In final form, the draft report from the Regional Fire Protection Committee is intended to advise the Board of Supervisors on fashioning the region's most concerted response to wildfires. We commend the committee's founders, county Supervisor Ron Roberts and San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, for the effort.
But the draft needs work, on these items and more:
It includes a seminal recommendation some members want to put to county voters in November: the imposition of an annual, countywide parcel tax of an officially unspecified amount – $50 per parcel is bandied about – that would rise annually to fund a joint powers authority to establish and oversee adequate fire prevention and protection in the region. Yet the services and apparatus the tax proceeds could or would cover aren't clear.
The draft report proposes that the authority buy its own fleet of firefighting aircraft and a fleet of 50 firefighting “apparatus.” Which “apparatus” isn't clear, but to the draft's authors, it's clear as a Bell 412EP twin-engine 'copter that a regional air fleet would require three more of them.
Localities could summon the air fleet, but after the first 24 hours they must “reimburse” the JPA at a rate set case by case. Whoa. Localities would have to “rent” the fleet belonging to the authority to which they belong? Why doesn't the parcel tax cover it?
Maybe because the draft calls for an unspecified split of parcel tax proceeds between the authority and each locality, depending on the tax collected there. So small localities would still be disadvantaged in the equipment they can afford relative to big localities. More important, joint powers authorities exist to smooth out the inequality in localities' finances, equipment and services. But not this one.
The point of this JPA, apparently, is to share the cost and upkeep of the aircraft, other equipment and personnel needed to stop wildfires before they endanger lives and property beyond the backcountry, a particular concern of the city of San Diego.
Yet no city, no locality can fight wildfires in the region in a vacuum or dictate the plan. The state, the U.S. Forest Service, the military – all fight wildfires here. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposes to boost CalFire with a 1.25 percent surcharge on fire insurance premiums. State Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, proposes a $50 parcel tax in areas of high fire risk. A consolidation of county fire districts is under way. What are the odds of duplication here? Of pooling local and state funds?
Finally, the draft report, like the committee, willfully ignores the perspectives of all county fire chiefs except San Diego's and Carlsbad's, losing the greater experience of wildfires that chiefs nearer the urban-wildland interface have. Most fire district officials, most local mayors and councils are excluded. Grudgingly, Roberts accepted Friday's offer by the fire chiefs association to survey the fire and rescue experts so far unconsulted.
Unfortunately, the same committee members who produced the draft will review it. To persuade November's voters, they need to consult widely and produce a report that answers questions instead of just raising them.
