Changes requested to the Eastside Fire and Rescue inter-local agreement by the city of Sammamish turned out to be no more than clarifications.
The EFR board meeting Dec. 12 looked nothing like the one Nov. 14 when there was tension in the room and a bit of finger pointing.
Instead, this meeting produced a celebratory mood complete with sparkling cider and cookies.
The new ILA, once it is reviewed by attorneys for all of the partners and the fire service, will go into effect in January 2015 and will be good for seven years.
An ad-hoc committee was formed to review the changes. Issaquah City Council member Paul Winterstein, who was on the committee, said the requested changes were easy to understand, adding that deputy chief Wes Collins did a lot of work to bring perspective to the issue.
The only member of EFR who voted “nay” was Ron Pedee from District 38 who thought the process was premature.
“It was a question of whether or not it was timely to send it to the attorneys,” Pedee said. “To do a meaningful job it would take four to six weeks.”
District 38 is in battalion five, the same as North Bend. It covers areas of unincorporated King County surrounding the cities of Snoqualmie and North Bend and east to milepost 38 in Snoqualmie Pass. Pedee said District 38 has responded to life and death incidents all the way to Kittitas County.
Although not in agreement with the short time frame to turn in the new ILA, Pedee did not indicate that District 38 plans to leave EFR.
It was clarified that each city/partner has title to personal property such as fire trucks, and if they were to leave EFR, such property and money that goes into a replacement fund for the equipment as it depreciates would go with them, too.
Also agreed upon was that five members of the eight-member board must approve any expenditures over $50,000.
Alan Gothelf, a member of the North Bend City Council and now the new representative on the EFR board for his city, made a motion to form an operational committee, which passed unanimously.
Since the EFR board is made up of elected officials, many of them do not have the time to study every detail with a fine-tooth comb. This committee would be made up of various city staff members who can identify anything on the budget. He said this would allow the board to use staff expertise.
The motion passed and Gothelf said it’s been left up to the fire service staff to figure out how to make it work, and to come back to the board with their recommendations.
Gothelf and Ramiro Valderrama from the Sammamish City Council both expressed thanks to everyone on the board for addressing all the issues and for their efforts.
“I was glad to be part of the process, the fact that this was resolved amicably,” Winterstein said.
Unexpected departures by firefighters from EFR during this tumultuous time and others out sick has resulted in EFR exceeding its overtime budget. The board approved $37,000 more for overtime, which will come out of extra revenue.
