Felton and local area residents expecting to review their fire district’s budget this week were left in the dark after the Felton Fire Protection District (FFPD) failed to meet basic legal notice requirements.
A legal notice published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel announced that the board would meet to adopt its annual budget on Monday, Sept. 29. But the notice that was published on Sept. 13 was incomplete and failed to include the full language required by law, thereby violating the Brown Act.
In addition, there are legal requirements for the public to be able to view and issue comments on the budget, and the location and time availability for public viewing must be shared in the announcements (the district is required to post two notices within a 30-day period prior to adoption).
When the Monday meeting convened, Interim Fire Chief Isaac Blum admitted the notice was deficient and declared the budget would not be shared due to guidance from legal counsel.
That decision sparked frustration among community members who showed up to hear about the budget. Not only was the budget itself withheld, but the public was also denied its legal right to review and comment on how the district intends to spend taxpayer money.
Under California law, special districts like Felton Fire are required to make proposed budgets available for public inspection ahead of adoption. The Brown Act further mandates that public business be conducted openly and with adequate notice. By publishing an incomplete notice and moving forward without releasing a preliminary budget, the district may have violated both the letter and spirit of these laws.
“Transparency is not optional,” one resident said after the meeting. “If they can’t even get the noticing right, how are we supposed to trust the numbers in the budget?”
It remains unclear when a corrected notice will be issued, or when the public will have an opportunity to review and weigh in on the district’s spending plan.
Monday’s meeting was also supposed to feature additional information on the parcel tax that the district is planning to levy against Felton property owners. Initial amounts hovered around $700 per parcel, but the graphic shared at the board meeting showed a decrease of about $18 per parcel.
Without providing any firm documentation as to how that parcel tax would be allocated, the public was again denied pertinent information on the expenditures being considered for the tax. Blum shared a graphic that reflected the need to replace aging fire apparatus along with a metric showing salaries for paid staff, but stopped short of full transparency around the purported implementation of the parcel tax.
While the majority of residents are in support of the FFPD line personnel, there are concerns about the way the board and chief are conducting business. Providing a preliminary budget to the public for review is a basic expectation for FFPD, as is completing and submitting the final budget.
With the September submission deadline passed, the district could face legal repercussions or a loss of state funding due to their incalcitrant nature. Prior to exiting the contract with FFPD, Ben Lomond Fire Chief Stacie Brownlee had supplied the department with a timeline that outlined the budget development and submission process, but those instructions weren’t adhered to, leaving FFPD the only SLV department that hasn’t submitted its adopted budget to the county.
At Monday’s meeting, Director Erica Schwanbeck shared a document with the board and public that dove into the root causes of issues plaguing the district. An analysis by Schwanbeck pointed to inconsistent leadership at the chief’s level, multiple issues swirling around the board and line personnel staffing concerns. All of those contentions in the 2.5-page document painted a picture of a district that is in need of stable, confident leadership to help address the panoply of concerns held by Schwanbeck and some members of the public.
While the board had determined earlier in the year that two meetings per month were necessary to tackle the looming problems facing the district, it was announced at the meeting that the board would revert to only meeting once a month.
Interested in following the district’s trajectory? Visit feltonfire.com/board-of-directors/board-meetings to learn more.
