County OKs fire district election boundaries

A new set of trustee district boundaries was approved for the East Fork Fire Protection District on Thursday, making it the first Douglas County governmental entity to complete the task.

Douglas County commissioners approved the resolution for the new districts after it had been approved by the fire district board in December.

They also introduced the ordinance that will establish the districts for Douglas County commissioners. Douglas County school board trustees approved their boundaries, which will have to be confirmed by county commissioners.

Redistricting should be completed in time for election filing in March, though just barely. The delay of the release of the 2020 Census results contributed to the timing for having the districts divvied up.

East Fork may be the first approved, but it also saw the biggest change in its districts.

For most of its existence, the district was overseen by the Douglas County Board of Commissioners. In 2017 when it gained an independent elected board, the trustee districts were essentially the same as those for county commission.

However, because the district does not include the Tahoe Basin, balancing the populations in the various districts required some adjustments.

Board President Jacques Etchegoyhen’s district was the most affected because the commissioner district he’s in includes Lake Tahoe.

East Fork Board member and former Douglas County Clerk-Treasurer Barbara Griffin said that the East Fork District follows the same rules as the Douglas County School District.

State law requires that county commissioners are in charge of redistricting, according to East Fork attorney Mark Forsberg.

On Thursday, Etchegoyhen thanked commissioners and county staff.

“It was a pleasure working with your staff through this,” he said. “I find it’s always better to work with people who are smarter than you are.”