Fire Chief Josh Gordon said the decision wasn\u2019t the result of any ill will among the three departments but rather reflected the needs of a growing city that wants to focus more on its own priorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, the relationship and the collaboration with Solana Beach and Del Mar has always been great,\u201d the chief said. \u201cIt has nothing to do with any city politics or degradation of any kinds of relationships \u2014 it really is focused on Encinitas growing so much and having a lot more responsibilities that have been placed on public safety here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gordon said the devastating Palisades fire, which destroyed more than 6,800 homes in Los Angeles after igniting Jan. 7, prompted some city officials to look closer at the agreement. Gordon has served as chief for three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the Palisades fire really took the City Council and the mayor by surprise in a way that showed how the resources that the cities have really need to be focused on their jurisdictions,\u201d he said. \u201cWith our development that\u2019s been going on, we\u2019ve had a lot of increase in residential homes, multifamily homes, some hotels are coming in\u2026 I think they wanted me as the fire chief and my leadership staff really to be able to focus solely on Encinitas because we\u2019ve been growing so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
City officials also were concerned the current structure could create issues in the event of a large incident, Gordon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day-to-day stuff, I think we are doing great. Our relationships are good, we have great firefighters on the floor who do an amazing job, day to day,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when that big event comes, one of the questions was asked \u2014 what (emergency operations center) would I be going to? And it\u2019s hard to answer that question when there are three of them that could be opened.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it was created, the cooperative agreement also included Rancho Santa Fe. The four communities agreed to split expenses using a weighted formula that considered each area\u2019s population, geographic area, call volume and department staffing levels. Rancho Santa Fe left the arrangement in 2013.<\/p>\n
These days, Encinitas runs six fire stations with 52 firefighter personnel; Solana Beach has one station with 18; and Del Mar has one station with nine firefighters. The management staff includes one fire chief, one deputy chief, one administrative battalion chief and three deputy battalion chiefs.<\/p>\n
In a report to the City Council in June, Gordon noted how much Encinitas had changed since the agreement was signed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince 2009, Encinitas has experienced a surge in residential development, tourism and aging population-related (emergency medical service) calls,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThese trends have created a scale of service demand that far surpasses the shared model\u2019s original design.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city now handles more than 6,500 emergency incidents, while Del Mar and Solana Beach together account for less than 2,300 calls, the report said.<\/p>\n
When the agreement ends, Gordon said his management team will focus more on Encinitas\u2019 priorities, such as building new fire stations<\/a> and increasing fire prevention<\/a> efforts, as well as improving wildfire planning and pursuing grant funding. Gordon said other priorities include increasing public education and focusing on increased operational needs.<\/p>\n On the fiscal side, Encinitas will lose about $850,000 in revenue it receives annually from the other two cities.<\/p>\n Solana Beach and Del Mar haven\u2019t determined how they will operate once the management agreement ends.<\/p>\n According to Gordon, officials are considering a number of options, such as working under or contracting with a neighboring entity such as San Diego or Rancho Santa Fe, or perhaps forming a joint-powers authority or creating another management agreement so the two remaining departments could split the cost of a fire chief and leadership staff.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve got a lot of options on the table and they are right now kind of trying to get down and vet each one of those to see which is better for their cities,\u201d Gordon said.<\/p>\n Del Mar and Solana Beach managers issued a statement saying the cities are committed to maintaining exceptional fire and emergency response services for their residents and \u201csupporting their fire professionals as each City determines the best fire management structure for their respective communities moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Del Mar City Manager Ashley Jones said via email that the city is considering \u201call potential options\u201d but that she didn\u2019t have any specific details to share. She said public meetings will be held on the topic in the future.<\/p>\n For her part, Solana Beach City Manager Alyssa Muto said city leaders are \u201cworking to ensure that any transition is seamless for our residents and Fire employees.\u201d<\/p>\n Members of a fire governance board, which includes two council members from each city, have been meeting regularly and seeking input from city officials to plan the transition.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now it is a lot of meetings,\u201d Gordon said, \u201cand a lot of seeing what information, what programs and processes, and contracts all need to be moved over from Encinitas\u2019 purview over to theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cooperative management agreement in place for more than 15 years that called for shared management of the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":187262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,5295,34835,32310,1370,728,50,8738,3549,3550,7264,85004,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-187261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","12":"tag-del-mar","13":"tag-encinitas","14":"tag-latest-headlines","15":"tag-local-news","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-north-county","18":"tag-san-diego","19":"tag-san-diego-county","20":"tag-sandiego","21":"tag-solana-beach","22":"tag-top-stories-sdut","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115117649121947559","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Firefighters](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SUT-L-brushfire-Del-Mar03-2.jpg\")
Firefighters work next to homes that were evacuated near the end of Mira Montana as a brush fire burns in the Torrey Pines State Reserve Extension area in San Diego on June 25, 2024. (Hayne Palmour IV \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n