Homeowners and fire officials in northern Sonoma County are leaning on local government to keep more of their property taxes local to go toward fire prevention services.
They say more than $1 million in property taxes is leaving north county to fund fire services elsewhere, leaving critical infrastructure and tens of thousands of lives in jeopardy.
At the end of 2018, a website and Facebook Page popped up titled “Save Northern Sonoma County.” This self-defined coalition of firefighters and residents of the region pointed to areas within Zone 6, the area between Healdsburg, Lake Sonoma and the Lake and Mendocino county borders, where outgoing property taxes were not matched by funds coming back to the area for fire protection.
The areas most affected were Fitch Mountain, Sotoyome (also known as lower Dry Creek Valley) and the Geysers, according to Save Northern Sonoma County.
“This area, along with some other isolated parts of northern Sonoma County, produces $770,000 a year in property tax that is set aside by Assembly Bill 8 (1979) for fire protection in the community,” the group’s website said. “Less than $10,000 remains in the area that happens to be Sonoma County’s most wildfire-prone region.”
Fourth District Supervisor James Gore said he agreed with the need for more fire prevention in the area.
“The geothermal plant is up there and it’s worth a lot of money and so those property taxes are based on those geothermal royalties,” Gore said in an interview. “We’re working with Calpine, who run the facility and they’re saying, ‘If we pay all these property taxes and then you don’t do any fire prevention up here, you’re not using the property taxes we pay to even protect the facility up here.’”
During the 2015 Valley Fire, five of the facility’s 14 power plants suffered damage, costing Calpine 25 percent of its production and an estimated $35 million in damage and lost revenue.
“This ultimately impacts all of us in terms of taxes, and this area is fire country, let’s be real,” Gore said.
One way fire districts are working to create efficiency and reduce costs is through consolidation. Windsor/Rincon Valley Fire is nearing the end of a process to consolidate with Bennett Valley and Mountain Volunteer Fire, a move that would result in an increase in income for the organization through property taxes, as well as by streamlining the cost of administration and benefits.
Similarly, Geyserville Fire Protection District recently initiated the process to annex Knights Valley Volunteer Fire and is looking to rebrand itself as the Northern Sonoma County Fire Protection District as its chief, Marshall Turbeville, has eyes on other joint ventures moving forward.
Geyserville and the Cloverdale Fire Protection District already work closely together on vehicle maintenance and training every month, he said, and the two organizations are looking into a joint powers agreement as a potential step toward consolidation down the road.
“The eventual goal is to consolidate,” he said. “We are looking at shared positions, combined programs and joint powers agreements as intermediate steps.” Turbeville said that retaining more of the property tax revenue set aside for local fire prevention is also a necessary component of a healthy north county fire district.
“The money is undoubtedly being spent down in other parts of the county, down on the Marin-Sonoma County line and I get it,” he said. “Those areas down there in the dairyland, they’re not as developed, they don’t generate the taxes, the properties don’t turn over so you don’t get the reassessment value and they’re in a world of hurt.
“My response to that is that Sonoma County needs to realize that it’s just going to cost more money to provide fire protection services to the rural areas and to fund it appropriately but at the same time don’t penalize another portion of the county,” Turbeville said.
Cloverdale Chief Jason Jenkins echoed the sentiment, adding that the north county is at greater risk from fire, as it doesn’t benefit from the fog layer that the southern parts of the county do.
He offered a long list of programs that money for fire prevention could help achieve, in addition to cost savings derived from a joint powers agreement.
“We want to fully support a COPE [Citizens Organizing to Prepare for Emergencies] program with personel, more staffing for weed abatement and fuel reduction inspections and be able to do more public outreach in a way that’s standardized and coordinated throughout the region,” Jenkins said. “In addition, we’d want to increase our full time staffing to two full-time personnel. We do that pretty successfully now with stipends and volunteers, but getting to a guaranteed two people in each company is really important in northern Sonoma County.”
Consolidation is the way forward, according to Gore.
“The solution is to continue to support a Zone 6 regionalized plan that has equitable funding, that finds funding for other areas of the county that need it, but also keeps our property tax money, devoting it here to fire services,” he said. “If other regions need funding to meet sustainable levels, then we have to fight for that, whether that’s out of the General Fund, local property tax assessments or other some other way.”
In the end, Gore called it “a good problem to have” since at least now the conversation revolved around where to put more money into the fire system whereas in the past, the topic was punted time and time again.
Forays into the Fourth District is a new column exploring north county issues, written and explored by experts in their fields. Stuart Tiffen is the field representative for Fourth District Supervisor James Gore and is a former employee of Sonoma West Publishers.
