Approve fire protection services agreements with the Cities of Woodland and West Sacramento for services within the former Elkhorn Fire Protection District boundaries. (No general fund impact) (Pogledich)

Approve fire protection services agreements with the Cities of Woodland and West Sacramento for services within the former Elkhorn Fire Protection District boundaries.

Each of the attached agreements between Yolo County and the Cities of Woodland and West Sacramento ensure the provision of fire protection services within the service area of the Elkhorn Fire Protection District (Elkhorn FPD), dissolved by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) on June 30, 2026 with the County as the successor agency. The West Sacramento agreement also covers County Service Area No. 9. The agreements modify draft agreements initially reviewed by the Board of Supervisors on March 24, 2026 to reflect that Elkhorn FPD was dissolved rather than consolidated with Springlake Fire Protection District. Key provisions of each agreement include:

Services each City will provide. Through its Fire Department, within the geographic areas identified in Exhibit A to each agreement, each City will provide fire suppression, emergency medical and hazardous materials first response, technical rescue, and fire cause-and-origin investigation, at a quality comparable to what City property owners receive given geographic and land use differences. The agreement expressly carves out several categories, most significantly incident command for complex or prolonged incidents, community risk reduction work such as inspections and plan review, emergency management, non-emergency calls, and cost recovery other than for DUI incidents. Those matters will remain the County's responsibility. 

The County's obligations. The County retains building permits and inspections, code enforcement, and arson investigation, and assumes incident command on complex incidents after the initial four-hour operational period, subject to each City's discretion to retain command longer. Any fire service not addressed in the agreement remains the County's responsibility.

Compensation. The County will pay the City of Woodland $293,129 and the City of West Sacramento $88,036 for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 2026, adjusted annually thereafter based on CPI. The County's payment obligation is absolute and is not contingent on any particular funding source, including taxes or assessments collected within the service territory of each agreement. This differs from the payment terms of the draft agreements presented on March 24, which included fixed County payment obligations tied to property tax and assessment revenues and a separate, additional County payment to each City to ensure full cost recovery for services provided. The agreements included with this item simplify the payment structure for ease of administration and eliminate the two-part payment structure, instead requiring a single annual County payment to each City. Overall compensation to each City, however, remains the same as presented on March 24. 

Term and termination. The initial term runs five years, through June 30, 2031, continuing year to year thereafter. Either party may terminate for any reason on one year's written notice.

Staff recommend Board approval of each agreement to ensure the continuity of fire protection services in the Elkhorn service area. Each City has been providing such services since the Elkhorn FPD dissolution under short-term service agreements drafted to cover the short period between the LAFCo action and Board/Council consideration of the agreements included with this item. In addition to changes in the payment terms, described in "Compensation", above, the substantive terms of each agreement have been updated from the March 24 versions in other, mostly minor respects to clarify the allocation of services and obligations between the County and each City.

County Administrator's Office, Cities of Woodland and West Sacramento.