To: Board of Supervisors
Department or Agency Name(s): County Administrator’s Office
Staff Name and Phone Number: Terri Wright 565-2431
Vote Requirement: 4/5th
Supervisorial District(s): All
Title:
Title
Red Flag Warning Up-Staffing Agreement Amendment
End
Recommended Action:
Recommended action
A) Delegate authority to the County Administrator to amend the agreement with the Gold Ridge Fire Protection District, adding $300,000, for a new not-to-exceed amount of $1,200,000, from: July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.
B) Approve a Budget Resolution increasing appropriations in the Fire Services Fund by $100,000 from General Fund Contingencies. (4/5th Vote Required)
end
Executive Summary:
This item seeks the Board’s authorization to amend the contract with the Gold Ridge Fire Protection District (Gold Ridge) to increase funding for the Red Flag Warning Up-Staffing program. On behalf of the Sonoma County Fire Chief’s Association, Gold Ridge acts as an administrator of this program that reimburses fire agencies in the county to increase staffing and pre-position in key locations during Red Flag events. The amendment will increase the current contract by $300,000 to (CR) align with the needs experienced thus far in the 2020 fire season. In addition, a request to use $100,000 from General Fund contingencies is presented ahead of the fiscal year’s mid-year estimates, in order to promptly distribute funds to fire districts to limit operational fiscal challenges.
Discussion:
On June 11, 2018, the County of Sonoma entered into an agreement with Gold Ridge to administer the Red Flag Warning Up-Staffing program with $900,000 of funding through June 30, 2020, or until the funds were exhausted. The program was one of many recommendations coming from the Fire Services Advisory Committee, which later transitioned to the Fire Services Work Group. The Sonoma County Fire Chief’s Association as a part of their operational area coordination efforts, determines the event pre-positioning actions, including the agencies that will pre-position, pre-position locations, event hours, and equipment needs to ensure preparedness for a Red Flag event. Due to the number of recent Red Flag events, current funding is expected to fall short for this year’s fire season level of activity.
Since the program’s inception in June 2018 through October 17, 2020, a total of 25 Red Flag events have occurred, including 7 events as of October 17th in 2020. The program utilizes an all-agency form of response. Since its inception, 19 different agencies have pre-positioned for events, including agencies from cities, districts, volunteer companies, and a tribal agency. Based on historical data, the month of October was the busiest month for the program, with a total of 11 events. (As of the preparation of the historical data, two additional red flag events occurred in October.)
The Gold Ridge Fire Protection District has not received all of the invoices from responding agencies, but based on historical data and estimates for the two events that were not captured in the data, staff estimates that the program will be short by approximately $250,000 to $300,000 to cover the events in October 2020. The Fire Services Project Fund has enough appropriations to cover $200,000, therefore this item also request use of $100,000 of General Fund Contingency Funds to align with the 2020 fire season services rendered.
The Fire Services Ad Hoc, comprised of Supervisors Rabbitt and Hopkins, will coordinate with staff to make a recommendation for the continuation of this program as a part of the FY 2021-22 Budget process.
Prior Board Actions:
June 11, 2018 - Red Flag Up-Staffing Agreement was approved
Fiscal Summary
|
Expenditures |
FY 20-21 Adopted |
FY21-22 Projected |
FY 22-23 Projected |
|
Budgeted Expenses |
$200,000 |
|
|
|
Additional Appropriation Requested |
100,000 |
|
|
|
Total Expenditures |
$300,000 |
|
|
|
Funding Sources |
|
|
|
|
General Fund/WA GF |
|
|
|
|
State/Federal |
|
|
|
|
Fees/Other |
$200,000 |
|
|
|
Use of Fund Balance |
|
|
|
|
Contingencies |
$100,000 |
|
|
|
Total Sources |
$300,000 |
|
|
Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
There are sufficient appropriations in the Fire Services fund to cover $200,000 worth of costs for this agreement. An additional $100,000 is also being requested from contingency funds.
Staffing Impacts
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Position Title (Payroll Classification) |
Monthly Salary Range (A-I Step) |
Additions (Number) |
Deletions (Number) |
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|
|
|
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|
|
|
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|
|
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Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
N/A
Attachments:
Budget Resolution
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
N/A