Inflation and the lack of affordable housing in West Marin have prompted the Stinson Beach Fire Protection District to place a special parcel tax on the November ballot to boost salaries, reduce turnover and cope with an increasing workload.
The tax would generate $700,000 annually and enable the district to raise salaries for career staff, making them more competitive with departments elsewhere in the county, said Jessi Peri, the district’s fire chief. It requires a two-thirds vote to pass.
Stinson Beach has traditionally relied largely on volunteers and will continue to do so, but the pool of potential recruits has grown smaller as more and more people are priced out of the housing market, Chief Peri said. In addition, newly trained career staff often leave quickly for departments with higher pay. Stinson’s salaries are 50 percent below the county’s average firefighting salaries.
The proposed tax comes as public agencies throughout West Marin—including fire, school and public utility districts—grapple with the consequences of ballooning housing costs and the proliferation of vacation rentals that have left long-term options scarce.
The Stinson Beach parcel tax would add 42 cents per square foot of structural development to a homeowner’s property tax bill. Around half the funds would come from owners of second homes—many of whom cannot vote on the measure because their primary residences are elsewhere.
The district says the tax is essential for its survival. “Without a dedicated source of funding to address the professional staffing needs, the future of Stinson Beach Fire is uncertain, and we could be forced to close our doors,” the district website states.
A strategic plan developed by the district’s board in 2022 calls for boosting salaries and adding more paid positions to the department. The district also plans to build a new fire station, although that would not be funded by the parcel tax.
The district currently has seven career staff, including the chief, an administrative officer and five paid firefighters.
“The intention is to bring on an additional staff member to complete our full rotation of six with these funds, and also be able to compete with the local agencies for recruitment and retention purposes,” Chief Peri said. “It’s really difficult to fund a full-time workforce when you’re losing individuals every six months, which is what we’re currently losing right now.”
Over the last several decades, the pool of volunteers has shrunk dramatically, Chief Peri said. Half a century ago, there were as many as 30 or 40 volunteers, but that number has shrunk to just 12 today.
Meanwhile, the volume of emergency calls in Stinson Beach has doubled over the last 13 years. The district says the increase is a result of intensifying storms, an aging population and growing tourism.
At fire districts in neighboring Bolinas and Inverness, longstanding parcel taxes help fund fire operations. Inverness voters approved a fire district parcel tax in 1980 and Bolinas has had one since 1986. But both generate far less revenue than the $700,000 that the Stinson tax would raise annually—just $66,000 last year in Bolinas and $76,000 in Inverness.
Although the volunteer staff in Bolinas remains steady, the district added 1.5 paid positions in recent years. That steady help ensures that two paid staff are on duty 24 hours a day, according to Bolinas Fire Chief George Krakauer. The positions are funded through the district’s share of Measure W funds and Bolinas property tax revenues, which have risen about 5 percent a year for the last two years.
Still, to achieve competitive salaries and cover rising housing costs, the district may soon have to consider a tax increase, Chief Krakauer said. “There may be a time in the near future where we may need to look at a potential increase down the road or some other sort of funding stream,” he said.
In Inverness, fire operations fall under the public utility district, which also manages the community’s water supply. The volunteer department has only two paid staffers, including a half-time chief and a half-time deputy chief whose salaries are covered by the parcel tax and Measure W funding, according to Shelley Redding, the district’s general manager.
Ms. Redding said the fire district can function with just two paid staffers because, unlike the volunteer departments in Stinson Beach and Bolinas, Inverness is close enough to Point Reyes Station to receive swift support from county firefighters there.
The Inverness parcel tax cannot be used to pay for the operations of the water district, which has been seeking a new superintendent for three years now. The district recently hired a head-hunting firm to assist in the search and may need to consider a new rate increase to make the salary more appealing, Ms. Redding said.
As the district’s operations manager, Jim Fox currently serves both as fire chief and the head of the water department. He intended to retire three years ago but has remained in both roles until a new water superintendent is hired.
“Because of the price of housing, it’s probably going to be someone who has to find a house in Petaluma,” Chief Fox said.
The most recent Inverness water bill rate increase, which took effect on July 1, covered a 3.68 percent cost-of-living increase, but that’s not enough to keep pace with Marin prices. Consequently, the board is considering whether to seek another rate increase, Ms. Redding said.
“Our biggest challenge is trying to maintain salaries at a level that’s a living wage,” she said. “In order to maintain services, we need to have some way to figure out housing opportunities. Housing is our primary concern when we recruit.”
For now, Chief Fox said, the district’s roster of firefighting volunteers is holding steady at 18, but folks don’t have as much time as they did in the past. Many are aging and will need to be replaced by younger recruits. Finding them in Inverness is an increasing challenge, so the department is taking on volunteers from Inverness Park and Point Reyes Station.