It is clear that with the mergers of Monroe and Lake Stevens fire districts as voted on by the citizens of these cities with the unincorporated areas of the growth areas of Bothell and Mill Creek and including the contract city of Mill Creek and rural areas around Clearview is now complete. This action has doubled the size of Fire District 7 into a fragmented service area of 140 square miles containing three rural and urban population centers of unincorporated south Snohomish County (Bothell and Mill Creek growth areas), Monroe and now Lake Stevens, consisting 162,000 residents and 11 stations.
The district is now a regional governance that was a local governance with well managed representation by five 5 commissioners who were elected by all the voters of the original district. Offices where located at Clearview and now they are located at Monroe. The voters of the original district have lost representation and would be out-lobbied by powerful city councils of Monroe and Lake Stevens as opposed to District 4 representation, which has little interest in my safety in south Snohomish County. A city council will have great interest in their constituents safety. The demographics of the three areas are different and will need representation in the form of wards or commissioner districts.
It is assumed that the operational and financial model will be studied as to the assumptions made for the two mergers. Bigger is not necessarily better for a well managed district but will benefit union labor as to negotiation of contracts with possible operational efficiencies and economy.
It is critical that this regional district must move to three wards and four at-large commissioners where one commissioner would be elected by the original District 7, one from Monroe area and one from the Lake Stevens area. We would have a fair representative governance for this large diversified regional fire district.
Gene Grieve
Bothell
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