Olympia, Tumwater voters to decide on regional fire authority despite funding concerns
A proposal for a Regional Fire Authority for Olympia and Tumwater has been approved by both city councils and will go to the voters in the spring.
It wasn’t clear cut — a few council members voiced concerns for how the public is going to be convinced to pay for it. And Olympia council member Clark Gilman voted against placing the proposal in front of voters in April 2023.
Gilman said during the council’s Dec. 6 meeting that he’s in support of continuing to search for a way to fund and grow the fire department, but there’s “inflexibility” with the Fire Benefit Charge (FBC) in the RFA plan. He said he questions how equitable the FBC is and how much it matches other RFAs in the state; city manager Jay Burney said it’s closely related to many of them.
Gilman said there’s huge variability in the formulas he reviewed, such as different weighting for sprinkler systems. He said the council was told state law required using square footage as the proxy for the formula, but that the Revised Code of Washington recommends using assessed property value instead.
“I believe this RFA was planned around revenue and department needs, rather than how to best create the benefit for the community,” Gilman said. “It doesn’t sit well with me to say it’s as equitable and non-regressive as possible.”
Tumwater’s thoughts
Though the Tumwater City Council voted unanimously to send the RFA proposition to voters, a few of its members had similar concerns to Gilman. Council members Angela Jefferson, Joan Cathey and Charlie Schneider said they’ve heard mostly from residents who oppose the move.
Schneider said he has underlying questions about both the funding and governance plans, including how staffing would increase by 16%. He said the plan shows that most of the new positions would be administrative. And the length of term for RFA commissioners doesn’t sit right with him. He said the only other 6-year position he could think of was for U.S. Senator.
Cathey said she was hesitant to vote yes with the amount of concern she heard from the public. And the Tumwater council had just approved an 8-year multi-family housing property tax exemption, which could muddy the waters with who has to pay to receive fire and emergency services.
Schneider also questioned how equitable the FBC is with it being tied to square footage and not assessed value. But he said he knows the FBC is an estimate that could change by the time the proposition makes its way to voters. And there will be another public hearing over the FBC in both cities in the near future.
Jefferson said she’s heard from many people who aren’t in favor of the RFA plan, and she asked how the city can help educate people about the need. A study conducted in 2017 had identified that an RFA is the only viable option to keeping the cities’ budgets non-competitive and EMS a priority. She said that looking at Tumwater’s budget, the city’s growth is exploding, and without major investment, expenses are going to exceed revenues.
The public’s opinion
Former Tumwater Mayor Pete Kmet spoke out during the public hearing, saying people need to recognize how much the two cities’ departments already work together. There’s a countywide system in place for medical calls, which take up the majority of the departments’ time. Many firefighters and medics are paid through the countywide Medic One levy. Tumwater contracts with Olympia for fire engine maintenance. They also contract with Olympia to use its training facility.
Having both departments under one roof gets rid of bureaucracy that could limit the separate departments’ work. But he questioned if that will lead to a loss of identity in the cities, especially since the two are known for their loving rivalry.
Tumwater resident Billy Olesen said he had a hard time understanding the FBC and why it wasn’t just a flat rate. He said it doesn’t seem equitable since two houses that are the same size, but one has a sprinkler system, would have to pay different amounts. And the cost of living, taxes and more have increased since the study was conducted.
Former Olympia Mayor Bob Jacobs said he isn’t inclined to support the RFA for several reasons, including the $1.3 million of parks and recreation funding that would be diverted to help get the RFA launched. City manager Jay Burney and other officials have had meetings with the department since that was brought to light to find a solution to that situation.
Jacobs said the FBC intentionally taxes larger places, including apartment complexes, which he worries could harm low-income residents. And with it creating another layer of government, he sees the governance plan creating more fragmentation. Jacobs suggested scrapping the proposal and doing a property tax levy lid lift because it’s more straightforward.
Olympia firefighter Mike Simmons spoke as a representative of the Local 468 Union. He reminded the chambers that both city’s firefighters unions voted in favor of the RFA. He said the city can’t keep up with paying for the needs of the department, which he said is the oldest organized fire department in the state.
He said when he was hired in 1988 they had five response vehicles with about 3,000 calls a year. The number of vehicles hasn’t budged, but calls for service have increased to 16,000. He said the department is understaffed and there are some people working nearly 100-hour shifts.
Council members in favor
Tumwater council member Eileen Swarthout said it’s going to come down to educating the public, and hearing from Simmons and others on how to do that.
Olympia council member Dontae Payne wanted to remind the public that the RFA plan can and will change over time. And it’s up to the public to make those decisions in the end, not the Olympia or Tumwater city councils.
Olympia council member Jim Cooper said he’s the son and grandson of firefighters. He said EMS arrival times need to be down to between 4 and 5 minutes to adequately respond to a heart attack and other issues. A property tax levy lid lift might be a backup plan, but he said it’d only work in the short term before it’d likely have to be lifted again and again.
Cooper said he’s heard from Olympians that it’s time to regionalize services. He said it’s a “golden opportunity” to ask for voter approval on something that might not be perfect, but that it isn’t meant to be. He said it’s a working idea that can and will change over time.
He said a councilmanic tax hike might be more jarring and won’t fix a broken system.
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