EDMONDS — Officials from seven Snohomish County cities are planning to meet tonight to discuss forming a regional fire authority in south county.
A regional fire authority is a government body that runs fire services for multiple jurisdictions. Fire authorities have been popping up in Washington since they were made legal here in 2004.
South county mayors have been paying attention, Mukilteo Mayor Joe Marine said.
In a letter dated Dec. 1, mayors from Brier, Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mill Creek, Mountlake Terrace, Mukilteo and Woodway invited their city councils to attend tonight’s meeting. Snohomish County Fire District 1, Snohomish County Fire District 7, the Shoreline Fire Department and the city of Bothell also were invited.
The meeting is planned for 7 p.m. today in the Brackett Room of Edmonds City Hall at 121 Fifth Ave. N.
A tough economy has strained public safety budgets for cities, Marine said. The mayors want to see if a fire authority would be more sustainable than operating individual city fire departments.
The idea has been kicked around in south county for years, Edmonds Mayor Mike Cooper said. It started coming up again regularly last fall during monthly mayors’ lunches.
“We said, ‘Now’s a good time to get back involved,’” he said.
The issue of who provides fire service in south county has been hotly debated. Previous talks of a regional fire authority died off after some of the questions wound up in court.
Land annexations, lawsuits and the ever-changing formula for calculating property taxes have led to conflict between cities and with Fire District 1. The district covers much of unincorporated south county and also contracts to provide fire service for Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace, Brier and Woodway.
District 1 is the county’s largest fire district and is talking about becoming bigger. It is in conversations about possibly consolidating operations with District 7 in Clearview. If that happens, it would create a super-sized fire district serving 280,000 people across south county, stretching east as far as Maltby.
A regional fire authority would present a different option for sorting out what to do about fire service.
Officials from Kent and Auburn are expected to speak at the meeting. They will share their experiences forming regional fire authorities in recent years. A question-and-answer session also is planned.
The meeting will be used to gauge the level of interest from each city in joining a fire authority, Cooper said. Edmonds and Mountlake Terrace are “very interested,” he said.
If south county cities decide to pursue the idea, the first step would be forming a planning committee, Cooper said. At least three elected officials from each city would be on the committee.
It usually takes two to three years of planning before a fire authority is ready for a public vote, he said.
No specific city or mayor is leading the discussions so far, Marine said.
“We’re all in this on a level playing field,” he said.
Fire District 1 is planning to send several commissioners and chiefs to the meeting, spokeswoman Leslie Hynes said. District 7 plans to send some of its leaders as well, spokeswoman Autumn Waite said.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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