Encinitas, CA, Council to End Shared Fire Service Leadership Leaving Questions for Other Communities

A cooperative management agreement in place for more than 15 years that called for shared management of the fire agencies in Encinitas, Solana Beach and Del Mar will end next spring, and officials are trying to determine how they’ll proceed after the breakup.

The agreement, signed in 2009 and enacted in 2010, called for the three cities to split the cost of one fire chief and top managers who oversaw the departments. But in June, the Encinitas City Council voted to end its participation in the agreement, with officials setting a March 31 deadline to leave.

Fire Chief Josh Gordon said the decision wasn’t the result of any ill will among the three departments but rather reflected the needs of a growing city that wants to focus more on its own priorities.

“First and foremost, the relationship and the collaboration with Solana Beach and Del Mar has always been great,” the chief said. “It has nothing to do with any city politics or degradation of any kinds of relationships — it really is focused on Encinitas growing so much and having a lot more responsibilities that have been placed on public safety here.”

Gordon said the devastating Palisades fire, which destroyed more than 6,800 homes in Los Angeles after igniting Jan. 7, prompted some city officials to look closer at the agreement. Gordon has served as chief for three years.

“I think the Palisades fire really took the City Council and the mayor by surprise in a way that showed how the resources that the cities have really need to be focused on their jurisdictions,” he said. “With our development that’s been going on, we’ve had a lot of increase in residential homes, multifamily homes, some hotels are coming in… I think they wanted me as the fire chief and my leadership staff really to be able to focus solely on Encinitas because we’ve been growing so much.”

City officials also were concerned the current structure could create issues in the event of a large incident, Gordon said.

“The day-to-day stuff, I think we are doing great. Our relationships are good, we have great firefighters on the floor who do an amazing job, day to day,” he said. “But when that big event comes, one of the questions was asked — what (emergency operations center) would I be going to? And it’s hard to answer that question when there are three of them that could be opened.”

When it was created, the cooperative agreement also included Rancho Santa Fe. The four communities agreed to split expenses using a weighted formula that considered each area’s population, geographic area, call volume and department staffing levels. Rancho Santa Fe left the arrangement in 2013.

These days, Encinitas runs six fire stations with 52 firefighter personnel; Solana Beach has one station with 18; and Del Mar has one station with nine firefighters. The management staff includes one fire chief, one deputy chief, one administrative battalion chief and three deputy battalion chiefs.

In a report to the City Council in June, Gordon noted how much Encinitas had changed since the agreement was signed.

“Since 2009, Encinitas has experienced a surge in residential development, tourism and aging population-related (emergency medical service) calls,” he wrote. “These trends have created a scale of service demand that far surpasses the shared model’s original design.”

The city now handles more than 6,500 emergency incidents, while Del Mar and Solana Beach together account for less than 2,300 calls, the report said.

When the agreement ends, Gordon said his management team will focus more on Encinitas’ priorities, such as building new fire stations and increasing fire prevention efforts, as well as improving wildfire planning and pursuing grant funding. Gordon said other priorities include increasing public education and focusing on increased operational needs.

On the fiscal side, Encinitas will lose about $850,000 in revenue it receives annually from the other two cities.

Solana Beach and Del Mar haven’t determined how they will operate once the management agreement ends.

According to Gordon, officials are considering a number of options, such as working under or contracting with a neighboring entity such as San Diego or Rancho Santa Fe, or perhaps forming a joint-powers authority or creating another management agreement so the two remaining departments could split the cost of a fire chief and leadership staff.

“They’ve got a lot of options on the table and they are right now kind of trying to get down and vet each one of those to see which is better for their cities,” Gordon said.

Del Mar and Solana Beach managers issued a statement saying the cities are committed to maintaining exceptional fire and emergency response services for their residents and “supporting their fire professionals as each City determines the best fire management structure for their respective communities moving forward.”

Del Mar City Manager Ashley Jones said via email that the city is considering “all potential options” but that she didn’t have any specific details to share. She said public meetings will be held on the topic in the future.

For her part, Solana Beach City Manager Alyssa Muto said city leaders are “working to ensure that any transition is seamless for our residents and Fire employees.”

Members of a fire governance board, which includes two council members from each city, have been meeting regularly and seeking input from city officials to plan the transition.

“Right now it is a lot of meetings,” Gordon said, “and a lot of seeing what information, what programs and processes, and contracts all need to be moved over from Encinitas’ purview over to theirs.”