Supervisors Ratify Emergency Proclamation for Fires, Approve Permit Fee Waivers
by Joe Naiman

The Board of Supervisors added three off-docket items to their Oct. 28 meeting before ratifying the Proclamation of Local Emergency for San Diego Firestorm 2003, allocating $100,000 to the Red Cross to serve fire victims, and waiving permit fees to rebuild structures lost in the fires.

The supervisors also voted to seek methods to expedite the permits to rebuild structures lost in the Roblar II (Camp Pendleton/ DeLuz), Cedar, Paradise, and Otay/Dulzura fires.

"We're trying to do everything we can to make sure those people get to where they need to be," Supervisor Pam Slater said of the fire victims.

A Proclamation of Local Emergency allows the county's Chief Administrative Officer to use emergency powers, which includes the assignment of county resources to protect life and property and protection of the county against liability for actions necessary to combat the fire. The county's Director of Emergency Services has the authority to issue a Proclamation of Local Emergency when the Board of Supervisors is not in session and forward such a proclamation to the Governor's office, but the supervisors must ratify such a proclamation within seven days. The Department of Emergency Services first proclaimed the emergency at 7:50 a.m., Oct. 26.

A proclamation of emergency also allows certain disaster assistance programs to be made available to the public when state and local proclamations are issued. Both Governor Davis and President Bush had declared disaster areas covering San Diego County by the time the supervisors ratified the proclamation.

The allocation to the San Diego and Imperial Counties Chapter of the American Red Cross was derived from the Community Projects budgets of Supervisors Greg Cox and Ron Roberts, each of whom recommended $50,000 from his Community Projects budget.

In addition to approving the allocation, authorizing the county's Chief Financial Officer to execute a grant agreement, and finding that the grants have a public purpose, the supervisors approved an amendment added by Roberts that any funding not used for victims of San Diego Firestorm 2003 would be placed into an account for relief in future disasters.

The American Red Cross came under scrutiny after Alpine's Viejas Fire in January 2001 when it was learned that donations hadn't been spent on the victims of that fire. The leadership of the San Diego chapter has since been replaced.

"I feel confident that we have a much better working relationship," Roberts said.

"I have seen the magnificent effort of all the Red Cross volunteers," said Supervisor Dianne Jacob. "This issue is now to make sure that the donations that people give to the Red Cross go into the local fund."

Jacob had been critical of the Red Cross after the revelations about the Viejas Fire donations but noted that she has been pleased with the new director and new board. "They're out there doing the right thing," she said.

The motion making the Roblar II, Cedar, Paradise, and Otay/Dulzura fires eligible for permit fee waivers includes authorizing the director of the county's Department of Planning and Land Use to determine the exact boundaries for waiver eligibility, since the boundaries of the affected areas were not known at the time the motion was passed.

Although Board of Supervisors Policy B-29 calls for full cost recovery for building permits, Fallbrook's Gavilan Fire in February 2002 resulted in a March 2002 Board of Supervisors action to amend the county's Administrative Code and waive permit fees for rebuilding structures damaged by natural disasters. That waiver requires that the Board of Supervisors adopt a resolution identifying the geographic area affected, which is eligible for the fee waiver. The fee waiver applies only to legally built structures, which were destroyed by the fire and located within the boundaries of the eligible geographic area.

"This action is going to be so very, very important to all those people who lost homes," Jacob said.

The permit fee waiver is estimated to carry a $2 million cost to the county. "That's a lot of money. But the reason we're positioned to spend $2 million is because the county has its fiscal act in order," Jacob said.

The fee waiver only applies to buildings under the county's jurisdiction. "I'm hoping City of San Diego will take such a leadership role," Slater said.

Homes were also lost within the Poway city limits as well as on the Barona and San Pasqual Indian reservations outside of the county's land use jurisdiction. Camp Pendleton is also outside of the county's land use jurisdiction, although structure damage from the Roblar II fire is not yet known.

Roberts noted that building permits carry two elements, cost and time, and made the motion to expedite the process to replace structures destroyed by the fires.

Slater noted that a future review of building exteriors, especially for homes near wildland areas, might be appropriate.

"We need to look at building standards," she said.

All three off-docket items passed on 5-0 votes, as did the motions to place those items on the October 28 agenda.

As of 5:00 a.m. Oct. 28 the Cedar Fire had burned more than 206,000 acres and had destroyed 881 single-family dwellings while damaging another 49. The Paradise Fire had burned more than 30,000 acres and destroyed 20 single-family dwellings while damaging another four. The Otay/Dulzura Fire had burned more than 45,000 acres, although no damage to structures has been confirmed, and the Roblar II fire had burned more than 47,000 acres.