The Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved the Riverside County Fire Department’s request to attach fire mitigation charges to the tax bills of four property owners whose orchards and vineyards were cleared of weeds and other potential fire hazards at the county’s expense.
In a 4-0 vote without comment — and Supervisor Chuck Washington absent — the board authorized agency officials to apply the unpaid amounts, with surcharges, to the owners’ tax invoices this year.
According to the fire department, the owners, whose properties are located in unincorporated areas of Hemet, Murrieta and Perris, are delinquent and altogether owe a total $158,189 under the county’s Fire Hazard Reduction Program…