Fire annexation heads to local ballot

It's official: the Medical Lake City Council has approved an ordinance asking voters to give the thumbs up - or down - in August to a proposed annexation of city fire services by Spokane County Fire District 3.

There was considerable discussion by council members during its April 2 meeting before the unanimous vote to move the ordinance forward.

Councilmembers Ted Olson and Laura Parsons were absent from the meeting.

Councilwoman Jessica Roberts, who said she supported the merger "100 percent," asked why residents currently within District 3 would vote to support the merger.

"Why would they want, and why would they be in support of having Medical Lake join and be annexed when now their services are now going to be spread a little thinner?" Roberts asked.

Because doing so was in their best interests, District 3 Fire Chief Cody Rohrbach replied.

"Services would not be spread thinner," Rohrbach said, but would be augmented by the addition of volunteers absorbed from Medical Lake Fire, thus "adding capacity" to existing District 3 crews.

Councilman Tony Harbolt asked if there would be staffing model changes or less equipment available at District 3 stations due to annexation.

Rohrbach pointed out that not only would service response times in Medical Lake go down - over 1 in 4 calls went unanswered by Medical Lake fire and EMS crews last year - but in District 3 as well.

"There's now a bigger pool to draw from," Rohrbach said.

He made reference to a favorite selling point, what he calls "economies of scale." Not only is there fewer administrative staff required, thus reducing overhead costs, but response times in Medical Lake and surrounding areas would improve "if we can do what we think we can do with the fire station here."

District 3 is already considering plans to upgrade the existing Medical Lake Fire Station, bringing it to required building codes for overnight stays by emergency responders.

"That resource could access (calls) outside of the city," Rohrbach said. "That's why (the District 3 board of commissioners) is supporting it."

Such economies of scale would create service enhancements to both Medical Lake and "the greater West Plains," Rohrbach said.

Another Roberts question related to support of Medical Lake events, specifically Independence Day festivities and the fireworks that are often part of celebrations. She noted that Medical Lake has in the past made significant preventative efforts during the holiday.

Medical Lake is one of handful of cities in the region that still allows fireworks within city limits.

"If this were to be approved is that something ... District 3 is willing to take on to keep the community safe that would be a huge staffing commitment?" Roberts asked.

Rohrbach responded that District 3 wants to support all prevention activities, "if it made sense from a risk management standpoint," he said, although he admitted that planning hadn't yet evolved to the "granular level of individual events."

But he noted that District 3 supports events like Eastern Washington University football games.

"We like to be involve in the community," Rohrbach said.

Medical Lake Fire Chief Jason Mayfield added that annexation would increase resources currently available for events like Fourth of July celebrations.

He noted that rather than "being able to staff maybe one truck or two guys here or five guys there all day," for the holiday, District 3 would have a pool of around 140 volunteers to draw from. And they would supplement the regular staff proposed to be on duty 24/7 at the Medical Lake Fire Station.

"I think it increases our (response time) not only for incidents, but ahead of time on the pre-planning and prevention side of it," Mayfield told the council.

Another question was the timing of the vote itself. Roberts suggested that an August vote didn't allow sufficient time for voter education and deliberation; that perhaps the annexation measure would be better served if placed on the November general election ballot.

If not, she said, "we better get moving to educate the public."

Rohrbach agreed that an Aug. 6 vote was "aggressive, but doable." He saw the role of both fire departments not as advocating for or against annexation, but simply to educate.

"That's really our role between now and August," Rohrbach said.

In a testament, perhaps, to department discipline, asked randomly their opinion regarding annexation the following day, Medical Lake duty firefighters refused to offer one.

"It's only our role to offer facts," Lt. Jacob Kirwin said.

Councilman A.J. Burton asked if there was a minimum voter participation requirement for passage of the annexation measure. The question went unanswered; no one was sure.

According to Mike McLaughlin, Spokane County elections manager, if the measure is approved by Spokane County Commissioners, an Aug. 6 special election would require only a simple majority vote of both Medical Lake and District 3 voters.

And while District 3 voters would likely not notice any changes due to the merger in the 565-square-mile fire district, Medical Lake residents would see a bump in their annual property taxes.

If voters agree to the merger, Medical Lake's current levy rate of 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value would likely be annulled and replaced with District 3's current levy rate of $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value.

At the new rate, taxes for a median priced Medical Lake home of $238,100 would increase by about $238 per year.

The merger would go into effect on Jan. 1 2020, if approved by voters.

Lee Hughes can be reached at [email protected].