Felton Fire Protection District’s main station at 131 Kirby St. in Felton. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

Meeting: Felton Fire Protection District Board of Directors

6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29 at 131 Kirby St., Felton.
Read the most recent draft of the proposed parcel tax measure.

FELTON >> More than a month after a report urged leaders of Felton Fire Protection District to tax residents or consolidate with another agency, the Felton Fire Board of Directors have said they do not intend to merge and have not yet decided who will be taxed, or how much.

The tax revenue would be spent on hiring paid firefighters, buying new fire engines and trucks, and maintaining the fire station — expenditures not possible with the district’s current income from property taxes. Felton Fire now relies on volunteers that are paid stipends, but maintaining staff has been an ongoing issue.

Hiring firefighters is needed to ensure reasonable response times for Felton residents, according to the July report.

Three draft tax measures discussed by the board over the past two weeks have floated a $700 annual parcel tax with different exemptions, including for low-income homeowners. The more exemptions the tax allows, the less money it would raise for the district.

Board member Erica Schwanbeck said before she could make a decision she needed more detailed information about how the tax would be spent. “We want the public to make an informed decision and yet we’re not giving them information,” she said at a Monday board meeting.

Interim Fire Chief Issac Blum said that the expenditures for the tax income would depend on the details of the approved ballot measure. As the board has considered different tax exemptions, Blum has drafted different levels of staffing the income could support.

“If anyone wants to meet one-on-one, I’m happy to show you the numbers that I have” for tax expenditures, he said. “But you have to understand that those numbers will be subject to change.”

The details of the tax amount and expenditures are a “chicken and egg situation,” said Director Craig Winter.

The potential $700 tax is based on a preliminary financial analysis from the Local Area Formation Commission of Santa Cruz County published in a July report that considered possible options for Felton Fire to maintain services, or consolidate.

That analysis assumes that the district needs an additional $1 million annually, in part to pay for a full-time fire chief and three full-time firefighters. LAFCO Executive Director Joe Serrano expects to give more details about the financial analysis in a LAFCO meeting Oct. 1, he said in an interview.

The Felton Fire board will again consider language for the proposed ballot measure at its next meeting on Sept. 29, Winter said, adding that it and future board meetings will be streamed and recorded on Zoom.

What do you think?

Report urges Felton Fire to consider taxing residents or dissolving — Aug. 6, 2025
Felton Fire loses chief, service contract with Ben Lomond — May 14, 2025

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