For months, the Northshore Fire Department, Snohomish District No. 10, the city of Bothell Fire and EMS and Woodinville Fire and Rescue have been looking into whether or not the local area would benefit from a Regional Fire Authority, rather than the current system of separate districts. A third party report was released at the end of March concerning the risks and benefits of combining districts into an RFA.

“I think the RFA feasibility study has done a good job of putting together the conditions of the current fire agencies and what could happen if they do join together,” said Bothell Fire Chief Bob Van Horne. “The next thing that will happen, should all agencies decide to proceed, … [is] a time for planning.”

The report, authored by a third party organization called Emergency Services Consulting International, states that there are potential risks and benefits to the proposal, but that overall the community would greatly benefit from merging the fire organizations.

“One of the things about having one agency is you have a single set of policies, a single training focus, and you’d be holding all your employees accountable to the same standards. That doesn’t currently exist in all cases,” said Northshore Fire Chief Jim Torpin. “You’d have one set of practices that would be adopted. You’re talking about three different departments that all do things relatively similar, but there are subtle differences that can impact how well an incident goes, but it’s not dramatic.”

Some of the risks, or ‘critical concerns’ as the report states, include increased cost to citizens through tax rates or benefit charges, absorbing the financial liabilities of other districts and loss of control over local matters.

A few critical items seemed to be deal breakers for many districts, including whether or not Bothell participates or if Bothell retains only partial funding for their fire services.

While financials are a huge issue within the RFA, both in costs to the citizens and costs between departments, there would, theoretically, be a decrease in costs after the initial setup phase.

“There are some redundant positions that would have to be maintained during a transition period then phased out during attrition,” Torpin said. “The good news is the number of firefighters needed will not change and there will be some transfer of some mid-level managers that would be transferred back to the line, which would be a benefit … [of] increased boots on the street.”

As redundant positions are merged and extraneous personnel moved around or let go, the costs of doing business will decrease. Such positions may be the fire chief positions, as there are four between the departments that would merge to one if the RFA, training positions and other such personnel.

“The RFA Planning Committee also maintained personnel from redundant positions to address the transition workload associated with combining four agencies into one,” the report read. “This defers the savings that would accrue for the five identified redundant positions until such time as attrition eliminates these positions or on a date established by the RFA.”

While the initial costs of the merger may be high, in time, the trimming of positions and other redundancies should be decreasing costs. The report recommends the positions not be kept longer than three years.

Costs to citizens has been a larger concern in Bothell, where they have brought their issues before the City Council during weekly meetings.

“When will the City Council discuss refunding to the citizens the money that is currently used to pay for fire services, if the RFA passes, specifically the $1.000 per $1,000 for assessed values,” said Sandy Glen, citizen of Bothell. “Otherwise, citizens will be paying twice for the services they receive.”

Further complicating the matter are the debts and reserves the different departments ‘have. Northshore’s new fire department, which the report has stated should be the new RFA headquarters, still has bond debt that would be spread across all areas should the RFA be formed. The city of Bothell has also stated, via the proposal, that it can’t afford to transfer the additional cash to match the contributions from other districts in order to start up the RFA, though they could make it up in nine to ten years.

“Change is difficult, but, as I’ve been looking at this, usually opportunities have to be backed up with the courage to move into the unknown and with the thinking that it will become a better model of providing EMS services for the future,” Van Horne said.

While there are risks and benefits to the proposed RFA, the plan wouldn’t go into effect for quite a while. First, the departments and RFA commission have to approve or decline the plan. Then the cities will be able to approve of or decline the RFA. Then, finally, the citizens would have the option to vote on the proposal.

“What the citizens will be voting on is the plan; it will have governs, operations, it will include the financial package,” Van Horne said. “This plan will probably take as long as what we’ve already spent. None of this will happen without the citizens voting to approve it.”