Missing Apparatus Adds New Wrinkle to San Diego County CA, Julian-Cuyamaca Fire Protection District Standoff Firefighters

A fire engine has gone missing in Julian, the latest casualty in the tug-of-war between the county and the volunteer firefighters who once served the rural area.

The $300,000 engine, E57, was based at a station staffed by members of the Julian-Cuyamaca Fire Protection District, the county’s last volunteer fire department that was dissolved on April 8.

But when the county Fire Authority assumed control of the district, a decision that is being challenged by the volunteers, the fire truck was gone from the small station in Cuyamaca. And it wasn’t at the district’s main fire station in Julian, either.

Queries as to its whereabouts were met with shrugs.

So the county Fire Authority filed a missing/stolen vehicle report with the Sheriff’s Department, which is now investigating, officials say.

Meanwhile, the county was back in court Wednesday renewing a request of a Superior Court judge to issue a temporary restraining order that would force the volunteers to produce the fire engine, as well as a $25,000 missing cardiac monitor within 24 hours.

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The volunteers have been holed up in the main station for most of the past two months, refusing to relinquish control of the property they contend is still theirs, as legal challenges work their way through the courts.

The county on Wednesday was also going to ask Judge Randa Trapp to order the volunteers to vacate the station within 48 hours because they have failed to live up to an agreement made a month ago to allow Fire Authority representatives to inspect and take inventory of the station each day and account for all the equipment.

But the hearing was rescheduled for Friday at 2 p.m. Attorney Craig Sherman, who represents several people associated with the volunteer department, filed a challenge against Judge Trapp seeking all Julian firefighter legal issues be assigned to another judge.

It appears Trapp will rule on that request Friday. If she denies it, the restraining order issue will likely be addressed.

This is not the first time attorneys have tried to remove Trapp from the case. On April 29, attorney Cory Briggs, who represents the directors of the Julian fire district which technically no longer exists, made the same challenge but was denied.

Despite a public vote in March in which 54 percent of the residents of the 87-square-mile fire district opted for county control, and despite the official vote of LAFCO, which oversees special county districts, to dissolve the volunteer department, everything remains in legal limbo.

On April 25, the various sides agreed in court to let county firefighters inspect the Julian station each day. Reports have been prepared for each inspection and each day the county has asked where truck E57 is.

According to the reports, most of the time volunteers said the last time they had seen the fire truck was at the Cuyamaca station, suggesting the county already has control of it.

“Is the theory that the County actually has the fire engine but is claiming it’s missing as a ruse?” Senior Deputy County Counsel Josh Heinlein wrote to Briggs on May 16, according to court filings. “If the County had it, we wouldn’t be asking about it and the fact that your clients feign knowledge of its whereabouts is frankly not believable. Produce the vehicle for inspection.”

In a filing made yesterday, Briggs asks a question of his own. “The vehicle bay (at the main fire station) is full. Does the County really think it’s appropriate to leave a fire engine outside at an unattended fire station?”

On Wednesday outside of the courtroom, Briggs, asked where the fire engine is, said he had no comment. He argues in court papers that the county has failed to live up to the agreement as well by not producing a list of items taken from the Cuyamaca station.

He also submitted a photograph in a filing yesterday of the missing cardiac monitor saying it is safely stored in the IT room at the station. Previous inspections did not find the cardiac monitor, according to inspection reports, and at times the IT room was locked and county inspectors could not get inside.

The inspections have also been tense, according to the reports.

On May 1 this was noted: “This was the first-time (county firefighter) Ryan Silva had been to Julian station 56. He described the feeling of the inspection as uncomfortable, completely inappropriate, and the interactions hostile. The personnel at station 56 made him feel very uncomfortable.”

The agreement to conduct daily inspections ended May 25, but on Wednesday the judge ordered them to continue Wednesday and Thursday.

A county spokeswoman said inspectors on Wednesday still could not find Engine E57, but they did find the cardiac monitor.

Meanwhile, a significant court hearing in the Julian case remains tentatively scheduled for June 7 when lawyers for the county and LAFCO will ask Trapp to set aside a ruling she made on April 5. That ruling declared that the prior board of directors of the fire district that voted to seek dissolution in early 2018 violated the state’s open meeting law Brown Act by secretly deciding what they would do before voting publicly.

Briggs contends that since the vote by the former board was illegal, then everything that followed, including the public vote in March and LAFCO’s vote to dissolve in April, are void.

Trapp late last month said it is now clear to her that she made that ruling without having all the information before her. She then essentially reopened that case and allowed the county and LAFCO attorneys to intervene. The county argues that Briggs and Sherman colluded to defraud the court, which led to the ruling.

The county and LAFCO will ask Trapp, assuming she is still overseeing the case, to set aside her earlier ruling. They also are asking that she find in their favor or at least order a new trial.

It was a few days after Trapp said she had not been working with all the information that Briggs first tried to have her taken off the case, saying she was biased. That was denied, but Sherman renewed the challenge Wednesday. Should Trapp remove herself on Friday, then it is likely further court proceedings will be delayed until a new judge can get caught up.

Ever since April 8, all fire and emergency services in the district are being handled out of two Cal Fire stations in the Julian area. The volunteers remain at times in their station but cannot respond to any emergencies and have been cut off from their dispatch system.

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