Following Placentia’s similar decision last week, Irvine officials will formally notify the county’s regional emergency services provider the city may withdraw from the agency in 2020.

Irvine and Placentia are two of 23 cities that get fire and emergency medical services from the Orange County Fire Authority, a joint powers agency that also serves unincorporated areas of the county.

After several years of debate over how to get its fair share of services, the Irvine City Council on Tuesday, June 26, voted to send a notice that in two years the city might leave. It will lose its seat on the authority’s board of directors.

“I do want to emphasize ‘might,’” Mayor Don Wagner said Tuesday, adding the notice starts a timeline of up to two years during which city and authority officials must try to resolve their differences.

Lori Zeller, the authority’s assistant chief of business services, said OCFA’s board will discuss the matter in a closed-door session Thursday night.

“All of our cities are important to us. We don’t want any of them to go,” she said, but added that officials have explored worst-case scenarios and don’t believe the departure of Irvine and Placentia would harm the authority’s service to remaining members.

Officials in Irvine, which pays toward the authority far more than other member cities, and Placentia are concerned about costs. Placentia officials have said the fees they pay the authority have increased far faster than other public safety costs and the city budget as a whole. Wagner said Wednesday that one estimate counts the total Irvine has overpaid since the authority was formed in 1994 at $200 million. Estimates of the over payments have ranged widely.

Under their agreement with the authority, all members have a chance every 10 years to consider quitting. The current window to decide ends July 1.

“It is our hope now that further discussions can be had” about what the OCFA could offer that Irvine would consider fair, Wagner said.

Irvine officials have asked the authority for a joint police and fire training facility in the city and to promise to speed up payment of unfunded employee pension liability, but Wagner said he’s disappointed with OCFA’s response so far.

Fixing the funding imbalance is tricky, because some members of the authority – including Irvine – pay an amount based on property taxes, while others pay a straight fee for services.

Zeller said the guarantee of equal public safety services regardless of how much a homeowner pays is “the core of the way the California property tax system works and we’re unable to change it.” However, she said, the authority is looking at how to beef up service to Irvine since it can’t reduce the city’s contribution.

Wagner disagreed, saying state legislation could change what Irvine must pay the authority, as could an agreement by OCFA and all its members.

Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who sits on OCFA’s board, said that as negotiations with Irvine continue, he hopes the rest of the board realizes how serious Irvine is about having some of its excess payments go toward pension liability.

Officials at the Orange County Employees Retirement System, which administers retirement benefits for OCFA workers, will be watching to see how the authority handles Irvine’s request, Spitzer said.

“We should absolutely take Irvine up on its offer to stay in the JPA (joint powers authority),” he said. “That is the responsible thing to do.”