Fire Authority Rejects CA City's Demands

June 22 -- With a ticking clock growing ever louder in the background, the Orange County Fire Authority rejected several demands made by Irvine that would keep the city in the fold as a voting member of the regional emergency coalition.

“Basically, Irvine was told to pound sand,” said County Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who sits on the Fire Authority board of directors.

This throws the ball back into Irvine’s court. The city is expected to weigh its next move on Tuesday, June 26, just four days before a June 30 deadline for deciding whether it will stay or go.

The problem is this: Thanks to property tax formulas that were locked in decades ago, Irvine pays far more to the Fire Authority than it gets back in services. Depending on how you factor it, Irvine’s over-payment could be as much as $23 million a year, or as little as $5 million a year.

To Irvine, that’s not fair. The Fire Authority agrees, but various attempts to fix the imbalance have failed. Irvine’s property taxes, collected and managed by the county, are dedicated to emergency services and only emergency services – so hands are largely tied.

This month, Irvine asked the Fire Authority for concessions to keep it with the coalition.

Irvine wanted the Fire Authority to extend the deadline past June 30 so it had more time to make up its mind about whether to stay or go. But after a special meeting on Wednesday, June 20, the Fire Authority board said it didn’t have the power to extend the deadline. Rather, two-thirds of the 22 member cities and the County of Orange must agree to do that, according to the Fire Authority’s bylaws – and that’s unlikely to happen within the next eight days.

Irvine wanted the Fire Authority to commit to giving the city all Fire Authority-owned property in Irvine – including fire stations and equipment necessary to operate those stations – upon the Fire Authority’s official sunset date in 2030. But the Fire Authority can’t do that just yet, said spokeswoman Lisa Gritzner: Study is needed to determine the value of those properties and untangle ownership claims.

Irvine wanted the Fire Authority, cities and the county to also agree all Irvine property taxes now flowing to the Fire Authority would be transferred to the city with the 2030 sunset. But the Fire Authority can’t make that promise right now, Gritzner said. “These are issues that would be subject to negotiations in the future.”

There are several things the Fire Authority did agree to do, in an attempt to keep Irvine in the fold:

The city’s over-payment would be used to “aggressively” pay down its share of outstanding pension liabilities (which total $469 million, of which $80 million is assigned to Irvine); and it would give Irvine more services to help justify that over-payment, including increased staffing at Irvine’s Fire Station 20, at a cost of $3 million a year; a new emergency battalion, at $1 million a year; and a seasonal hand crew for firefighting, at about $400,000 a year.

“The OCFA looks forward to continuing our close partnership with Irvine in delivering world-class emergency services to Irvine’s residents and businesses, utilizing the expanding arsenal of regional (and federal) fire, disaster and medical services, equipment and professionals that OCFA brings to bear,” said the letter to Irvine from the Fire Authority.

Irvine officials were not loquacious about their next moves.

“We are continuing to work together to resolve any differences for the benefit of all parties,” said Councilwoman Melissa Fox, Irvine’s representative on the Fire Authority board.

Tension is mounting as the deadline for deciding whether to stay or go nears. A decision to go would take effect in 2020, though could be reversed before then.

If Irvine decides to leave, it would lose its seat on the Fire Authority’s board of directors. The county – which collects and manages Irvine’s property tax money – would be responsible for furnishing Irvine’s emergency services. It would contract with the Fire Authority to do that, leaving Irvine pretty much where it is right now, but with no voice.

Irvine would be the big loser here, Spitzer has said.

Adding to the tension, Placentia surprised everyone on June 19 when it decided to issue a notice of withdrawal from the Fire Authority. Annual fees have increased 47 percent since 2009, and they want to keep their options open, officials said.

The Fire Authority has a storied history.

Firefighting was once an arm of county government, but was spun off in the thick of the county’s bankruptcy in 1995 as an independent special district. Cities and the county signed a “joint powers agreement,” and the Fire Authority is now the county’s main emergency responder for 22 cities, the unincorporated areas and nearly 2 million people.

Its members pay for emergency services in two different ways: Some through property taxes, via those locked-in formulas, and others through annual cash contracts, paying directly for the services they get.

The property tax members are Irvine, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Los Alamitos, San Juan Capistrano, Cypress, La Palma, Laguna Woods, Mission Viejo, Villa Park, Dana Point, Laguna Hills, Lake Forest, Rancho Santa Margarita, Yorba Linda and the county unincorporated areas.

The cash-contract cities are Buena Park, San Clemente, Seal Beach, Tustin, Placentia, Santa Ana, Stanton and Westminster.

The long-term trend in good-government circles is toward a cooperative, regional approach to services, rather than going-it-alone, said Fred Smoller, political science professor at Chapman University.

When local governments pool their resources for regional things such as emergency services, it lowers costs and increases efficiencies for those paying the bills – the taxpayers.

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