No one likes to be kept waiting, especially when it’s a matter of life and death.

Yet call volumes and response times have been rising for East Jefferson Fire Rescue over the past years as funding for the department has struggled to keep up.

“Our call volume was 5,029 calls last year which is a huge number. That’s a lot of 911 calls,” Fire Chief Bret Black said at a recent town hall-style event.

Two of three of the scheduled events have taken place with one still to come on Jan. 26. Each hopes to address community concerns ahead of the upcoming special election in February asking for an increase in property taxes for fire department funding.

“Seven career firefighters was our minimum staffing. Where I came from in California, we had the same minimum staffing, but we only had a thousand calls a year. A thousand. Just to give you the scale of how far we are from what other agencies are doing,” Black said.

While the meetings covered a range of topics, temperatures were highest around property tax proposals to solve the budget deficit that the fire commission is bringing to voters in a special election Feb. 14.

“Keep us in your heart,” Black joked at the first event Wednesday, Jan. 18.

MONEY TO BURN

The ballot proposals seek approval of an increase from
36 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value to 50 cents for emergency medical services, and from 85 cents to $1.30 for general fire service.

“Our revenue cannot grow without a community approved measure — without the vote of the community — more than 1 percent,” Black explained. “So over the past 10 or 11, 12 years, we have not kept up with inflation.”

After cutting more than $3 million from the 2023 budget, the department still fell short by more than $2 million. This shortfall will reduce its budget reserves to 34 percent by the end of the year, and if continued unabated through 2024, will leave reserves below the
25 percent level that department policy mandates.

The property tax proposals come on the heels of November’s election where Port Ludlow voted to merge its fire district with East Jefferson Fire Rescue in the hopes of saving costs wherever possible.

Even then, however, the messaging clearly stated that financial strains faced both departments even if the merger passed, and especially if it failed.

IF THE VOTE GOES UP IN SMOKE

At the first town hall, only a handful of community members showed up in person, though around a dozen attended virtually.

Nonetheless, one of the few local residents in attendance brought up a big question. Was the possibility of station closures or service reductions in the offing if property tax increases were not approved?

“It’s going to impact our ability to maintain services,” Black replied.

A follow-up from the audience noted the closure of fire stations in Thurston County when a ballot measure was shot down by voters.

“Yes,” Black replied as a moment of silence hung in the air.

PLAYING WITH FIRE

The Jan. 19 event hosted by the Jefferson County Democrats brought out a larger crowd of more than 30 people prompting heated debate.

The question of increasing volunteer firefighters as a cost-saving measure got the most fiery.

“When I started, you could show up on a Saturday morning and sign up to be a volunteer and start right on the engine that day. Today you can’t because of all the regulations that we have to follow,” Black said.

“It’s not that hard to keep your statistics as a firefighter or your training,” said Pete Langley, who said he was a volunteer firefighter for 18 years and has been an early critic of the proposed levy lid lift.

“The training is possible. It doesn’t require career staff,” Langley added, while noting response times were once between 3 to 7 minutes when the department had more volunteers as opposed to the 8 to 12 minutes recorded in a report on the department pre-merger.

IMPACT VS. INCOME

Others with similar experience as Langley disagreed. One member of the crowd said it was hard to be a volunteer while still having a paid job.

The fire chief stressed that volunteer help was still essential to the department.

“We are really proud of our volunteer program, I want that to be explicit,” Black said. “We need more volunteers. We want more volunteers. We have a place for almost every type of volunteer.”

Langley later threw out another idea that the firefighters union could voluntarily take a 10 percent cut to their wages, which drew a gasp from the audience.

Fire Commissioner Deborah Stinson took a moment to respond.

“The commission is always willing to look into other opportunities for revenue, but what we’re asking for here on this levy is to provide us a more reliable funding strength for the core, basic services,” she said.

“This is not for the extras. This is for the real core,” Stinson said. “When we look at out budget, we have the must-haves, the should-haves, and the want-to-haves. And we’re still struggling to do the must-haves.”

After the meeting, Black said the amount the fire district can pay employees has led to the loss of firefighters in the department.

“At our last contract negotiations, East Jefferson was at the bottom. Not in the middle or near the bottom, but the bottom,” compared to other firefighting agencies, Black said.

“Both agencies have lost individuals, firefighters, great professionals, to other agencies for that reason and others,” he added.

A third town hall is scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. Thursday,
Jan. 26 at the Port Ludlow Beach Club and will also be accessible virtually. For more information go to ejfr.org.