It's looking like the residents of Amador County may soon get a chance to vote for paid firefighters.

In a special sales tax measure slated for the November ballot, the seven districts comprising the Amador Fire Protection Authority will be asking everyone who spends a dollar shopping to add half a cent for fire protection.

The concept of paying firefighters has been slow to catch on in Amador County. There have been people on the payroll for some time at the California Department of Forestry and the Amador Fire Protection District, both of which are geared to battle blazes in the rural, wooded areas of the county. The cities, however, have always had to rely almost entirely on volunteers, who are becoming fewer and farther between.

There are many details to be worked out before the June 10 deadline. The first hurdles have been cleared, competition among the districts having been the highest and hardest to jump. Rough drafts of proposals from the various districts have been submitted.

County Administrative Officer Terri Daly spoke Thursday of the timeline for submitting a plan to the board of supervisors, which must approve any plan before it can become a ballot measure. Daly had prepared a to-do list for the members, which included tasks like developing an organizational plan and financial projections.

"This is an impossible task, to put this together by June," responded Plymouth City Councilman Greg Baldwin.

Daly tended to agree with Baldwin, hinting at a postponement for a year or two, but the others weren't ready to give up. "We have done a lot at the workshops," said Sutter Creek Fire Chief Butch Martin.

Ione City Manager Kim Kerr has been working on her city's proposal. "We need to revise the existing ballot measure (from 2006), massage the language," she said.

"We've already been working together - Jackson, Sutter Creek and AFPD," added Sutter Creek Fire Protection District's Hal Gamble.

When Lockwood Fire Protection District Board President Andrea Jones expressed concern about her district's smaller population, lower call volume and likely smaller allocation of funds from the tax measure, Martin said, "I can tell you just what you should do. Join the Joint Powers Authority and become part of the group and stop worrying about it." Martin added that this meeting was about the tax and allocations and not about consolidation.

Some members voiced a fear that voters might not understand the measure is aimed solely at providing paid firefighters, not at purchasing new equipment or constructing better facilities.

"Chrome on fire trucks doesn't put fires out," was Martin's response.

There will be weekly meetings, every Thursday at 4 p.m., to hash out the details for submission to the supervisors by June.

Other ways to obtain funding were discussed briefly. Some funds have been allocated to fire protection services from Proposition 172 collections. It was generally agreed that some plan resembling the sales tax allocation proposal be used for their distribution.

The question is still pending within the AFPA about whether to pursue an increment property tax.

"I don't want to give this up," said Jackson City Councilwoman Connie Gonsalves. "We should continue to pursue the increment tax."

"Sooner or later, you have to strong-arm," suggested Martin. "This is an election year and I think it's the right time to ask the supervisors for the incremental tax."

At a previous meeting of the AFPA, County Auditor Joe Lowe had told the members that he would not be able to recommend an incremental tax for fire protection to the supervisors. The firefighters would need to break down that door.