PORT TOWNSEND — Fire district and city officials are wrapping up the lengthy process needed to even out their financial relationship after rejection last spring by Port Townsend voters of a levy aimed at equal tax for equal service.
The Port Townsend levy failure in April sent officials with the city and East Jefferson Fire-Rescue scrambling for a way to fix the resulting imbalance between what taxpayers outside the city limits pay for fire service versus the lesser amount still in force for city residents.
The difference is 43 cents per $1,000 property valuation, and the debt has been accruing ever since.
District voters readily agreed to raise their own taxes to allow the district, which has also provided service to the city for five years, to assess the legally allowed maximum of $1.
But city voters were presented with a less straightforward question. The city asked for an additional $1, 43 cents for fire and another 57 cents for the city’s general fund for unspecified purposes.
City voters balked, and suddenly the city owed more money toward the joint operation than it could pay.
“It was just too complicated a measure,” said City Manager David Timmons.
A new amendment to its interlocal agreement with the fire district commits the city to deed its fire station to the district — the district’s $60,000 annual lease of the building would end — and also pay both principal and interest on an anticipated $3.8 million district bond for capital projects.
The three fire commissioners Tuesday held what was likely their final meeting with City Manager David Timmons before the agreement goes before the City Council on Monday, Dec. 6, and there were few problems.
The agreement is an interim measure, however.
City and district officials also are working toward a new governance structure to replace the less permanent arrangement that has existed for the last five years, when the city ceased operation of a separate fire department and began contracting with the district.
“What we did was trade roles and responsibilities,” Timmons said.
Consolidations are happening nationwide and in nearby Clallam and Kitsap counties as officials recognize the efficiencies to be achieved, said Gordon Pomeroy, chief of the district.
“It’s sort of a giant pooling of resources,” he said.
Once the amendment to the interlocal agreement is completed, officials next will begin looking at whether or not there should be an annexation of the city into the fire district or creation of a regional fire authority.
Depending on how they’re designed, each offers different levels of authority for city officials at a level they do not have under the existing interlocal agreement.
Officials would like to put such a merger on the ballot next year, but it could take longer to work out, said Staph, especially since voters are likely to be facing multiple ballot measures on other topics in 2011.
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Julie McCormick is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Townsend. Contact her at 360-385-4645 or juliemccormick10!@gmail.com.
