Abbott now LAFCO's fire consultant

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Steve Abbott retired as the North County Fire Protection District fire chief at the end of July, and he is now the fire consultant for San Diego County’s Local Agency Formation Commission.

Abbott replaces former NCFPD deputy fire chief Ed Sprague as LAFCO’s fire consultant. Sprague, who has been an instructor in the Fire Technology department of Palomar College, has been promoted to department chair and resigned as LAFCO’s consultant due to his additional Palomar College duties.

“I’m certainly looking forward to the new challenge and opportunities,” Abbott said.

Abbott was with the North County Fire Protection District for 31 years and was the NCFPD fire chief for 5 1/2 years. “I think I’ve got a good perspective,” he said.

“I think Steve’s an excellent choice,” said Jim Desmond, who is one of two county supervisors on the LAFCO board.

In 1999, LAFCO created the Task Force on Fire Protection Funding to address the inability of a fire district to serve additional territory and receive the appropriate funding. The initial goal of the task force was to address funding, but it also addressed other needs of fire agencies and their fire protection and emergency medical service functions. The task force activities included countywide response time information, and LAFCO desires to update that.

“What they’re after is to develop performance benchmarks,” Abbott said. “Our plan is going to be to reach out to the fire chiefs and work with them to come up with these parameters so we can come up with something that’s measurable and realistic and consistent.”

If LAFCO staff can process public comments in time, the Feb. 7 LAFCO meeting will include consideration of a municipal service review update for the North County Fire Protection District. A municipal service review evaluates services and anticipated needs while 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. Abbott assisted with the draft NCFPD update and will assist in municipal service review updates for other fire districts.