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EFR hopes to cut costs for next year

June 23, 2009

By J.B. Wogan

By J.B. Wogan
Fire protection services are costing too much — that is the message North Bend, Issaquah and Sammamish conveyed to its regional provider, Eastside Fire & Rescue.
At a June 9 EFR meeting, Fire Chief Lee Soptich said his staff was looking for any way to minimize cost increases for 2010.
For 2009, Sammamish paid roughly $5.3 million to Eastside Fire & Rescue for fire protection services, about a 6.2 percent increase in its cost from the previous year. Sammamish was responsible for 26 percent of the partner contributions, with North Bend, Issaquah, and two King County fire districts paying the rest.
In May, Finance Chief Dave Gray said the 2010 EFR budget would require an average increase of 6 percent in costs to each of the partners.
“Given a perfect world, we would be asking for more than the 6 percent that we’ve projected because we have needs,” Soptich told the EFR board of directors June 9. “It’s clear that our partners are not going to be able to sustain that.”
In December, the Sammamish City Council approved a 5 percent increase for fire services in its 2010 budget.
The exact details of how EFR would prevent a 6 percent increase (or higher) aren’t clear yet. Soptich emphasized just how much work the fire agency has to do in planning for limiting those costs:
“It’s almost like President Kennedy saying we’re going to the moon by the end of the decade. We don’t even know how we’re going to get there,” Soptich said.
Nonetheless, Finance Chief Dave Gray said his staff was working on a plan. EFR would have a three-pronged approach that would have no cost increases for equipment replacement and limited cost increases for employee salaries and benefits. To offset any employee costs, EFR would tap into its emergency reserve fund. The plan would be spread out over three years, with the hope that the cities’ funding sources would stabilize at the end of that period.
“If this does go longer, that either means that we lay people off, or we look to some of these other accounts for temporary relief,” Soptich said.
While Sammamish has been a local advocate of minimizing EFR costs, its two representatives on the EFR board were skeptical of the methods Gray outlined for reducing costs.
Lee Fellinge, a Sammamish City Councilman who sits on the EFR board of directors, said he was against using the emergency reserve fund at all.
“That’s certainly not a sustainable strategy,” he told his colleagues on the Sammamish City Council.
Jack Barry, another Sammamish City Councilman on the EFR board, said he was uneasy, too.
“I think reserve funds are for emergencies. I think when the economy turns on you, then you have some other avenues,” Barry said. “The number one thing you want to stay away from is personnel … I don’t think the firefighters should be the balance of the budget.”
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.

Fire protection services are costing too much — that is the message North Bend, Issaquah and Sammamish conveyed to its regional provider, Eastside Fire & Rescue.

At a June 9 EFR meeting, Fire Chief Lee Soptich said his staff was looking for any way to minimize cost increases for 2010.

For 2009, Sammamish paid roughly $5.3 million to Eastside Fire & Rescue for fire protection services, about a 6.2 percent increase in its cost from the previous year. Sammamish was responsible for 26 percent of the partner contributions, with North Bend, Issaquah, and two King County fire districts paying the rest.

In May, Finance Chief Dave Gray said the 2010 EFR budget would require an average increase of 6 percent in costs to each of the partners.

“Given a perfect world, we would be asking for more than the 6 percent that we’ve projected because we have needs,” Soptich told the EFR board of directors June 9. “It’s clear that our partners are not going to be able to sustain that.”

In December, the Sammamish City Council approved a 5 percent increase for fire services in its 2010 budget.

The exact details of how EFR would prevent a 6 percent increase (or higher) aren’t clear yet. Soptich emphasized just how much work the fire agency has to do in planning for limiting those costs:

“It’s almost like President Kennedy saying we’re going to the moon by the end of the decade. We don’t even know how we’re going to get there,” Soptich said.

Nonetheless, Finance Chief Dave Gray said his staff was working on a plan. EFR would have a three-pronged approach that would have no cost increases for equipment replacement and limited cost increases for employee salaries and benefits. To offset any employee costs, EFR would tap into its emergency reserve fund. The plan would be spread out over three years, with the hope that the cities’ funding sources would stabilize at the end of that period.

“If this does go longer, that either means that we lay people off, or we look to some of these other accounts for temporary relief,” Soptich said.

While Sammamish has been a local advocate of minimizing EFR costs, its two representatives on the EFR board were skeptical of the methods Gray outlined for reducing costs.

Lee Fellinge, a Sammamish City Councilman who sits on the EFR board of directors, said he was against using the emergency reserve fund at all.

“That’s certainly not a sustainable strategy,” he told his colleagues on the Sammamish City Council.

Jack Barry, another Sammamish City Councilman on the EFR board, said he was uneasy, too.

“I think reserve funds are for emergencies. I think when the economy turns on you, then you have some other avenues,” Barry said. “The number one thing you want to stay away from is personnel … I don’t think the firefighters should be the balance of the budget.”

Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com.

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Written by J.B. Wogan · Filed Under Local News 

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