Ross Valley fire panel prepares proposal in funding standoff

After reaching an impasse on a plan to fund upgrades at Ross Valley fire stations, a subcommittee formed to negotiate a compromise is expected to offer a way forward this month.

The subcommittee is set to present its proposal to Ross Valley Fire Department board at its meeting on Sept. 13.

“Right now, the labor group is optimistic that the board will come to an agreement,” said Ross Valley firefighter-engineer Sid Jamottee, the president of the department’s union.

The Ross Valley Fire Department is a consolidated agency serving Ross, San Anselmo, Sleepy Hollow and Fairfax. The board comprises representatives of each jurisdiction.

The issue stems from a vote in June during which two Ross representatives on the eight-member fire board blocked a plan to use $800,000 in reserves to support the renovations.

According to the joint powers authority agreement, or JPA, any use of reserve funds above 3% of the operating budget requires a unanimous vote of the board. The $800,000 request equals about 6.24%.

Over the past five years, the department’s reserves have increased because of payments made through the California Fire Assistance Agreement. The payments are made every time Ross firefighters join teams to fight out-of-county fires.

About $1.05 million in revenue has come through the program, according to the department. It has helped the reserve fund grow to $2.7 million.

In June, the fire board was asked to approve $200,000 toward Station 20 in Sleepy Hollow, $300,000 for Station 19 in San Anselmo and $300,000 for Station 21 in Fairfax.

The projects have been proposed partly to accommodate the staff that will be moving in from Station 18 in Ross. The station is scheduled to close when Ross moves forward with a multimillion-dollar renovation of its Town Hall campus. The fire station was removed from the renovation plan because of costs.

The goal is to have the three remaining stations upgraded to accommodate three-person engines, which is the standard for Marin County.

At the board meeting in June, Ross members Elizabeth Brekhus and Beach Kuhl argued that there are provisions in the JPA stipulating that the maintenance of each station is the responsibility of the member jurisdiction, not the department. They argued that the proposal was an incorrect use of the reserve funds.

Chief Dan Mahoney said at the meeting on July 17 that the Station 19 project is expected to start at about $200,000; Station 20 could be anywhere between $1.3 million and $2 million; and Station 21 is expected to cost about $650,000.

Mahoney proposed several alternative methods of using the reserve funds to support the projects, but they were all rejected.

Board members proposed amending the JPA to raise the 3% threshold to circumvent the unanimous vote trigger for this proposal.

Chance Cutrano, the mayor of Fairfax and one of the town’s representatives on the fire board, also suggested a project-based approach, where expenditures for each project were considered separately.

“The subcommittee was established to basically mediate any of the concerns and try to find a path forwards,” Cutrano said, “both how the undesignated reserve funds are managed, and the overarching question of how do we make sure that we future-proof our fire stations.”

Cutrano said that the station upgrades need to begin within the next year or two.

“This is a required investment to our facilities to make sure they are prepared to take on the new capacity,” Cutrano said.

“The association is highly focused on making sure we achieve a three-person engine company at all our stations,” Jamottee said. “It will allow us to provide better service to the public, which is what they deserve.”

Meanwhile, progress on the proposed merger with the Central Marin Fire Department had been sidelined.

John Bagala, union president of Marin Professional Firefighters Local 1775, said the stalemate over the station upgrades “absolutely is having an effect on our attempts to do the merger.”

Mahoney said he expects to report an update on the merger at the meeting on Sept. 13.