LAFCO gives final approval for critical East County Fire District annexation to CCCFPD

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA (Mar. 16, 2022) — Contra Costa County’s Local Agency Formation Commission gave the final go ahead for the annexation of East County Fire Protection District to the greater Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. The unanimous vote ended the underfunded district’s decades long struggle to find an adequate, sustainable revenue stream.

CCCFPD will complete the operational and administrative consolidation of the two entities by July 1. CCCFPD will absorb East County’s firefighting staff, support staff, facilities and equipment, and the newly merged organization will provide improved fire and emergency services to the more than 128,000 residents of eastern Contra Costa County.

“Annexation together with the allocation of Measure X funds, will double the number of stations serving East County residents, with additional stations opening as soon as this summer,” said District 3 Supervisor Diane Burgis.

Station 55 in Oakley will reopen immediately followed by two new Measure X funded stations in Brentwood within the next two to three years. The eastern part of the county should have nine stations to be adequately protected says ECCFPD’s Steve Aubert. It is currently limping along with three.

“(Annexation) has rightly been characterized as a historic achievement, resolving service deficits that have plagued East County for decades,” Burgis said.

“Response times will improve, fire apparatus will arrive with a paramedic on board, and slowly but surely, improved ISO rating will help residents and businesses save money on annual fire insurance,” said Brian J. Oftedal, President of the ECCFPD Board of Directors.

Residents in some of the more remote areas of eastern county have been faced with skyrocketing costs for fire insurance, if they could get it at all.

While the two districts already work very closely on mutual aid assignments across current borders, each maintains separate operations, training and administrative functions, annexation will allow for achieving economies of scale by bringing the separate operational entities under one administrative structure.