The Sammamish council and city staff will investigate whether or not the people of Sammamish are drawing the short straw when it comes to paying for Eastside Fire and Rescue.

How much the cities of Carnation, Issaquah, North Bend, and Sammamish pay for Eastside Fire and Rescue (EFR) is presently calculated on the assessed value of properties in each city, meaning that Sammamish pays substantially more than its neighbors.

At the request of councilmen Jack Barry and Lee Fellinge, who are members of the EFR Board of Directors, city staff have drafted a resolution to evaluate the provision of emergency medical and fire services in the city.

In an introduction to the resolution, Administrative Services Director Mike Sauerwein said on Tuesday night that the provision of such services was one of the paramount goals of the city, but that “the city has never shied away from looking at all available options.”

“It must be made clear that the city receives excellent service from Eastside Fire and Rescue,” he said. “But the provision of fire and emergency services needs to receive the same level of financial scrutiny as the provision of other services.”

Earlier, Barry said that the inclusion of Fall City into EFR would not change the level of service to the people of Sammamish, but would change how much the service would cost the people of Sammamish.

He said that more than half of the people at the recent EFR annual retreat were in favor of taking over the operation of the Fall City station.

However changes will have to be made, he said, with Fall City currently having only two officers, and no battalion chief, which would not be sufficient under existing EFR standards which require three officers to man a fire truck.

With a current budget of $1.5 million, an additional $500,000 would have to be found in order to bring the station up to EFR standards, hence the possibility of a rate rise for the people of Sammamish.

“If you’re in a city that’s going to get better fire service for no extra, then that’s a good deal,” he said. “But if you’re in a city that’s having to pay more for no improvement in service, then that’s not a good deal.”

Barry said he believed studies had been done which showed that areas with higher assessed values actually required less fire service, as newer, better maintained houses were less likely to suffer the electrical and structural damage that requires emergency response.