CLEARLAKE, Calif. – On Thursday, the Lake County Fire Protection District received unexpected but very good news – its Measure D parcel tax has passed.
The Registrar of Voters Office finished certifying the March 7 special election on Thursday afternoon, with the final results showing the measure got more than the needed two-thirds supermajority to go into effect.
The final ballot count released by Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley showed the measure passing by 67.4 percent to 32. 6 percent.
It needed at least 66.7 percent to pass because it is a specific tax. That meant that it required at least 1,314 “yes” votes. It got 1,325, just 11 more than it needed.
“We’re so happy,” Lake County Fire Protection District Chief Willie Sapeta told Lake County News early Thursday evening.
The preliminary election results, released on the night of March 7, had suggested that the measure was failing by a narrow margin of approximately 10 votes, for an overall “yes” vote of 66.3 percent, or 1,133 ballots, to a “no” vote of 33.7 percent, or 565 ballots, as Lake County News has reported.
Still, Fridley’s office had up to a month to complete the work of the final election canvass, which included counting another 303 ballots – most of them vote-by-mail, otherwise known as absentees – that were not part of the preliminary election night tally.
In a March 10 report, she said those 303 ballots included 135 absentee ballots dropped off at the polls on the day of the election; 87 absentee ballots postmarked on or before March 7 and received at her office by the mail-in deadline of March 10; 49 absentee ballots that needed review for various reasons; and 32 provision ballots.
As it turned out, those ballots held the key to the shift in Measure D’s outcome, which went from a preliminary 66.3 percent preliminary yes vote to a 67.4 percent final yes vote. The shift in the no votes from preliminary to certified counts went from 33.7 percent to 32.6 percent, respectively.
The final vote count showed 1,325 votes in favor of Measure D, and 642 votes against it, according to Fridley’s certified numbers.
The final canvass also showed that 1,971 ballots were cast in the special March 7 election, of which 1,647 were absentees and 324 were cast at precincts. Total voter turnout was 23 percent of the 8,578 registered voters in the district, which covers 17 total precincts.
Measure D’s increase to the “yes” column was a 1.1 percent shift from the preliminary tally. In recent elections, the only measure to have a more significant shift toward a positive outcome in the final count was the city of Clearlake’s Measure V road sales tax, passed in November, which also needed a supermajority win.
After the preliminary Nov. 8 count, Measure V had a 67.3 yes vote, which after the final count of additional absentees and provisionals increased by 1.5 percentage points to the 68.8 percent reported at the conclusion of the final canvass in early December, as Lake County News has reported.
Good news and next steps
Sapeta said Lake County Fire Protection District’s phones were off the hook on Thursday afternoon as numerous people found out the finally tally results before district officials did.
With more than two weeks of nervous waiting now over, Sapeta said the good news was like a breath of fresh air for the district. He and the board had expected that they might have to look at cutting services or going back to voters at an upcoming election if the measure didn’t come through.
Sapeta said Measure D taxes livable space on parcels, not outbuildings, garages, barns or other structures. So the increase for people paying the current Measure F parcel tax of $60 on permitted dwellings will instead pay a total of $120, with Measure D canceling out Measure F.
Measure D does not impact the district’s fire mitigation fee, he added, which remains $1 per square foot.
Sapeta said Measure D is expected to bring in between $300,000 and $400,000 in additional revenues each year for the district.
That increased revenue will create financial sustainability in the district’s operations, which Sapeta said has been his goal since becoming chief several years ago.
The Lake County Fire Protection District currently has 23 paid staff to serve a 165-square-mile area that encompasses the city of Clearlake and Lower Lake, the county’s most populous area.
The district reported that its number of calls for service have grown by 267-percent over the last 20 years and is expected to continue to grow.
Currently, Sapeta said the district averages about 5,200 calls for service annually, from emergencies such as fires and vehicle crashes to medical aids.
Earlier on Thursday, in the hours before he found out Measure D had passed, the Lake County Fire District had 18 medical aid calls, and on three of those events had to call in Northshore Fire on mutual aid for coverage, Sapeta said.
“It was kind of monumental,” he said of the day’s heavy call load, adding that it put the importance of the passage of Measure D in perspective.
By this time next year, Sapeta said, he hopes calling for mutual aid in such situations won’t be necessary.
Next steps, said Sapeta, include the district board meeting to carry out the required formalities, including accepting the election results.
He’s then prepared to begin a full local and statewide recruitment for a total of six new full-time staffers, including three firefighter-emergency medical technicians and three firefighter-paramedics.
Those six new positions will fully staff Lower Lake Fire Station 65, which had been a main goal of Measure D, Sapeta said.
He said he’s hoping to have those six new jobs filled as soon as possible.
“There’s a lot of work ahead of us, but it’s all good work,” he said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
