Lynnwood and Snohomish County Fire District 1 are looking at some kind of regional approach to fire protection.
A regional approach could mean having Lynnwood get its fire service from Fire District 1 by contract, Lynnwood’s joining District 1 or the formation of a Regional Fire Authority involving Lynnwood, District 1 and, perhaps, other entities.
Fire District 1 includes unincorporated areas of Snohomish County south of Everett.
The City of Lynnwood has hired a consultant to study the financial viability of regionalization. The city council’s finance committee heard from the consultant at a Thursday, May 26, committee meeting, with the consultant expected to report to the full council at a June 6 meeting.
Lynnwood now is the only south Snohomish County city with its own fire department. Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace and Brier get service by contract with Fire District 1, and Woodway gets fire protection by contract with the Shoreline Fire District. That could change if Lynnwood Mayor Nicola Smith, Lynnwood Fire Chief Scott Cockrum and District 1 Interim Fire Chief Brad Reading have their way. Cockrum and Reading have been discussing the change.
Mayor Smith said recently that she had made looking at regional fire protection a priority when she hired Cockrum shortly after she took office more than two years ago. She called looking at regional fire protection part of what she has called “A new day for Lynnwood.”
So far, the discussions have involved just the two chiefs. That may change after the Lynnwood Council gets the consultant’s report.
Discussions this year haven’t gone as far as they did in 2013, when council members from Lynnwood, Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace, Brier, Woodway, Mill Creek and Mukilteo, and fire commissioners from districts 1 and 7 met to discuss forming a Regional Fire Authority.
Those discussions ended after participants dropped out one after the other.
Since then, Lynnwood has replaced its mayor and most of its council members and its fire chief.
Reading says that that’s just one reason why discussions on regional fire protection might be different than they were three years ago.
He noted in April that the discussions in 2013 involved three council members from each of seven cities and towns, and three commissioners from each of two fire districts. Both Reading and Smith noted advantages to having fewer people at the table.
Reading said that discussions involving the two chiefs could lead to discussions among elected officials from Lynnwood, the fire district and from other cities aimed at some kind of regional organization.
A regional fire authority is a special-purpose government entity that takes over fire protection from at least two cities or districts.
Reading said that a planning group for a regional fire authority could write a charter for the organization. The local rules could set the size and method of election of the board, and the tax system.
A regional fire authority would have its own tax base.
Cockrum was part of a regional fire authority among suburban cities and districts around Sacramento, Calif., before he came to Lynnwood. He says that the consolidation of more than a dozen fire departments saved money and provided better service by consolidating training, purchasing and other functions.
Consolidated training and purchasing here would provide better service, he said in early April, because firefighters from nearby communities would know how to use each other’s equipment, something that’s needed when firefighters from one community need to provide aid for a fire in a nearby community.
Two nearby regional fire authorities are the North Snohomish County Regional Fire Authority combining two fire districts around Stanwood, and the Valley Regional Fire Authority in south King County that includes Auburn, Algona and Pacific.
Former Lynnwood Councilman Sid Roberts said in a recent letter to The Herald that a regional arrangement could save money to use for other needs, particularly streets and roads.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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