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River Ranch Fire Rescue leaders press county over missed interest payments; commissioners approve county payment to make district whole
Summary
At public comment a River Ranch Fire Rescue board member highlighted repeated accounting errors that cost the district interest. County staff said a fund had been set up incorrectly as non‑interest bearing; staff calculated $19,427 in missed interest and the commission voted to compensate the district from county funds.
During the public comment period, Joe Doss, treasurer and board member of River Ranch Fire Rescue, urged the county to tighten controls after multiple errors affected the fire district’s funds held in the county investment pool. Doss said earlier problems with Pacific Power and PGE had produced significant impacts and raised concerns that similar errors were still occurring. “I’m frustrated because currently I’m functioning as the treasurer… and it seems like we’re constantly on the defensive digging,” Doss said.
County staff explained the technical cause: a new custodial account (Fund 665) for the Jefferson County Rural Fire Protection District had been established earlier in the year without being configured as an interest‑bearing account in the county investment pool. That omission meant the fund did not receive its allocated share of monthly pooled interest from February 2024 until the error was discovered and corrected in July 2024.
Finance staff calculated the missed interest for the period July 2023–June 2024 and February–June 2025 at approximately $19,427 in total. County administrators noted the calculation was time‑consuming because it required reconstructing average daily balances and allocations for multiple months; the finance office presented options for how the county could remedy the shortfall.
Commissioners discussed alternatives: (a) do nothing and let districts pursue corrections, (b) “claw back” interest from other pool participants to reallocate the amount, or (c) make the district whole from county discretionary funds. The commission voted to use county funds (a transfer from a county discretionary fund) to reimburse the fire district rather than reallocating interest across other taxing entities.
County staff said the issue arose during several staffing transitions in the finance office and that processes have been corrected. Commissioners and public commenters asked for clearer checks and cross‑checks between assessor, tax roll, and investment allocations to avoid repeating these problems.
Ending: The county agreed to compensate the fire district for missed pooled interest, and finance staff said they would report back on corrective actions to improve monthly reconciliations and communication with taxing districts.
