Amador County – Jackson City Council last week discussed pending Prop 172 Public Safety funding changes that could affect the city fire brigades.

The Council discussed an Amador Fire Protection District board of directors meeting, which City Manager Mike Daly attended, during which the Amador County Board of Supervisors, who make up the AFPD board, voted 3-2 to recommend to the Board of Supervisors that the Amador Plan continue to be funded and that Pine Grove Mount Zion Station be funded fully by Prop 172 funds, during the off season.

The Amador Plan is a contract with California Department of Fire Protection to keep open and staff a station during the fall and winter, non-Fire Season months.

Daly said “Measure M money is not affected by this.” He said Prop 172 money was given by Supervisors to county-wide fire departments, through the Amador Fire Protection Authority, starting in 2006. Daly said Supervisors are looking at using more of that money for the Amador Plan, which would decrease the amount of Proposition 172 funding in city and regional fire departments.

Daly said it would affect the individual departments and he thought it would affect more AFPD and Sutter Creek contractual arrangements because “their piece of the pie was bigger.” He said the AFPD discussed having “further consideration to ensure that none of the departments have to make staffing changes,” and it “boils down to a policy decision of the Board of Supervisors.”

Supervisor Chairman John Plasse said there may be a supervisor who wants to restore the 172 funds to the AFPA, but he was not sure how it would be received at the supervisor level. Plasse was in the minority in the 3-2 vote, and said he wanted to put part of the $453,000 in Prop 172 funds toward a plan to help with staffing at two CDF stations, so instead of having one station, they could have two stations open during winter, and the engines at each could both respond to calls.

Supervisor Ted Novelli said the week before the AFPD vote that $206,000 of Prop 172 funding would go to dispatching county wide, and the $247,000 would pay for the engine, station, manning it and calls. He said AFPD decides every year where Prop 172 funds go. He said a couple of years ago it was at Sutter Creek and before that, it was at Dew Drop. Novelli said a lot of people want it at Sutter Hill.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.