The seven members of the Amador Fire Protection Authority, numerous fire chiefs and city managers, county officials and a few firefighters dealt with a short list of agenda items with long-range possibilities Wednesday afternoon.

The gathering was all about deciding whether to place a sales tax initiative on the November ballot. Faced with increasing demands, rising costs and a shrinking pool of volunteers, the county's fire protection service groups are hoping to raise enough money to pay for professional firefighters. Amador County firefighters had tried this before in 2006 and came close to getting it passed. That year's measure garnered 62 percent of the vote, but it needed two-thirds for passage. The near-miss was costly in time, energy and money. All concerned hope they learned enough from the experience.

Sutter Creek Fire Chief Butch Martin reminded everyone that the intended recipients of tax money raised by an initiative are not allowed to finance the political campaign. Martin asked if anyone else remembered that the Jackson Rancheria had provided the necessary capital two years ago. Would they be willing to do it again, he wondered aloud, as he simultaneously volunteered to make the call and ask.

The first decision was two-pronged: How much should the authority pursue and through what type of tax. The choice of how much was between 1/4 cent and 1/2 cent. The two types are general and special tax. Revenues from a general tax would go to the county's general fund, whereas revenues from a special tax could be dedicated to a specific purpose, in this case, firefighting.

When talk at the meeting started to wander, Amador Fire Protection District Chief Jim McCart suggested that they just get down to business and a formal balloting process began.

Lockwood Fire Protection District had decided at its recent meeting to support a 1/2 cent general tax. The city of Ione was in favor of a 1/2 cent special tax. Plymouth was reported to be split 3-1 in favor of a 1/4 cent special tax.

Sutter Creek started at 1/4 cent general, provided that the request include an incremental pledge from the county board of supervisors. Jackson Valley logged in with 1/2 cent special, as did the city of Jackson.

Some conversation ensued between city managers Mike Daly of Jackson and Kim Kerr of Ione concerning legalities that could limit both the political campaign and the ballot language. This moved Sutter Creek's Martin to say, "I'll switch to special, but we'll have to really get to work on this."

A motion to seek a 1/2 cent special sales tax increase was made, seconded and passed 6-1, with Plymouth Councilwoman Pat Fordyce opposed.

Discussion turned to allocation of the funds that would be generated by passage of the 1/2 cent special sales tax, a topic that went in many directions.

Lockwood again went first, having decided at its own meeting to support most of an allocation plan presented by the city of Jackson at the AFPA meeting two weeks ago. Jackson Valley asked for an increase in the "seed money" from $50,000 to $100,000. Proposition 172 funding came up, as did the Amador Plan and conflicting processes for counting call volume.

"We probably should have multiple parameters, including population and call volume, among others," Kerr said. This led to general agreement that there would have to be many meetings of representatives of the fire departments to hammer out the details of allocation.

The official proposal needs to be on the agenda for the board of supervisors soon enough for them to approve it and send it on to elections officials by June 28.

Hopes for resolution of allocation questions lie in the hands of AFPA members John Asmus, Lee Ard and Connie Gonsalves, working with fire chiefs Ken Mackey of Ione, McCart, Mark Morton of Jackson and Dave Long of Lockwood.

An exchange between California Department of Forestry's Mike Kirkley and Amador County Auditor Joe Lowe about the Amador Plan led to the revelation that a now widely-used method of funding firefighters year-round was invented right here in the county.

In the 1970s, CAL FIRE's Sutter Hill Battalion Chief Don Conarroe devised a plan to provide fire protection 24/7 through the winter. Prior to this time, CAL FIRE simply closed up shop as soon as the fire season ended, leaving no one on duty in case of emergency. Conarroe went to the California State Legislature for approval of his plan to share CAL FIRE manpower and equipment with a county willing to pay the costs. The Legislature passed the plan and it came to be known as "the Amador Plan," which is still in use in rural counties around the state.