Friday, March 12, 2010
The Fire Merger
The Lakewood City Council heard from the Lakewood fire commissioners on Monday, and I wanted to report back to you. I learned quite a lot about the plan to combine the Lakewood and University Place fire departments. I should quickly note if you are new to town, it's important to bear in mind that Lakewood is typical of a lot of cities in that the fire department is operated independently by a separately elected body. So our council has no say in this matter, except the city government and fire department officials work closely together and cooperate and keep each other informed.
It sounds to me like a lot of things came together to make the proposal come up now:
- There's a merger trend in difficult economic times as departments look to cut overhead and share individual skills as part of a greater whole. In 1990 there were 32 fire departments in Pierce County; today there are 20.
There's already an East Pierce County Fire and Rescue, Central Pierce Fire and Rescue, and South Pierce Fire and Rescue. When you know that, it's easy to see why the combined Lakewood and University Place group would be called West Pierce Fire and Rescue.
- Several Lakewood fire department executives have, or will be, retiring. This makes it an easier time, on a human level, to combine forces and save overhead without layoffs.
- An outside study says the next logical place to put a new fire station to increase public safety would be around the area where Lakewood and University Place meet.
Lakewood voters will be asked next spring to decide whether the merger takes place. The reason Lakewood voters do this is that on a bureaucratic level, what's going on is that the Lakewood district is dissolving and merging into UP.
You'd normally think a smaller district - UP is about half the size of Lakewood - would merge into the larger one. However, the fire commissioners in both areas actually looked at it from the taxpayer perspective. Lakewood voters pay a slightly higher tax rate than people in UP. So the reason it is Lakewood dissolving is that they wanted Lakewood to move into the lower tax rate enjoyed by UP. If UP was merging into Lakewood, they would have to accept a higher tax rate, which doesn't sound like much fun.
The side benefit, if you will, is that the districts think when Lakewood people start paying the slightly lower rate of the combined district - the current UP rate - people in Lakewood will save $860,000 a year in property tax. No one ever accused me of committing math, but my rough calculation is that I'd save $35 a year on my home at current valuations. That's not enough to commission any radical change, but both fire districts think joining forces would help share resources and talents for the benefit of the community.
Being a politician, I had to ask who is going to hire the fire chief and who will be on the board of fire commissioners. The transition is clever: at the start, when the merger first takes effect, there will be the five commissioners in Lakewood and the five in UP who will make up a board of 10. Over the next three election cycles, that number will be reduced to five. Since Lakewood has the larger population, it's reasonable to assume Lakewood residents will continue to have a large say in the governance of the organization. Of course, you have to wonder who else the West Pierce Fire and Rescue will pick up in coming months, but I am told it's way early to ask such questions and this first merger is first.
It will be interesting to monitor the election next year. A lot of my friends who grew up in Lakewood served the department when it was all-volunteer. I always get a kick of hearing how classes at Clover Park were disrupted when the alarm bell went off and all the student volunteers headed out. That was back when the department operated out of a big metal building on 111th, not far from where I live, a building that's now a glass shop. The Lakewood Fire Department has always done a good job of chronicling its history, and management insists they plan to keep all their historical records so we can remember their long heritage. My guess, which I'd qualify by noting the election is one year and one month away, is that voters will appreciate Lakewood's heritage, but like the idea of cutting overhead.
If you have other questions, you are welcome to attend either of the groups' fire commission meetings, or here's the University Place FAQ that answers a lot of questions.
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It sounds to me like a lot of things came together to make the proposal come up now:
- There's a merger trend in difficult economic times as departments look to cut overhead and share individual skills as part of a greater whole. In 1990 there were 32 fire departments in Pierce County; today there are 20.
There's already an East Pierce County Fire and Rescue, Central Pierce Fire and Rescue, and South Pierce Fire and Rescue. When you know that, it's easy to see why the combined Lakewood and University Place group would be called West Pierce Fire and Rescue.
- Several Lakewood fire department executives have, or will be, retiring. This makes it an easier time, on a human level, to combine forces and save overhead without layoffs.
- An outside study says the next logical place to put a new fire station to increase public safety would be around the area where Lakewood and University Place meet.
Lakewood voters will be asked next spring to decide whether the merger takes place. The reason Lakewood voters do this is that on a bureaucratic level, what's going on is that the Lakewood district is dissolving and merging into UP.
You'd normally think a smaller district - UP is about half the size of Lakewood - would merge into the larger one. However, the fire commissioners in both areas actually looked at it from the taxpayer perspective. Lakewood voters pay a slightly higher tax rate than people in UP. So the reason it is Lakewood dissolving is that they wanted Lakewood to move into the lower tax rate enjoyed by UP. If UP was merging into Lakewood, they would have to accept a higher tax rate, which doesn't sound like much fun.
The side benefit, if you will, is that the districts think when Lakewood people start paying the slightly lower rate of the combined district - the current UP rate - people in Lakewood will save $860,000 a year in property tax. No one ever accused me of committing math, but my rough calculation is that I'd save $35 a year on my home at current valuations. That's not enough to commission any radical change, but both fire districts think joining forces would help share resources and talents for the benefit of the community.
Being a politician, I had to ask who is going to hire the fire chief and who will be on the board of fire commissioners. The transition is clever: at the start, when the merger first takes effect, there will be the five commissioners in Lakewood and the five in UP who will make up a board of 10. Over the next three election cycles, that number will be reduced to five. Since Lakewood has the larger population, it's reasonable to assume Lakewood residents will continue to have a large say in the governance of the organization. Of course, you have to wonder who else the West Pierce Fire and Rescue will pick up in coming months, but I am told it's way early to ask such questions and this first merger is first.
It will be interesting to monitor the election next year. A lot of my friends who grew up in Lakewood served the department when it was all-volunteer. I always get a kick of hearing how classes at Clover Park were disrupted when the alarm bell went off and all the student volunteers headed out. That was back when the department operated out of a big metal building on 111th, not far from where I live, a building that's now a glass shop. The Lakewood Fire Department has always done a good job of chronicling its history, and management insists they plan to keep all their historical records so we can remember their long heritage. My guess, which I'd qualify by noting the election is one year and one month away, is that voters will appreciate Lakewood's heritage, but like the idea of cutting overhead.
If you have other questions, you are welcome to attend either of the groups' fire commission meetings, or here's the University Place FAQ that answers a lot of questions.
