SNOHOMISH – The Snohomish Fire Department is facing higher insurance costs after recently being voted out of an insurance pool.
Fire commissioners in the Snohomish County Risk Management Group, which includes eight districts, feared that ongoing personnel problems in Fire District 4 could jeopardize their own departments, according to a letter written to the district.
The unanimous vote came less than two weeks after Fire Chief Robert Merritt was fired.
The commissioners were concerned that a Snohomish board proposal to also eliminate battalion chiefs would result in costly lawsuits, said Pete Walton, a fire commissioner for Tulalip Bay.
The other districts in the insurance pool would be on the hook for those lawsuits, Walton said.
“We were managing our risk,” he said.
The group of eight fire districts together monitor the risks associated with running a fire district and make recommendations to mitigate those risks. The districts receive lower insurance premiums by belonging to the group.
The Snohomish department has not lost its insurance, said Gordon MacIlvennie, who manages the group’s insurance with Volunteer Firemen’s Insurance Services.
MacIlvennie is working out how much more the district will have to pay, said Ron Simmons, deputy fire chief for District 4. The district could see up to a 10 percent increase in premiums, or about $9,000 more a year, board chairman Roger Portmann said.
The risk group vote came as a surprise to District 4 commissioners, Portmann said. The district didn’t have a representative at the Dec. 1 meeting, and received a letter about the decision two days later.
Portmann said he was unhappy that the district didn’t get a chance to explain its situation before being voted out. “The group never attempted to contact us,” he said.
However, the district has missed group meetings. According to the group’s bylaws, districts are only allowed to miss one meeting a year.
“They should be attending the meetings. I’m positive if they’d been at the meeting, they wouldn’t have been voted out,” said Paul Taylor, a fire commissioner with District 22 in Getchel.
The elimination of the battalion chiefs was one of several proposals to correct a nearly $300,000 budget shortfall, Portmann said. The proposal was taken off the table at Monday’s board meeting, he said.
It’s possible the district could be voted back into the group.
The risk management group has agreed to convene a special meeting on Thursday to speak with District 4 about the group’s decision.
“We’re hoping they’ll let us back in. I certainly don’t want the citizens to have to pay” increased rates, Portmann said.
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