommendations are that all of the agencies should enhance accountability to their constituents by permanent livestreaming of meetings and posting videos on-line, that LAFCO should prepare a future information report to advise on current statutory thresholds and associated incorporation opportunities, that the updated MSR be considered when FPUD’s application to activate various latent powers is reviewed by LAFCO staff and heard by the LAFCO board and that expansion of such latent powers may warrant converting FPUD into a community services district, that there are no current needs for FPUD or Rainbow to provide services beyond their jurisdictional boundaries (which would allow for an updated sphere of influence with no boundary changes,) and that the NCFPD sphere of influence might be expanded into Riverside County where response by NCFPD would be more feasible than response by a Riverside County agency.

“The idea here is that we put ourselves into a position to use the service review,” said LAFCO executive officer Keene Simonds.

FPUD has an application to LAFCO to expand latent powers for a potential community benefit district to take over 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.

FPUD and RMWD have an application before LAFCO to detach from the San Diego County Water Authority and annex into the Eastern Municipal Water District, and LAFCO approval will be a prerequisite for that.

“In this particular case and this particular region there are some pending jurisdictional changes,” Simonds said.

“The MSR is going to be used and relied upon,” said LAFCO legal counsel Holly Whatley.

Whatley advised the LAFCO board and speakers not to address the merits of those issues so that the MSR update wouldn’t be tainted to influence the latent powers expansion or detachment one way or the other.

LAFCO is responsible for jurisdictional changes including consolidations, detachments, annexations, and city incorporations. The San Diego County LAFCO board consists of two county supervisors (currently Nora Vargas and Desmond), one city council representative from San Diego (currently Chris Cate), two city council members from the county's other 17 incorporated cites (currently Mary Salas of Chula Vista and Paul McNamara of Escondido), two members from special districts (currently Jo MacKenzie of the Vista Irrigation District and Barry Willis of the Alpine Fire Protection District), and one public member (currently Bonsall resident Andy Vanderlaan).

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 municipal service review and sphere of influence updates for all cities and special districts.

NCFPD fire chief Keith McReynolds, FPUD legal counsel Paula de Sousa Mills, and RMWD General Manager Tom Kennedy spoke at the LAFCO meeting. (CSA No. 81 covers parks in Fallbrook, Rainbow, and DeLuz but is a dependent special district so the San Diego County Board of Supervisors is the actual governing body although CSA No. 81 has an appointed board of local residents.)

“I think that it was very well written. It was a very fair review of our organization,” McReynolds said.

“A municipal service review really does highlight that there is a change going on in the Fallbrook Public Utility District,” Mills said.

“The MSR was a long time coming and they did a very nice job on it,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy argued against LAFCO’s assumption that housing would replace lost avocado acreage, noting that avocados grow best on steep slopes which are constraints to higher-density housing.

Vanderlaan has lived in the Fallbrook area since 1976 and has witnessed the avocado acreage loss. “That’s changed quite a bit, and that’s not going to come back soon,” he said.

The five-year report covered fiscal year 2015-16 through fiscal year 2019-20. The North County Fire Protection District incurred pension liability bond debt in fiscal year 2020 but did not receive financial benefits until fiscal year 2020-21, so McReynolds told LAFCO that the fire district’s finances weren’t as adverse as the report indicates. “We are an organization trending financially in the right direction,” McReynolds said.

The August 2021 NCFPD board meeting included issuance of a contract to develop a 20-year master plan and a three-year to five-year strategic plan. “Our leadership team is focused on moving our organization into the future,” McReynolds said.

McReynolds is supportive of the LAFCO recommendation of livestreaming board meetings. “We’ll be looking into some system to stream our meetings,” he said.

In 1986, LAFCO approved the reorganization which created the North County Fire Protection District by merging the Fallbrook Fire Protection District with the county service area which provided fire protection to Rainbow and annexing Gavilan Mountain. The Rainbow Volunteer Fire Department retained its autonomy although administrative matters were handled by NCFPD staff.

The 1986 LAFCO conditions included that tax revenues generated from the Rainbow subzone of the consolidated area be for the benefit of operations in the Rainbow area. By 2018, most of Rainbow’s volunteer firefighters were not local residents but aspirants for professional careers, and that year the North County and Rainbow fire departments were consolidated.

Combining the two NCFPD tax zones into one would thus affect only administrative matters and beneficially. “For the taxpayer nothing would change,” McReynolds said.

The Dec. 6 comments, as well as any comments during the public review period, will be incorporated into the final MSR. Desmond recommended an update in two to three years rather than waiting the full five years for the next planned MSR update.

“I think we’ve got our orders to proceed forward,” Simonds said.