East County Fire parcel tax vote called off after ballots sent out
Bad data leads to wrong assessments
East Contra Costa Fire must reissue some 44,000 ballots already mailed to East County property owners for a special election to fund fire service because the assessments were calculated incorrectly, Fire Chief Hugh Henderson announced last week.
The assessments were based on faulty and incomplete data received from two county agencies.
According to East County Fire board member Stephen Smith, the data received from Contra Costa County Fire did not include correct placement of fire hydrants for an estimated 3,000 parcels across the district. Nor was the data from the Contra Costa County Global Information Systems (GIS) office updated to show correct road mapping for 7,000 parcels within district. Without the updates, some 10,000 parcels were assessed too low— some as low as $37 instead of $103—causing 32,000 parcels to be assessed too high.
The board was left with no choice but to stop the process while the data is corrected, recalculate the assessments and reissue the ballots, probably in early November.
The error was discovered when a board member checked the assessment on his ballot against the consultant’s data and found it to be much lower than expected. A further check by district staff revealed the extent of the error.
“I am angry, embarrassed, furious that this situation happened,” said board president Joel Bryant.
“This is going to cost the district,” said board member Cheryl Morgan. “The county certified the data. I want culpability. Someone needs to pay for this.”
The data is collected from multiple agencies, Smith explained in an email to the Pioneer. ConFire gets hydrant locations from the water districts, of which there are four major ones and several smaller ones, making verification of data complicated and prone to error.
The roads mapping is even more complex, Smith said. That database depends on input from developers, contractors and local agency engineering and development departments.
“We’ve barely scratched the surface on what happened,” Smith said. “We’ve identified a limited set of areas where the problems took place and the focus for verification can be on those areas rather than the entire District,” he explained.
The fix is expected to take 6-8 weeks, putting the new ballots out sometime in late October or early November, right about the time the funds from the federal SAFER grant run out.
The District has been bleeding money since 2008 when the Recession knocked property tax revenues down about 40 percent. Two years ago, a ballot proposition that would raise property taxes in the district failed to get the required two-thirds vote. A special benefit assessment district will pass with only a simple majority of the property owners receiving the benefit.
The district closed the Brentwood station last month and is on a timeline for closing the Knightsen station in November.
Marsh Creek and Morgan Territory residents are relatively safe for the time being. East County contracts with CalFire to staff the Marsh Creek Sunshine Station all year.