Escondido City Council Votes to Cut Services to Rural Fire District

Angry rural residents faced with the loss of city fire protection filled the Escondido City Council chambers Wednesday night, pleading and demanding that the city and the Rincon Del Diablo Municipal Water District settle their jurisdictional dispute.

But City Council members proceeded to do what they said they are required to do under the law and voted to cancel city fire and paramedic services to 13,500 non-city residents beginning Sept. 30.

However, the council amended its vote by agreeing to further discussions with the fire district in an effort to resolve the five major remaining issues on which the sides disagree.

Rincon officials and two City Council members have been negotiating, but no agreement has been reached either to merge the two fire departments or to continue the cooperative pact between the city and the district, which has been in effect for five years.

3,500 Households

The 3,500 households affected by the rift lie to the southwest, south and southeast of Escondido, and in the unincorporated Lehner Valley northeast of the city.

Rincon Fire Chief Richard Blacker said he has begun hiring and will be ready to supply fire and paramedic services to the widespread areas by Sept. 30.

Residents, however, demanded that the city continue its fire protection of the unincorporated fringes of the city, as it has under a five-year agreement with Rincon that expired in December.

Willis Cornelius, board chairman of the Rincon Del Diablo Municipal Water District, parent of the fire protection district, delivered what he called “a eulogy” for the fire service pact with the city, saying that the cooperative agreement “was probably the best for everybody.”

Under the agreement, Escondido firefighters operated equipment from both agencies, covering the entire city and the outlying areas. Non-city residents paid a flat $72 a year for the services, which city residents received as part of their city tax dollar.

Political Allegation

Cornelius blamed the failure to reach an accord on a permanent cooperative pact on “the political aspirations of a single individual,” Escondido Councilman Jerry Harmon.

Harmon, informed of the statement, said could not understand Cornelius’ attitude.

“All we are trying to do is to make the agreement which has been in effect for five years a permanent one, according to the terms agreed upon by both sides when we started this,” Harmon said.

Under the agreement signed in 1984, Escondido was to assume the equipment and real estate of the Rincon fire district at the end of five years, Harmon said, effectively putting Rincon out of the fire protection business, “which is what we thought they wanted.”

A glitch developed during negotiations when Rincon officials said they could not turn over $800,000 in assets held by the district because that would be an illegal gift of public funds, Harmon said. But the problem was seemingly resolved when the two agencies agreed to jointly build another fire station, using the fire district’s assets and Escondido city tax funds.

Cornelius said a permanent merger agreement, acceptable to the top staff negotiators on both sides, had been worked out. It was submitted to a City Council subcommittee composed of Harmon and Councilwoman Carla DeDominicis, who “rewrote the whole agreement, leaving in all the concessions our side had made and leaving out all those agreed to by city negotiators,” he said.

“The true misfortune in this is that it interrupts the spirit of cooperation that has existed between the city and the district,” Cornelius said. “It’s a shame that one man can do this to a total community, destroy a relationship that has been beneficial to everybody.”

‘Set Record Straight’

Fred Adjarian, general manager of the Rincon district, said officials welcomed the chance to “set the record straight” to Escondido residents and to Rincon area residents alike. Rincon officials plan a second public meeting at 7 p.m. Aug. 7 at San Pasqual High School to discuss future plans.

Harmon said he doubts that the agreement between the two agencies can ever be resurrected. He added that the city would continue to provide mutual aid response to the Rincon district, but would not provide automatic response. Under mutual aid, other fire agencies are called in after the responsible district has arrived at the fire scene. Under automatic response, the nearest fire agency responds at once.

To provide automatic response outside the city’s boundaries would be illegal use of city tax funds, Harmon said. The only way that residents in unincorporated areas could receive full city fire and paramedic services, he said, would be to annex into the city.

Art McCullough, a resident in the unincorporated Rincon fire district area, said most residents in the outlying areas wanted a continuation of city fire and emergency aid services and blamed both governmental bodies for failing to reach agreement on a merger.

Both Escondido and Rincon “are playing political hardball, and we poor guys are caught in the middle,” McCullough said.