Potential Gains Already Realized
The Fire Department is working well. It ain’t broke … so don’t fix it.
The improvements claimed to be achieved via the proposed RFA have already been achieved under the Shoreline/Northshore contract for fire services which was put in place in 2022. (This contract is known as an Inter-Local Agreement or ILA.)
The usual reason that RFAs are formed is to increase efficiencies and gain cost savings, but under the current ILA, the two departments are already operating under a single administration, and these gains have already been realized.
An RFA governance model will add nothing while eliminating the flexibility and accountability that the current contract-for-services model provides.
Details
As a result of the 2022 ILA between the Shoreline and Northshore Fire Departments all administrative and operational functions are _already consolidated resulting in annual cost savings of $1,400,000 per year and new ongoing non-tax revenues from patient transport payments of $1,075,000 in 2024.
The two workforces have been combined under a single administration.
- There is a single organizational culture, a single set of policies and training.
- Firefighters are represented by a single IAFF labor union and work under a single negotiated labor agreement.
- One ‘Shoreline Fire Department’ logo.
A Peak Hours Aid unit, stationed at Lake Forest Park, was added in 2024.
References
The following slides from Shoreline Fire Chief Matt Cowan's RFA presentation expound on the gains that have already been made under the current contract for services.
