Quick Take

Felton Fire Protection District’s three open board seats have drawn seven candidates, as the embattled agency faces funding gaps, leadership upheaval and ethics violations.

Among the more competitive races in Santa Cruz County this fall is the competition for three open board of director seats for the Felton Fire Protection District, which has struggled with budget shortfalls, staff and volunteer shortages, leadership questions and ethics violations. 

Seven candidates have filed to fill the three openings on the five-person board, responsible for the district’s finances and holding the fire chief, which it hires, accountable. The Felton Fire Protection District serves roughly 6,000 residents, with a $1.7 million budget. 

Felton finds itself facing the same dire resource constraints as many rural fire departments throughout California and in Santa Cruz County. The district is funded primarily through a parcel tax formula that hasn’t been updated in decades, while hollowed volunteer ranks — the bread and butter of its force — have left it relying more on outside help to meet its call volume. 

“As a whole, the fire service in rural areas are overlooked and underfunded by a lot,” Fire Captain Ian Jones told Lookout over the summer. “If we’re going to keep building new stuff and adding sources of call volumes without augmenting our service, it’s going to come to a head.” 

Despite a revolving door of interim and acting chiefs, the station hasn’t had a permanent fire chief since Chief Robert Gray left in October 2023. On Wednesday, the Felton Fire Protection District announced an agreement with Ben Lomond Fire Protection District to share the latter’s chief, Stacie Brownlee, and Mike Ayers, its training chief. 

In a media release, the district announced the hybrid chief model would last for at least two years, and help the district save money while increasing its firefighting force. The agreement comes months after Felton struck a deal with Zayante Fire Protection District to similarly share resources. 

The district has also been dealing with accusations of ethics violations on the board of directors. In April, two of the five board members stepped down due to violations of the Brown Act, the state statute that governs public meetings law, leaving only three votes on the board. Then, in June, board member Mike Shults took one of the district’s water tender vehicles to fill his personal pool without permission, and later admitted to it. District legal counsel Cassie Bronson in August said the board of directors could either admonish or censure Shults. Shults had to recuse himself from deliberations on the issue, which left only board chair Jim Anderson and vice chair Norm Crandell. The board needs three votes to take any action, which has left it stalled out on how to respond. 

Shults, appointed to the board in January, is among the seven candidates seeking a full, four-year seat on the board. He is joined by salesperson Adam Hensleigh, local business owners Jeff Myers and Doug Conrad, communications manager Mark Giblin, retired bank manager Judy Anderson and Erica Schwanbeck, a manager with the county’s human services department. 

Lookout was able to reach only Myers, who said he’d been paying attention to much of the drama over the past year and thought his small business acumen could help balance the budget and lead a department that has suffered from infighting and morale issues. 

“Board members should work to present themselves in a way that doesn’t create friction as much, and have a positive outlook,” Myers said. “They still have a ways to go with the budget and how to keep everything staffed.”

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Over the past decade, Christopher Neely has built a diverse journalism résumé, spanning from the East Coast to Texas and, most recently, California’s Central Coast.Chris reported from Capitol Hill...