Amador County – The U.S. Attorney’s Office reached two settlements for $29.5 million with Pacific Gas & Electric for damage caused by two forest fires that burned 7,600 acres of National Forest in 2004.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced last week that the United States has settled two lawsuits it had filed seeking recovery for forest fires on National Forest land in the Eastern District of California. The fires, known as the “Freds Fire” and the “Sims Fire.”

The Freds Fire ignited Oct. 13, 2004 on El Dorado National Forest land in El Dorado County, when a contractor for PG&E, Davey Tree Surgery Company, caused a tree to fall into a power line. The line snapped and fell to the ground, sparking the fire, which burned for three days, costing over $3 million to suppress.

Freds Fire destroyed more than 32 million board feet of timber and old growth forest. Davey Tree Surgery Company paid the United States $12 million to settle the suit.

The Sims Fire ignited on July 27, 2004 on Six Rivers National Forest land in Trinity County when a decayed 100-foot tall Douglas-fir tree broke and struck a PG&E power line, causing a fire that burned for approximately five days and cost nearly $5 million to suppress.

The Sims Fire destroyed more than 26.2 million board feet of timber and several hundred acres of old growth. The United States sued PG&E and its tree inspector, Western Environmental Consultants, for failing to identify and remove the hazard tree that started the fire. PG&E and Western have agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle the lawsuit. Both defendants deny liability for the fire.

Restoration projects funded by the settlement will have a direct environmental benefit in the district by helping to heal the El Dorado, Six Rivers, and Shasta-Trinity National Forests. Settlement funds will be used for reforestation efforts to replant the burned trees, which is very costly especially in high-severity areas where natural regeneration is unlikely to occur.

U.S. Regional Forester Randy Moore said: “We anticipate these settlement funds will allow us to achieve our ecological restoration goals on the forests impacted by these fires.”

Since 2006, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has recovered $192 million dollars in litigation relating to fires on federal lands in the Eastern District of California, including $51 million in the last two years.

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Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors last week discussed equalizing fire and law enforcement funds from Proposition 172 for emergency services.

Supervisor Ted Novelli, as a board member of the Amador Fire Protection Authority oversight committee, pulled the issue from a previous agenda for more information. He thought Supervisors should advise the AFPA board to have its member entities advise them on how they are spending Prop 172 funds. He said “to me, fire and public safety money, we would each get them up equal.”

Novelli said the funds currently go 37.5 percent to fire and 37.5 percent to law enforcement. Supervisor John Plasse said they should equalize funds among police and fire, because the county now simply backfills law enforcement money with the General Fund.

Plasse said they need to decide if the portion that went to the Amador Plan and Cal-Fire should still go there. He said an “ever-increasing portion was going to fire entities, including out-of-county, that refuse to consolidate.”

Novelli said cities get Prop 172 funds but don’t tell the county how they use it, but they want to know how the county uses its funds. Plasse said “they are free to use it as they want.”

Plasse said “if Prop 172 is sent back to AFPA, then we’re asking for some specificity of how they are spending those funds.” Supervisor Brian Oneto agreed. He said: “We’re supporting city fire departments, with county General Fund dollars,” but “when there is a crash, why is there 10 vehicles out there?” People ask him and he said: “I don’t have a good answer.”

Plasse said multiple fire task force studies have come back with the same goal of consolidation of one, county-wide fire department. Cities have passed support resolutions. He said “we’re just subsidizing inefficiencies” that entities refuse to resolve when you give a larger portion of tax money to cities that is meant to go to fire.”

Supervisor Chairman Louis Boitano said: “We can no longer afford the Amador Plan,” which 20 years ago cost $142,000 for all three stations, and now is $250,000 for one station, for winter staffing, this year at the Pine Grove Mount Zion station, staffed in a contract with CDF.

Plasse said Amador County also subsidizes countywide dispatching with $200,000 a year paid to Camino. He said some cities now have employed fire fighters and enrolled them in CAL-PERS retirement, a “fiscally unsustainable retirement package. To me, it’s bad governance” and he did not want to be responsible for those city decisions. Plasse said Amador Fire Protection District has left CAL-PERS and put in place its own retirement plan.

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Amador County – Plymouth City Council last week approved a Development Agreement with Reeder Sutherland Incorporated for its two subdivisions which could bring 485 new single-family homes to Plymouth, after annexation of 412 acres of the two projects, over a 15-year estimate project life.

Shenandoah Ridge’s annexation would include approximate 147 acres, a residential neighborhood, a park, a natural trail network and large open spaces, and plans for 115 homes. The land is located immediately north of city limits, and west of Highway 49.

The Zinfandel site, 365 acres on the southwest border of Plymouth, includes 3.7 acres that are part of the neighboring Greilich parcel, and plans for 370 homes. Zinfandel consists of one residential neighborhood, passive and active parks, a natural trail network and large open spaces.

City Manager Jeff Gardner said the project was not seen by the school district as having an impact on the schools, because of the likely buyers of the higher-market priced homes planned there, expected to be retiree aged, with no children in schools. Members of Amador County Local Agency Formation Commission said the Development Agreement should seek a school site. Gardner said the School District, not the city, was the one who had the power to seek that.

Reeder Sutherland includes president Bob Reeder, executive vice president Stefan Horstschraer, and investor Joseph Mehrten of Calaveras County, who agreed to pay an advance water impact fees of $412,000 to the city over five years, which will go toward the city water fund debt service payments of the new water pipeline.

City Consultant Richard Prima said the city has 45 lots of capacity in the water system, thanks to improvements, and the Development Agreement will build in an “additional buffer” in which “the developer needs to add capacity before we run out,” which “adds to the strength of the agreement for the protection of the city.”

Councilwoman Pat Shackleton near the end of last week’s hearing on the Development Agreement, said: “I would like to make the motion.” She said: “I’ve lived here longer than anyone and I was born here.” Councilman Jon Colburn said: “You have three years on me.”

Shackleton said the council likely “split hairs” on the great detail of the related agreements, including Conditions of Approval, because of all the past decisions where they thought they made mistakes.

New Mayor Sandy Kyles, who was a Planning Commissioner during the projects’ planning stages, said in 23 years in planning, it’s the most detailed work she has seen a City Council do on those documents.

The approval finalized the return of the city from a cease and desist order on new water hookups for even one single family home, and a four-decade building ban, to having a water supply financed by a $5 million USDA grant, and a newly upgraded sewer system.

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Amador County – Amador County Board of Supervisors last week agreed to set a one-year timeline on fire service consolidation for a county-wide fire department, or contracting with Amador Fire Protection District or the county will cease allocation of Proposition 172 funds to fire entities which remain separate.

Supervisor Ted Novelli requested the topic to clarify Board of Supervisors direction regarding Amador Fire Protection Authority consolidation, and current and future usage of Prop 172 money and stipends currently allocated to each agency reporting to AFPA.

Novelli said “let their boards decide” because “I don’t want to force them to do what they don’t want to do.” Supervisor Richard Forster said they “should put it down on paper that we are consolidating.” He said he didn’t want it to be a threat, but if they don’t want to consolidate, then Prop 172 money goes away.

Supervisor Chairman Louis Boitano said contracting with AFPD would be OK, and if it ceases, Prop 172 funds would go away. Supervisor Brian Oneto suggested a year for districts to decide whether they would consolidate. He said “committing is one thing, but it’s another thing to sign on.”

Supervisor John Plasse agreed with a year timeframe “because the next agenda item is a budget item where we could be spending Prop 172 money.” That was the Local Community Corrections task force issue.

Forster said “a year’s plenty of time. They should have been thinking about this.” He said they should show “substantial progress toward consolidation.”

Novelli said if some departments don’t want to consolidate, then the board needs to decide what we want to do with these funds. He said: “I don’t want to dictate. I want to see if it’s going for the right thing, and if it is not then we make that determination.”

Boitano said “I don’t think threatening them is the way to go. They need to be pushed. That’s the bottom line.” Forster agreed. He suggested Novelli get with Boitano and write a letter to fire agencies asking for Prop 172 accounting on a yearly basis of how that money was spent, along with the year timeline to decide on consolidation.

Boitano said: “I think we ought to get on the road to getting everybody consolidated. The sooner we start, the sooner we get it done.”

Novelli said some don’t want to consolidate, and if they don’t, “I do not want to force them to do it. But we should make it clear that if they don’t, the Prop 172 money will be lost.”

Boitano said he has “assured each district that it can keep its own identity.”

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