The mass mailing to thousands of people comes on the heels of Tuesday night's City Council decision to form a special Oakland hills Wildfire Assessment District. The council first needed to pass a resolution forming the district before ballots could be mailed.

The ballots must be returned to City Hall by Jan. 6. A majority of the hills voters must approve the district.

City Council and Oakland Fire Department officials worked with hills residents for about six months before Tuesday's vote to devise a plan to replace vegetation management services cut from next year's city budget.

Neighborhood activists formed the Keep Oakland Fire Safe committee to promote the special assessment district. Committee member Ken Benson said for the cost equivalent of three extra-large pizzas, hills residents can buy a comprehensive vegetation management program that could prevent a fire.

"It will be a safer place to be, a well-managed place to be, a more beautiful place to be," he said.

The assessment district will pay for goat grazing in the hills, roving fire patrols on high-fire danger days, neighborhood wood-chipping programs and other services.

The Oakland and Berkeley hills were the site of a deadly and destructive 1991 firestorm that burned 3,000 structures and killed 25 people.

Opposition to the tax is small. Some opponents say hills residents should not be the only ones paying for fire prevention services that benefit the entire city. Others said the tax will maintain services that are shoddy at best.

"We are totally ill prepared for a fire," hills resident David Mix said. He chastised the council for trying to raise money for vegetation management programs while cutting the city's fire department budget.

He said a comprehensive fire prevention plan should include the University of California and East Bay Regional Parks property in the hills, which this does not.

Members of Friends of Sausal Creek, an organization that protects natural resources in the creek watershed, criticized the district for not dealing with highly flammable eucalyptus and Monterey pine trees.

They say goats used in the vegetation management program contribute to erosion and destroy endangered native plants.

They also complain those contracted to cut vegetation are not trained to avoid native plants and crews have destroyed half of the Sausal Creek watershed's pallid manzanitas.

Councilmember Jean Quan (Montclair-Laurel) said her staff is working to identify naturalists who might want to be on the assessment district advisory board.

She said training of goat shepherds and vegetation management crews to avoid the taking of native plants is possible.

"They're raising some legitimate issues but it's something we can start on even before it's passed," Quan said.

Perhaps the greatest challenge for the district will be to make all voters aware the ballots are coming in the mail and have them turned in by the deadline.

Jayne Becker, assistant to Interim City Manager Deborah Edgerly, said the mailers will clearly indicate they are ballots for the Wildfire Prevention Assessment District.

"I think there's a lot of interest in it and I hope people do return their ballots right away before they forget about them or lose them," Becker said.

If a voter loses, throws away or changes his or her mind about a vote, they should call Joe Francisco at339-3092 to receive a new ballot.

A final City Council hearing about the assessment district will be Jan. 6. The ballots will be tabulated Jan. 7 and 8 at City Hall.