The deadline has passed for returning mail-in ballots on a major property assessment increase for the Penn Valley Fire District. Joey Jordan, with the Fire Citizens Committee, says around 6500 ballots were sent out in mid-April for only legally-recognized parcel owners and not just registered voters. She doesn’t know how many have been returned yet, with the count to be conducted by the League of Women voters on Saturday. But she’s concerned that about a low response, since the coronavirus shutdown prohibited public meetings to clarify the proposal, with a lot fewer participating in virtual formats…

Jordan says some people actually threw their ballots away. What isn’t vague is the amount of the increase, spiking the per-parcel fee from 80 dollars to 296 dollars. The last time an increase was approved was in 2005. The new amount would fund the hiring of six additional fulltime firefighter/paramedics, which would provide the ability to operate three vehicles a shift, instead of two…

The ideal response time is no longer than nine minutes. But the increase needs only majority approval, because only parcel owners are considering the proposal and not all voters.