Woodland Avenue fire district puts special assessments before parcel owners

The Woodland Avenue Fire Protection District is not making big promises of better service with its proposal for special parcel assessments.

But the annual assessment of about $82 per house will ensure the all-volunteer department maintains its level of service, fire Chief Mike Passalaqua said. That might be saying something in a time of tough state mandates on training and equipment maintenance for rural fire districts.

Passalaqua said Woodland Avenue has pulled $15,000 to $20,000 from reserves to make ends meet in the past couple of years.

“Hopefully, the service will improve, but I don’t know how,” said Passalaqua, who is paid a $1,500-a-month stipend. “I am not able to meet all the mandates at this rate.”

Last week, the fire district sent ballots to property owners, which also propose annual assessments of $1-an-acre on agriculture land, 4 cents per square foot on commercial property and $150 on school and church parcels. Ballots must be returned by July 9.

Its small share of property taxes gives Woodland Avenue about $170,000 each year to maintain two stations and respond to emergencies in a 45-square-mile area. The district spreads out along both sides of Highway 132 from Modesto’s western border to the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers. Shoemake Avenue forms the boundary between the Woodland and Salida fire districts.

Woodland also protects neighborhoods and commercial and industrial buildings in unincorporated pockets west of Highway 99 in Modesto. About 5,500 people live in Woodland’s territory.

Passalaqua said the department, with 28 volunteer firefighters, survives on what an executive officer in a larger city department is paid each year. It needs to replace a water tender and has fallen behind on needed maintenance for other equipment, the chief said.

The proposed assessments would give the fire district an additional $200,000, boosting the annual budget to $370,000.

Scott Calkins, a homeowner, said he wished ballot materials sent to property owners contained more information about the district’s finances. “I don’t know where their revenue comes from beside the property tax,” Calkins said.

Woodland does not have extra levies on top of normal property tax.

Nick Blom, a district resident and chairman of the Modesto Irrigation District board, said the district works within a miniscule budget and he does not mind paying extra assessments. He said he had not analyzed if the amounts were right for the service provided.

“I liken it to insurance,” Blom said. “I pay for insurance hoping I never have to make a claim. I don’t mind paying a little knowing they will be there when I need them.”

Under Proposition 218, the ballots for parcel owners are weighted by assessed value. A total “yes” vote of more than 50 percent is needed to approve the assessments. A district-hired consultant will tally the returned ballots at a 3 p.m. hearing July 9.

For some fire districts in California, special assessments have become an alternative to getting two-thirds voter approval for fire service taxes, though they have tiptoed around legal questions. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has claimed the assessments are not the appropriate or legal way to fund emergency services for the general public.

Special assessments are usually paid by property owners within a defined area who benefit from an improvement such as streetlights. A 2011 appellate court ruling went against a Northern California fire district whose proposed assessments ran into a lawsuit, but the district got approval for a fire tax before the Supreme Court could hear the matter.

The Howard Jarvis group has said it is considering a challenge of the benefit assessments currently proposed in the Salida Fire Protection District. The Sacramento firm that advised Woodland on the Proposition 218 process did not return calls seeking its interpretation of the law.

Passalaqua said an informational meeting on Woodland’s proposed assessments is set for 3p.m. Tuesday at the station at 3300 Woodland Ave.

This story was originally published June 5, 2015 at 11:06 AM with the headline "Woodland Avenue fire district puts special assessments before parcel owners."