Firefighters to Get Part of Prop. 172 Revenues : Supervisors: Board’s vote ends a dispute. Department will use its share of the $33 million in sales tax money to buy trucks and fix stations.

Acting on the opinion of their legal counsel, Ventura County supervisors agreed Tuesday to include the county Fire Department on its short list of agencies that can receive Proposition 172 sales tax revenues.

The supervisors voted 4 to 0 to approve a resolution ending a dispute with fire officials over the sales tax money that will total $33 million by the end of the fiscal year June 30. Supervisor John Flynn was absent.

Fire Chief James Sewell said he was pleased with the board’s action, saying that his department planned to buy new fire trucks and renovate some stations with its share of the money.

“We’re much more comfortable now that the board has reaffirmed their support for the Fire Department as part of public safety,” Sewell said.

Sewell’s predecessor, George Lund, was less successful in his battle for a slice of the tax money. Last year, he abruptly announced his retirement one day after the board voted to bypass the Fire Department in dividing the Proposition 172 funds. At that time, the board cited department management problems for its decision.

This year, county Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon said that state law precluded the Fire Department from receiving a portion of the sales tax money.

Approved by California voters in 1993, Proposition 172 established a permanent half-cent sales tax intended to provide a source of funding for public safety agencies hurt by an earlier shift in local property tax revenues to the state.

But unlike the Sheriff’s Department or the district attorney’s office, the Fire Department is part of a special district that was not affected by the property tax shift, Mahon had said. As a result, it was not eligible to receive money generated from Proposition 172, he said.

During Tuesday’s board meeting, however, County Counsel James McBride told the board that there was nothing in the law to prevent the county from including firefighters as beneficiaries of the sales tax dollars.

“It is my legal opinion that neither the Constitution nor [state law] prohibits your board from giving money to the Fire Department,” he said.

Mahon was out of town Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

Supervisors voted last month to approve an ordinance guaranteeing that all future sales tax dollars generated from Proposition 172 would go to five designated public safety agencies, including the Fire Department.

Although Mahon had questioned the validity of the Fire Department’s participation, McBride had not issued a legal opinion on the matter until Tuesday.

It will not be known how much firefighters will actually receive from the $33 million in Proposition 172 tax revenues until the supervisors adopt a county budget for the new fiscal year.