Angels Camp, CA…After a six-month investigation, the 2025-2026 Calaveras County Civil Grand Jury found that the “Altaville-Melones Fire Protection District has not had an independent audit performed since fiscal year 2020-2021, resulting in a lack of accountability and transparency to the public it serves.”

The report, “Taking the Measure of Measure A,” was published on May 4 at grand jury.calaverasgov.us/reports by the Superior Court, which annually appoints 19 county residents as grand jurors to serve as citizen watchdogs over local government.

The Grand Jury investigation was part of a comprehensive review of the county’s nine fire districts and one municipal fire department to assess compliance with the provisions of Measure A, the Calaveras Local Fire Protection Ordinance, which was passed in 2024. Measure A added 1% to sales tax in Calaveras County and will generate more than $8.4 million in fiscal 2025-26, according to the county Auditor-Controller’s estimate. The ordinance mandates that no less than 70% of the revenue generated will be spent on staffing, which enabled the county’s ten fire agencies to more than double the number of full-time firefighters, adding 53 to their ranks in fiscal year 2024-2025, nine of them at Altaville-Melones.

“When fire stations are staffed 24/7, firefighters are able to roll out immediately instead of waiting for firefighters (including volunteers) to assemble at the station,” according to the Grand Jury’s report. The report estimates that “70-90% of calls (to fire stations) are medical/accident-related and 10-30% of calls are fire-related.”

The Grand Jury recommended that the Altaville-Melones Fire Protection District conduct an independent audit for fiscal year 2024-2025 and for three missing years, 2021-2022 through 2023-2024, by December 31, 2026.

Under California law, the Altaville-Melones Fire Protection District Board of Directors must respond to the Grand Jury report within 60 days.

The Calaveras County Civil Grand Jury encourages the public to share concerns about county, municipal, school, and special-district operations at its online complaint form, forms.calaverasgov.us/Grand-Jury

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Media contact: Grand Jury Foreperson, Katharine Klise, at katharineklise@calaverascounty.gov