After an hour discussion Monday, the fire contract between the City of Clearwater, Lynden Twp. and Clearwater Twp. may finally be settled.
The contract and its formula have been the topic of debate for years. It almost reached an impasse last March when residents from both townships balked at paying an increase of more than 33% from the prior year.
That increase was the result of a fire department budget that increased significantly to help fund the purchase of some major equipment. But both townships felt it was too much of a spike in a single year and voted to pay a 10% increase instead.
Currently, one third of the total fire budget is split three ways. The remaining two thirds of the budget is determined by the number of calls averaged over the previous three years.
Last October, representatives from both townships met with the city to try to figure out a new formula that was more equitable.
One of those suggestions was to base the contract solely on the number of calls averaged over a five-year span.
Earlier this month Councilman Richard Petty said he wasn’t in favor of using the number of calls, since the fire service is still available whether anyone uses it. But it still has to be paid for.
He felt basing the cost on the number and type of structures would be more equitable.
That set the tone for Monday’s workshop discussion at city hall, which included Clearwater Mayor Andrea Lawrence, Councilmen Petty, Kris Crandall and Wayne Kruchten, Supervisor Rose Thelen from Clearwater Twp. and Supervisors Anne Ackerman and Dave Johnson from Lynden Twp.
Lack of communication was one of the biggest issues.
“It’s so hard to get any information from the city,” said Ackerman. “All we’re asking for is a little bit of communication so there’s no surprises.”
That was one of the reasons township residents didn’t want to pay the big increase.
“So if your residents knew why you’re paying $20,000 more a year, you think they’d swallow that pill?” asked Mayor Lawrence.
“It would make it easier,” said Johnson.
Ackerman said every year for the past few years, the township has received an email indicating the amount of their fire contract. But it comes two weeks before the annual meeting with no explanation of the costs.
“We’re not going to approve a 33% increase with no communication,” she said.
Johnson said Lynden Twp. also has a contract with the Annandale Fire Dept. for a portion of the township. But they have a lot of communication. They’re given a list of equipment, the life expectancy of the equipment and when it’s going to be replaced.
“We have minimum of two meetings a year. We go over the call load and the budget,” he said. “There’s no surprise whatsoever what the levy amount is going to be.”
Crandall agreed the city and townships should sit down at least once a year and discuss the contract.
“There’s no reason I can see that we shouldn’t be having an annual conversation,” he said, “so we don’t come to this impasse.”
Thelen said the city and township should be having periodic conversations about a number of issues, like the fire budget, annexation and the comprehensive plan.
“We should,” said Crandall.
The group also discussed different options for a formula, like population, structures, market value, type of calls and splitting calls on the Interstate equally.
Kruchten said there should be a total itemized breakdown of the budget. He said the call log should be made available, and he liked the idea of splitting calls on the Interstate.
“We should have a meeting once all that is pulled together,” he said. “Until you figure out the department, you can not figure out the formula. We need to understand the entire budget.”
“One of our issues is we’re going to be voting on this in March,” said Thelen. So they needed to come to a consensus on a formula soon.
Ackerman said the current formula doesn’t take into consideration that the department also serves non-residents, like people from out of town who have accidents or medical emergencies. And she didn’t understand why a portion of the budget should be split three ways and have the rest as a percentage of calls.
She went over call statistics for the past eight years that showed the numbers were consistent, with the city at about 53%, Lynden Twp. at 23% and Clearwater Twp. at 24%.
She suggested changing the formula to reflect those numbers.
“We could totally simplify this. We pay 23-24% every year. Clearwater Twp. pays 24% and the city pays 53%. We don’t mess around with calls or valuation. We don’t need reports or call data.” she said. “We’re just funding the budget and getting it done in a way that historically pretty much reflects how the department has been used in the past.”
Since it was a workshop meeting, the council wasn’t in a position to vote on the suggestion. Petty still wanted to get a itemized budget breakdown before any final percentages were set. But they agreed to consider it as an option.
It will be on the next regular city council meeting agenda.
