Springfield and Eugene fire and emergency services have been working side by side for nearly two decades, creating a standard for fire protection throughout the community.
Now, both Springfield and Eugene city councils have decisions to make on steps forward, after findings were released from a project analyzing the efficiency of its current structure and administration.
Both cities in the past two weeks have had work sessions in which Dan Peterson, a consultant with AP Triton – a management consulting firm that specializes in public safety — presented the company’s findings for the ESF Governance Feasibility Review project.
In that presentation, Peterson outlined the feasibility of five government options for the future of ESF.
Since the 2010 merger of both districts, Springfield and Eugene have shared management and administrative positions through an intergovernmental agreement (IGA), forcing ESF to answer to two separate city councils, city managers, and budgets. While both cities work well under the functional merger, Peterson said, labor negotiations go back and forth between cities in unproductive and time-consuming ways.
“We didn’t feel that the (labor negotiation process) today is sustainable, either for the ESF or the cities,” Peterson said. “There’s a real challenge in trying to maintain that.”
ESF doesn’t employ their workforce, staff are randomly assigned by each city, allocating disproportional benefits. Providing a single administrative body to facilitate ESF and monitor all 16 fire stations would reduce costs and promote a faster workforce, Peterson said.
Both cities’ combined budget is $84 million. Since consolidation, ESF has saved $2.5 million dollars annually. “2.5 million is less than 3%… I had expected more when we made this decision back in the day,” said Eugene City Councilor, Alan Zelenka. “This isn’t a big financial savings… the savings favor Springfield 1.3 million, Eugene 1.2 million, despite Eugene being three and a half times, almost three times larger.”
ESF could continue as currently organized by creating a shared governance or city manager role on the IGA to oversee the budget for both cities. Both cities would retain the advantages from the merger, but the workload would be unsustainable for the IGA. “Fundamentally, the majority of the employees want to stay together in whatever way they can,” said Mike Caven, the Eugene Springfield Fire Chief. “The culture in the stations operationally pretty much has been merged.
In addition, one city could provide service to another and take point in the day to day operation and employment process for ESF. The city providing the service would have more authority over ESF, however both cities would still collaborate under the IGA. This is a sustainable option and would improve long term planning, but one city would have more influence over how fire services are allocated.
Establishing a fire district could provide direct services within specified areas to appropriately allocate resources and increase response time. It would be an independent entity with its own board elected by the citizens.
Neither city would have oversight of the fire district, with the board consolidating independent administration. The board of directors could levy taxes separately from the governance and funding provided by a city or county, cutting out the middleman.
Randy Groves, Eugene city councilor said, “I’m not afraid of a district, but I do believe where we’re headed right now, hopefully towards an IGE is our best landing point here.”
An intergovernmental entity (IGE) is a board in which two or more governments enter into a written agreement approved by a vote from each city’s council. An IGE could provide central governance for both cities, determining where they receive support for finance and solidifying employment procedures. In the event of creating an IGE, Jennifer Yeh, Eugene city councilor, recommended they add civilian members to the board. “They bring something really special and helpful to the conversation.”
Going forward, AP Triton suggests adding five administrative positions to help manage the complexities of ESF, which is estimated at around $900,000. Cities will have to decide whether governance is equally distributed or weighted in relation to population.
Working through all the agreements and finalizing cost estimates is projected to take 12-18 months, and both cities need to agree on governance as a first initiative.
“This is so promising. The idea that we would take where we are and we would step into it more fully and more completely,” said Lucy Vinnis, Mayor of Eugene.
If all other options are exhausted, ESF could dissolve the merger, and both cities would not retain the benefit of shared operational services, but they could still provide assistance in the event of major emergencies.
Sometimes the feelings of the people who are actually out there doing the work don’t get looked at,” said Victoria Doyle, Springfield city councilor. “The idea of just splitting it up again, when I know that less than 3% of (employees) are in favor, really concerns me a lot.”
After separation, the depth of services with ESF would not be achievable for either city. The separation would force Eugene to hire a minimum of five administrative positions for an estimated cost of $1.1 million and a minimum of three positions in Springfield for $800,000.
“In their mind they’re one fire department working together,” Peterson said. “I think you could argue that any option that can keep them together is going to be their favorite option.”
If they decide to split departments, it would take a year to work through the items identified for disjunction, and the existing IGA would allow two fiscal years to terminate the separation.
ESF is unable to plan long-term due to the ability to terminate the agreement, but enhancing the involvement of city managers with ESF staff could solve this issue.
No final decisions have been reached by either city, so future configuration is still left up for discussion. Springfield City Council is on summer recess until Sept. 3, so both cities will revisit the issue in the fall.
