Blog note: this article references a grand jury report.
Recognizing the potential peril of a devastating wildfire, Marin County fire agencies and municipal governments are proposing the creation of a new parcel tax to raise money to harden Marin’s defenses and a new joint powers authority to oversee the effort.
The proposals will be discussed by the Marin County Board of Supervisors when it meets on Tuesday.
“We have been working on a new approach to coordinate wildfire prevention efforts for some time, and we’re glad that residents and partners around the county understand the urgency of this proposal,” said Novato fire Chief Bill Tyler, president of the Marin County Fire Chiefs Association. “It’s necessary because fire does not respect jurisdictional boundaries.”
Voters could be asked to approve the parcel tax, which would aim at raising $20 million annually, as early as March.
Sixty percent of the revenue generated by the tax would be dedicated to core functions such as vegetation management, wildfire detection, evacuation improvements, grants and public education. Twenty percent would be used for annual defensible space evaluations, and another 20% would be used for wildfire prevention efforts designed for specific locales.
Proceeds from the tax would help Marin qualify for state and federal grants; but the money would stay local and be protected from any taking by the state.
Under the proposal, expenditures would be overseen by a new joint powers authority that would consist of the county government and the county’s fire agencies and municipal governments.
The authority would be governed by an 11-member board of directors. There would be two board members representing each of five proposed zones: Ross Valley, San Rafael, West Marin, Novato and Southern Marin. One board member would represent the remaining small districts.
In a report on fire preparedness that it released on April 25, the Marin County Civil Grand Jury called for the creation of a joint powers authority to coordinate wildfire preparedness and a quarter-cent sales tax to help fund preparedness efforts.
“Considering Marin’s current state of preparedness, citizens should not assume that first responders will be able to save them from the horrors of a wildfire like those experienced during Butte County’s Camp Fire,” the report stated.
“The idea of the tax and a JPA came entirely from the civil grand jury report,” said Lucy Dilworth, a member of the grand jury that produced the report. “We felt that a sales tax was the most equitable approach. Since everybody benefits everybody should contribute.”
Dilworth said the grand jury also feared a parcel tax might lead to controversy over which areas of Marin benefit most from the spending of the tax revenue.
Marin County Administrator Matthew Hymel said, “Based on discussions with all the fire-responsible agencies, we thought the parcel tax was the most appropriate revenue source. We are currently performing a parcel tax study to determine the relative costs by various property types.”
Marin County fire Chief Jason Weber said the grand jury’s recommendations aligned with previous analysis the county had done.
In 2015, county supervisors adopted a wildfire protection plan that inventoried the county’s fire fuel conditions and the number of people and structures at risk. The document was developed collaboratively by county fire and land management agencies.
Then, following the fires of 2017, the Board of Supervisors commissioned a cross-jurisdictional panel consisting of fire officials, land managers and municipal officials to review the devastating North Bay fires and make recommendations.
“We had very candid conversations about what worked well and what didn’t and what could have been done to avoid the calamity,” Weber said. “Based on the gaps identified in both documents, public demand to do more, and the understanding we could do this better together than independently, the fire chiefs, city managers and county executives began working on a countywide approach to wildfire prevention.”
“The work that needs to be done requires financial resources to create safer communities where residents can receive early alerts and warnings, safely evacuate and reduce the intensity of fires in a changing climate,” Weber said.
Organizers of the joint powers authority plan to make presentations to fire district boards, town councils and city councils through September and return to the Board of Supervisors with any proposed modifications to the plan.
August 10, 2019
Marin Independent Journal
By Richard Halstead
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