Encinitas will terminate its 16-year-old, fire management agreement with Del Mar and Solana Beach, but the change doesn’t have to happen until early next year, the City Council unanimously decided Wednesday.
The months-long delay will allow the other two cities plenty of time to adjust to the change, council said as they directed city staff to end Encinitas’ participation in the agreement by March 31, 2026.
There’s also another benefit, Mayor Bruce Ehlers said. If Encinitas holds off for months on making the change, it will have less of an impact on the city’s budget in the new fiscal year, he noted. The council’s scheduled to vote on the city’s proposed budget next week, and the new fiscal year begins July 1.
On an annual basis, the change is expected to cost Encinitas an extra $850,000 — the amount the two other towns are currently contributing for shared employee expenses.
Under the t agreement, the three cities split the cost of a fire chief and nine other management positions. Encinitas, by far the largest of the three cities and the one with by far the most call volume, pays nearly 70 percent of the expenses. It also acts somewhat as the group leader, supervising personnel and providing fire management expertise.
While that’s worked in the past, the city needs to move into a new era now, Fire Chief Josh Gordon told the council. If the city makes this change, he said, fire officials will have more time for Encinitas-specific wildfire planning, ambulance service issues, vegetation management concerns and grant funding applications, among other things.
“When we’re working for three different cities, there’s three different ways of doing things all the time,” he said.
All of the council said they backed his request and would make sure there was money in future city budgets to make it happen.
“This time is right to go out on our own,” City Council member Luke Shaffer said as he compared the situation to a person on an airplane putting on their own oxygen mask before assisting fellow engers.
Council member Jim O’Hara said he was “looking forward” to the change, while Council member Marco San Antonio, a former Orange County volunteer firefighter, said he was “100 percent in of this.”
Council member Joy Lyndes said she too thought this was “the right direction to go” and suggested that Gordon provide a public update on the transition process and the proposed changes in August.
Established in 2009, the t cooperative agreement originally included four communities — Rancho Santa Fe, as well as Del Mar, Encinitas and Solana Beach. Initially, there were hopes that the agreement would lead to the creation of a larger, regional firefighting authority, like what Orange County has, but that idea failed to gain traction, Fire Chief Josh Gordon said.
In 2013, Rancho Santa Fe terminated its participation in the agreement.
Over the years, Encinitas has seen its population and its fire call volume increase, Gordon said. The city now handles more than 6,500 emergency incidents, while Del Mar and Solana Beach together only for less than 2,300 calls.
While the cost-sharing agreement is being terminated, the city’s participation in other regional firefighting programs, including mutual aid calls and training exercises will continue, fire officials have noted.
