Mayor, rivals clash over fire station plan

Mayor Dennis Hession and two City Council members on Wednesday traded accusations of playing election-year politics with public safety over a plan to build a new fire station.

Mayoral candidate and Councilman Al French, Councilman Brad Stark and the Fire Department’s union president on Wednesday called on the city to spend $2 million in reserves to build a new fire station in the Latah Valley, where firefighter response times are below average compared with the rest of Spokane.

“That budget surplus was built on the back of our taxpayers and by the lack of public safety in critical areas that are in need,” Stark said at a press conference.

Hession responded that there won’t be a need for a station in the valley until its population hits 10,000. He said that isn’t expected to happen until 2016 or later.

In a written response attributed to the mayor by the city’s public affairs officer, Hession called the press conference “the most blatant display of political maneuvering I have ever seen.”

“I am very disappointed in council members French and Stark and the leadership of the fire union in their attempt to utilize fear and threats to public safety to further their own political aspirations.”

Responding to the mayor, Stark said “it speaks volumes” that “the mayor has resorted to personal attacks and political attacks.”

The Latah Valley is served by what was the city’s second busiest station in 2006, Station 4. It is on the south side of the Maple Street Bridge.

French and Stark proposed using $2 million of the $11 million the city had left over at the end of 2006 for the new station. They said they did not have a plan for paying to staff it.

“This is a key opportunity to be able to take these one-time funds and to be able to build that safety infrastructure into this corridor so that we can provide a safe, healthy environment,” French said.

Others, however, say a station is much more than a one-time cost.

Fire Chief Bobby Williams, who hadn’t seen the proposal, said the city would have to spend at least $1.3 million a year to staff a new station with a three-person crew around the clock.

The Fire Department’s goal, which it meets, is to respond to at least 90 percent of emergency calls within eight minutes 30 seconds, Williams said.

French, Stark and Greg Borg, president of the city’s firefighter union, Local 29, said the average response time to the Latah Valley is more than 12 minutes. Administration officials were unable to confirm that number but agreed that the average is higher than for the rest of the city.

Borg said that response time is especially critical for fires, which can double in size every minute, and for medical emergencies such as heart attacks.

“Within 10 to 12, 13 minutes, that’s the end. It’s over with,” Borg said. “We can’t bring people back at that point.”

Williams said that for now he prefers to add firefighting positions that were lost during 2004 budget cuts. Those jobs would be at three stations, all of which had more than 2,000 calls for service in 2006.

“Our priorities have been that we would replace what we lost,” Williams said.

He said the area that would be served by a Latah station had 107 calls for service in 2006. One call was for a working structure fire. About 40 were for life-threatening or serious medical emergencies, Williams said.

The chief said there isn’t a firm standard for the level of calls that demands a new station. He said, however, that the department has used 200 as a gauge – given all the city’s other firefighting needs. Last year, the Indian Trail station had the fewest calls with 383.

“If finance was not an issue, we’d love to have a fire station,” Williams said.