Sonoma council authorizes city manager to sign Measure H funding agreement, securing estimated $700,000 yearly for fire services

The Sonoma City Council voted unanimously to adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to sign a funding agreement with Sonoma County to receive the city's share of Measure H, the half-cent county sales tax approved by voters to fund wildfire prevention, emergency response, vegetation management and related services.

City Manager David Guin told the council Measure H is a half-cent sales tax that the county will administer and distribute to cities and fire districts. "The City of Sonoma is allocated 1.18% of that amount, which equates to just over $700,000 a year," Guin said. He said distributions are expected to begin in March and will vary with sales tax receipts.

The agreement establishes how the county will disburse Measure H proceeds to jurisdictions and triggers creation of a Measure H oversight committee. Guin said the oversight committee will have 11 members: six appointed by the Board of Supervisors (with mayors and council members forwarding two nominees), three appointed by the Sonoma County Fire Chiefs Association and two by the Sonoma County Fire Districts Association. The committee will review implementation and the calculation of the ordinance's maintenance-of-effort requirement.

"Part of this agreement is a discussion about maintenance of effort," Guin said. He said the measure fixes a baseline funding level using fiscal year 2021-22 as the reference point; the intention is to prevent cities from supplanting local general fund contributions with Measure H revenue. Guin said the measure's text lacks detail on whether the baseline will be implemented as a dollar amount or a percentage of the general fund and that the city will negotiate interpretation with the newly formed oversight committee.

Fire and county officials who helped craft the measure told council members they deliberately excluded one-time grant and capital purchases from the maintenance-of-effort calculation to avoid penalizing cities for investing in equipment or accepting temporary grants. "We took out one-time grant funding as well as capital funding projects," a county-affiliated chief said during council discussion.

Council members pressed staff for clarifications about inflation adjustments, annexations and how boundary changes would affect allocations. Guin and a fire chief said the ordinance contains no inflation clause and that annexations or transfers of territory often require separate negotiations and agreements with the county; substantial annexations would likely be handled through a negotiated tax- and property-sharing arrangement.

At the meeting Councilmember Lowe, Councilmember Gurney, Vice Mayor Wallander, Councilmember Dean and Mayor Farrar Rivas voted in favor; the motion passed unanimously.

The council's action authorizes the city manager to finalize and sign the county funding agreement, and to negotiate minor adjustments consistent with the council's direction. Guin said he will return to the council with a proposed approach for how Sonoma will meet the maintenance-of-effort requirement after the oversight committee is convened, which the county expects in April or May.

The council and staff said the city already factored anticipated Measure H revenue into recent budget planning, noting the funds will cover items that include SAFER grant positions and regional dispatch (REDCOM) fees. Guin said the city will continue negotiating technical details with the county and the oversight committee before making any long-term commitments tied to the maintenance-of-effort calculation.