DATE: June 12, 2018
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Jean M. Rousseau, County Administrative Officer
SUBJECT: Fresno County Fire Protection District MOU for Extended Service Coverage
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
TITLE
Approve and authorize the Chairman to execute a retroactive Memorandum of Understanding with the Fresno County Fire Protection District to provide fire and emergency response to County territory not served by a designated agency, effective July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2037 ($33,810,949), and may be extended for additional consecutive 10-year periods.
REPORT
Fresno County Fire Protection District (FCFPD or District) provides fire suppression, prevention, rescue, emergency medical services, and hazardous material emergency response and other services relating to the protection of lives and property within its territorial limits. FCFPD is offering to extend those services to areas within the County that are not now served by a recognized fire protection agency. In exchange, the District is seeking reinstatement of the property tax augmentation eliminated by the Board in FY 2008-09. FCFPD is proposing removal of all Non-Conforming Property from both Communities Facilities District (CFD) Zones and removal of Single Family Residence (SFR) unless as part of a sub-division of three or more housing units; thus, reducing billings by 37% as depicted in Attachment A.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
Your Board may opt not to approve the recommended action and not reinstate the property tax augmentation.
RETROACTIVE AGREEMENT:
The recommended agreement is retroactive to July 1, 2017 as Board direction was received in September 2017 and subsequent agreement review and approvals from all departments involved.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no increase in Net County Cost associated with the recommended action. Sufficient appropriations are included in the Org 2540 FY 2017-18 Adopted Budget for the first year of the agreement. The agreement includes a phase-in of funding for the first five years, which starts at approximately 17% of baseline needs and increases by approximately 17% annually until funding reaches 100% of baseline as detailed in Exhibit D. Total cost over the 20-year base agreement is $33,810,949.
Current Zone 2 annual billings total $317,952. The proposed changes include removal of Non-Conforming SFR ($103,542) and reducing Conforming SFR by 90% ($15,259), which would bring the annual billings total to $199,151.
DISCUSSION:
FCFPD has approached the County with a proposal to provide enhanced fire and emergency services to territories within the County that are beyond the boundaries of the District. Those areas are shown on the attached map and referred to as “Unprotected Area”. In exchange, the District is asking that the County reinstate funding eliminated in FY 2008-09 due to the recession to partially offset revenue that was lost as a result of the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund (ERAF) shift that was imposed by the State in the late 1990’s.
In addition, the District has been asked to modify their Community Facilities District (CFD 2010-01) Mello-Roos fees, in CFD 2010-01. CFD 2010-01 Zone 1 is the Millerton New Town area. CFD 2010-01 Zone 2 is the balance of the District. Zone 1 is a sparsely populated community in the unincorporated northeastern portion of the District. Exhibit A is a map of the FCFPD and Exhibit B is a map detailing the unprotected area. It is the intent of the District, with regard to Single-Family Residential Properties, to only levy CFD taxes on Single-Family Residential properties that resulted from subdivisions of land into three or more parcels which occurred after the CFD’s formation. Also, the District will remove Non-Conforming Property from CFD taxation in an effort to reduce the costs in administering the CFD and to reduce the burden of CFD taxes on residents.
From a historical perspective, Proposition 172 (Prop 172), a one-half percent public safety statewide sales tax, was enacted to partially backfill the loss of revenue from ERAF. The Board initially chose to use those funds to augment revenues for the Sheriff, District Attorney and Probation. In 2004, the Board chose to include fire districts which had suffered an ERAF loss within the definition of essential public safety entities. There were two such districts - FCFPD and Fig Garden Fire Protection District. The inclusion of those districts was only to occur when there was growth in the Prop 172 revenues. The distribution of Prop 172 funds to the districts occurred from FY 2003-04 thru FY 2007-08. Thereafter, due to the general state of the economic downturn, the Board elected to return to the original distribution.
Based on calculations done by the District, the initial baseline funding would start at $1,559,979. This amount was derived through a formula that relates the Prop 172 partial backfill to the loss in revenue from the ERAF shift. This amount would change from year to year by a growth factor based on which methodology is used. It is important to note that Prop 172 revenues are not being considered for this purpose. There will be a six-year phase-in of funding such that the first year would be approximately 16.67% of the initial baseline, the second year would be 33.33% of the baseline as modified by the growth factor, and so forth. A chart showing the effect of the phase-in is included as Attachment D. In that example, the growth factor was set at 2% per year.
Due to the nature of the proposal, a long-term arrangement is being sought. Given the proposed phase-in of the funding, the term would be for 20 years with 10-year renewals. Standard termination clauses such as non-sufficient funds would necessarily need to be included.
The District will be responsible for outreach to Bald Mountain Fire Protection District, CSA 50 (Auberry Volunteer Fire District), CSA 31 (Shaver Lake Volunteer Fire District) and Orange Cove Fire Protection District as existing agencies may be supported and/or impacted by the anticipated extension of service by FCFPD. It is anticipated that the smaller volunteer companies would welcome the added support such as training opportunities, and equipment service, repair and acquisition savings.
The Amador Plan agreement will continue to be between the County and Cal Fire.
OTHER REVIEWING AGENCIES:
The Fresno County Fire Protection District Board of Directors has reviewed the agreement. Their board will meet on June 13, 2018 to approve. Should your Board approve the agreement on June 12, 2018, the Chairman will execute the agreement upon receipt of the signed agreement from the Fire Protection District.
REFERENCE MATERIAL:
BAI #10, September 12, 2017
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
On file with Clerk - Agreement
Exhibits A-E
CAO ANALYST:
Ronald Alexander