Ballot addresses fire protection

Annexation doesn’t always mean a city is attempting to grab land and tax revenue from one of its neighbors. Yet Spokane Valley city and fire officials worry voters could nix an important fire annexation measure on the September ballot due to confusion over the term.

In this case, annexation wouldn’t add extra acres to the new city of Spokane Valley’s borders. Instead, it would keep fire protection the same for Spokane Valley and noncity Valley residents. Boundaries, service levels and taxes would remain unchanged.

Absentee ballots were mailed to voters this week.

The Sept. 14 vote is necessary because of Spokane Valley incorporation. The new city needs to figure out by the end of 2004 what it will do about fire protection.

“We must vote ‘yes’ on this measure to ensure the best fire protection for our citizens,” said Valley Councilman Steve Taylor. “It’s not costing anybody anything more, but it can look confusing on the ballot.”

The area that became the city of Spokane Valley has traditionally been served by two fire districts which collect taxes and have their own elected governing body. That arrangement will continue if a majority of voters in both fire districts approve the annexation.

If it fails, Spokane Valley will have to contract for fire and emergency medical services or start its own fire department. Contracting would be difficult because the city doesn’t have the “flexibility of funds and levies” that the fire districts have, Taylor said.

Spokane Valley also has no desire to start a city fire department.

Most of Spokane Valley is served by Spokane County Fire District 1, informally known as the Spokane Valley Fire Department. Fire District 8 serves three small portions of neighborhoods along the southern edge of Spokane Valley.

Outside the city, District 8 also serves much of the rural area south of Spokane Valley as well as the suburban Moran Prairie.

Fire officials from both districts think people want to keep the current fire protection set-up. A recent survey done for the city of Spokane Valley showed that 95 percent of city residents polled felt their fire protection services were either good, very good or excellent.

The big worry remains that voters won’t understand — or care about — the issue, city and fire officials said.

Spokane Valley resident Chris Damitio lives one block from the dividing line between fire districts in the Ponderosa neighborhood. He’s inside Valley Fire, but has been a longtime volunteer firefighter for Fire District 8, and therefore has taken particular interest in fire annexation.

Damitio said most of the friends and neighbors he’s talked to seem surprised to hear that annexation will appear on the ballot.

“They thought the issue was resolved and done with,” Damitio said.

Damitio have gotten a lot of questions about the upcoming ballot proposition. People ask him what they’re really voting on. They wonder if their taxes are going to change.

“I think misunderstanding is a big issue,” Damitio said.

Mark Grover, chief for Valley Fire, said he doesn’t know of any organized opposition to the annexation ballot measure. Dan Blystone, acting chief for Fire District 8, said he’s received a few calls from residents who live outside the city. They’ve all been concerned that the measure would make them part of Spokane Valley, Blystone said.

Blystone has tried to explain the annexation keeps things as they are and is important to the future of the fire district. District 8 has a financial interest in continuing to serve the areas inside Spokane Valley as they provide approximately $215,000 of annual tax revenue, Blystone said.

District 8 also has a fire station in the Ponderosa neighborhood, which is inside Spokane Valley, but is split between the two districts. District 8 helps Valley Fire with its responses in that area. In turn, Valley Fire helps District 8 cover other areas along its border.

The current arrangement of both fire districts serving parts of the city works well, Blystone said.

“It just seems complex because you don’t see many cities with two fire districts,” Blystone said. “I think it just creates confusion because people don’t understand what we’re doing.”

Four constituencies will have to separately approve the annexation for it to pass: city residents served by Valley Fire; city residents served by Fire District 8; Valley Fire residents who live outside the city; and Fire District 8 residents who live outside the city.

If any one of the four voting blocs doesn’t pass the annexation measure, it will fail.

Spokane Valley could re-run the annexation proposal in November. But if it failed again, the city would likely have to contract.

“That’s the big unknown out there is what happens if it fails,” Grover said.

The vote is the first test of legislation passed in 2003 allowing a new city to annex into more than one fire district. State Sen. Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane Valley, sponsored the legislation after Valley incorporation.

While this is the first time a city has attempted to become part of two fire districts, it’s not the first time Valley Fire voters have been confronted with fire annexation. In 2002, the newly incorporated city of Liberty Lake decided to annex into Valley Fire. While Liberty Lake residents overwhelmingly voted in favor of the arrangement, other Valley Fire voters ultimately passed the measure, but by a slim margin.

Because of the annexation, Liberty Lake residents will vote on the current Spokane Valley annexation issue as part of the noncity Fire District 1 residents.

Millwood residents will not get to vote, as the town contracts with Valley Fire, but doesn’t pay taxes directly to the district. Millwood officials have said they will also ask town residents if they want to annex into Valley Fire, possibly as early as next spring.

Staff writer Megan Cooley contributed to this report.