Like many small tax districts, Felton Fire faces its future — and could have to outsource to Cal Fire

The Felton Fire Protection District faces a shortage of those able to answer its calls.

“We’re dealing with a real shortage of responders right now, and we are actually missing calls,” Captain Ian Jones told the district’s board Wednesday evening.

“There is so much anxiety about leaving shifts uncovered, and the day crews are having a hard time leaving when nobody is here to cover the night shift,” added EMS Captain Samantha Moeller.

Given financial hardships and staffing shortages, the Felton district’s board is facing a difficult decision on how to stay afloat. Its current plan calls for a shared-service agreement — a contract that consolidates or combines services between jurisdictions — with Cal Fire while it works to draft a money-raising local ballot measure. That measure — which the district’s board of directors chair, Jim Anderson, said is likely a year out — would probably be a local bond measure or parcel tax. The long-term intention: to support the Felton Fire Protection District’s own paid staffing, without further outside assistance. 

While this issue affects only the residents of the Felton area, the pressure on smaller taxing districts of several kinds is increasing, due to tightening budgets.

“Consolidation” is a word rearing its head across the county. 

Last July, residents throughout the 9-square-mile fire protection district around Branciforte Drive and Granite Creek Road voted overwhelmingly against a levy that would have raised an additional $1 million per year to double the staff at the Branciforte Fire Protection District and keep its only station open. The district then combined with the Scotts Valley Fire District last August.

School districts have faced tight budgets, too. Specifically, Live Oak School District’s budget crisis has raised the question of whether some of the local school districts should be merged in order to save money — an idea with both supporters and detractors.

The Felton Fire District now supports just two full-time fire captains, Jones and Audrey Dawson, and two full-time firefighters, all of whom are paid hourly and work 10-hour day shifts. An agreement with Cal Fire could see the state agency take in those four workers, but if not, Anderson told Lookout they could “potentially” be let go.

“They could still be volunteers and paid per call, but they would go to that [salary] from hourly pay,” he said.

Felton Fire Protection District is historically a volunteer district, meaning it is largely staffed by trained volunteers, who work with the professional staff. Volunteers are paid per call, and would typically pick up the overnight shifts, but given the slim pickings, finding nighttime coverage is challenging and not always guaranteed.

When coverage is inadequate, the district mostly relies on mutual aid requests to other nearby fire districts. That means other mountain departments, like the Zayante Fire Protection District, will respond to calls that Felton cannot reach itself. 

At this week’s board meeting, Jones shared concerns about moving forward with a Cal Fire agreement, saying that shifting to Cal Fire’s dispatch could further alienate the small district from the area.

“I think it’s worth spending the extra money to stay in the system, with the rest of the county, than further put up a wall,” he said, suggesting that the board consider additional pay for the paid staff to cover some of the empty shifts, because the district will still be severely short-staffed between now and the time it reaches an agreement with Cal Fire. Moeller added that the small number of paid fire staff who usually work during the day have more availability now, allowing them to cover the overnight shift if needed.

Anderson noted at Wednesday’s meeting that the district would need to make sure the current paid workers could legally take on the extra hours. He told Lookout on Thursday that the district cannot add more paid staff with its current budget.

Other members of the board think tough times call for tough decisions.

“We could dissolve the district, which the board doesn’t want to do,” said board member Norm Crandell. “[Cal Fire] is the only one left that we can go with to keep the station running so that we can get funding and move forward. We don’t have much choice.”

And Anderson said that the team had been pushing for shared services for some time now. The district had hoped to reach an agreement with the Ben Lomond Fire Protection District, but that fell through.

“We wanted to explore all of our options to make the best decision,” he said. 

Wednesday night’s Felton Fire Protection District special meeting saw its board of directors grapple with multiple thorny issues affecting the fire district including staffing, financial woes and a potential violation of the Brown Act, California’s open-meetings law.

Anderson said some members of the public sent a “cure and correct” letter challenging the board’s appointment of two interim board members. He said the district is working with its legal counsel to figure out how to proceed with refilling the vacant seats on the board. Anderson said, although there is no hard deadline for permanently filling those seats, “the sooner, the better.”

The Felton Fire District board of directors’ next meeting is scheduled for July 1 at 6 p.m., when the board could come to a decision regarding a potential shared-services agreement.

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