Lake Forest Park WA
1-21-2025 8:55pm

Letter to the editor supporting Prop 1 from Shoreline Fire Chief, Matt Cowan

Dear Lake Forest Park Residents, 

The Shoreline Fire Department cannot advocate for the passage of Proposition 1 – A Regional Fire Authority measure that will be on the February 11, 2025, special election ballot. However, we have a duty and obligation to ensure that the voting public has accurate information about the upcoming Regional Fire Authority ballot measure before they cast their ballots. 

Therefore, I am compelled to write this letter after recently reading an opinion piece submitted by Dave Maehren about the upcoming Regional Fire Authority (RFA) ballot measure between the Northshore and Shoreline Fire Departments (No on Feb Election Prop 1 statement- 01/15/2025) because his opinion piece contains numerous false statements and inaccuracies about Proposition 1. 

Three years ago, the two fire departments entered into a contract for Shoreline to provide all executive, administrative, operational, and support services to the communities of Lake Forest Park and Kenmore. The Northshore personnel became Shoreline personnel and we came together operationally. It was also planned as a first step towards a RFA. 

A RFA will solidify this relationship and, because the contract can be cancelled with two year’s notice, ensure that we don’t lose the operational improvements we have gained due to the contract being ended. 

The RFA will also provide administrative efficiencies and significant financial savings. The result will be that 100% of all homeowners and 98% of all property owners will see a reduction in what they currently pay for fire and emergency medical services. These savings can be passed along to taxpayers, invested in improved services, or a combination of both. It will also result in low equivalent levy rates for many years to come. 

For the record, I am going to correct the key false statements about the RFA made in the letter to ensure that the residents of Laker Forest Park have factual and accurate information about the RFA: 

False statement: the RFA takes away important features our community enjoys today including local control. 

Fact: The RFA actually improves local control. The design of the RFA governance structure will ensure that communities represented by the two Departments will have an equal partnership in the governance of the RFA by taking existing Fire Commissioners from both organizations and combining them into one Board. This will provide a good conduit of communication and perspective to the Governing Board, ensuring local community representation. The RFA will also allow for the Commissioners from the Northshore Fire Department to help make strategic decisions for the entire organization, an improvement over their current role. 

False statement: The proposed RFA increases the levy authorization from $0.70 per $1,000 of assessed value (AV) to $1.00 in 2026. A 43% increase. 

Fact: The RFA plan and the resolutions passed by both Boards of Commissioners establish that the fire levy rate will be $.70 per $1,000 of AV in 2026. By State law, revenue from this levy cannot increase by more than 1% annually unless there is a vote of the people, which means that if assessed values were to remain flat, or no increase, in 2027 the most it could increase to is $.707.

False Statement: There is nothing the RFA can do that the Shoreline and Northshore boards of commissioners cannot already do. 

Fact: A big portion of the financial savings in a RFA comes from removing the need for “carryover” in both fire departments. Carryover is the amount of money needed to cover expenses from the end of the year until around April 1 st , when we receive first half tax revenues. All government agencies need to do this to cover bills in the first part of the year. Currently, both fire departments have carryover funds to cover these costs, but because Shoreline is covering all budgetary expenses, Shoreline is covering all the carryover. Northshore also has carryover funds to cover their share of the expenses. Furthermore, the carryover is a safety net for each Department if the contract were to be ended and suddenly the Departments were stand-alone again. By joining in a RFA, it is not necessary to duplicate this carryover and there are millions of dollars that can be saved. 

False statement: there are no real cost savings or service improvement with the RFA. 

Fact: Currently, the Shoreline Fire Department budget covers nearly all the costs to operate across the communities. However, there is a Northshore Fire Department budget to cover specific costs for that Department. Not including the transfer to Shoreline, that budget is about $387 thousand. We anticipate budget savings in line item costs such as; insurance, legal expenses, audits, software, consulting, elections, salary and benefits, etc. We will not know exactly how much these savings are until we are actually formed in a RFA, but we expect that it is around $196k. In these savings, very little is attributed to the Commissioners costs as they all will still be active on the RFA Governing Board. 

The bottom line is that the opinion piece published on 01.15.2025 makes many false statements about the lack of benefits and cost savings from the RFA. 

I am stating the facts about the RFA so that voters can make informed and educated decisions on this important ballot measure. The RFA will provide improved services and savings. You can access more information on our website at https://shorelinefire.com/rfa/. 

Help us ensure the strength of our fire department for decades to come and please remember to vote! 

Thanks, 

Shoreline Fire Chief Matt Cowan

1
I'm interested
I disagree with this
This is unverified
Spam
Offensive

Replies

1-22-2025 5:24pm

I stand by every statement I made in the NO RFA letter I provided to the Town Crier. First, I was in the room when the Northshore contract discussions were held. There was never any discussion of the contract being a first step towards an RFA.

Yes, the contract for fire services may be cancelled with two years’ notice. A cancellation clause is standard for any contract. If the Northshore community and board of fire commissioners are not satisfied with the services provided, they certainly should have a way to exit the agreement. Shoreline should have the same opportunity if Northshore does not abide by the contract requirements. The contracting agency must be accountable. A satisfied customer will not leave. There is no way back from the RFA and no contract terms to assure desired services are delivered satisfactorily.

The claim that 100% of the homeowners and 98% of all property owners will see a reduction in what they currently pay is not the result of RFA savings. There are no real savings with the RFA. It is the result of a spenddown of the General Fund account. The current boards of fire commission could give taxpayers the same or greater tax cut now by spending down the General Fund. By the way, the reason the General Fund has extra money is because there was an administrative error in funding. Shoreline Fire maintained a General Fund carryover (used to pay bills from the first of the year until King County delivers tax receipts in April) for 100% of the need for the entire department budget. At the same time, the Northshore board, as it had traditionally done, maintained their own General Reserve Fund for their portion of the budget. (about 40%). This oversight resulted in about $4,000,000 in excess funds. The formation of the RFA has nothing to do with this excess balance.

The RFA takes away important features our community enjoys today including local control. In fact, the RFA does take away local control. Today each community determines its own level of service. As we note in our https://www.no-rfa.info/ website, our communities are different and have different service needs. The RFA will have one board that will impose one tax rate across the district and one standard service level. Today each community pays for the services it receives and receives the services it pays for. We have the best of both worlds today. Fire Commissioners from our neighborhoods represent our needs. Lake Forest Park gets peak hours aid car, Shoreline may get a Richmond Beach fire station. We do not need the consensus of a 10 person RFA board. With the RFA it is certain that one community will subsidize the other. With the contract for services each community pays its own way.

The proposed RFA increases the levy authorization from $0.70 per $1,000 of assessed value (AV) to $1.00 in 2026. A 43% increase. The con-committee never said the levy would rise to $1.00 in 2026. We said the levy authorization would rise to $1.00 per $1,000 of AV. There is a big difference. The levy authorization means the RFA would have the capability to raise the tax rate to $1.00 and would not be restricted by the 1% per year tax limit that is current law. The fire department left out this important ‘levy lid lift’ information in the voter pamphlet Proposition 1 description. The King County prosecuting attorney’s office modified the language to let the voters know that a levy lid lift was part of the RFA proposal. Yes, an increase from the current levy limit of $0.70 to $1.00 is 43%.

There is nothing the RFA can do that the Shoreline and Northshore boards of commissioners cannot already do.

I stand by this statement. The boards of commissioners can spend down the General Fund excess balance or any Reserve fund balance anytime they think it is a good idea to do so. General and Reserve funds are modified on a regular basis. The ability to do this is not a function of the RFA.

There are no real cost savings or service improvement with the RFA. I do not know where the $387,000 Northshore Fire Board budget number comes from. The information I was provided at the Northshore board meeting showed a 2025 budget of $$229,506. This is a 24% increase over the 2024 budget of $181,350. $156,800 of the NFD BOC budget is required to pay King County for cash management and tax collection fees and for consulting services to calculate the Fire Benefit Charge. 68% of the total budget. Additionally, several line items in the 2025 budget are inflated. 2025 Legal expense is set at $25,950 when total General Legal Expense in 2024 was just $8,100. State Audit expense is set at $19,000 when we know that the audits for 2023 and 2024 will be dramatically reduced because the NFD audit will be for a contracting agency instead of an independent fire agency.

Bottom line, the few thousand dollars in savings from the NFD BOC budget do not justify formation of an RFA nor do they pay for the tax decrease. The fire department is baiting voters to claim their tax reduction to pass the RFA measure. There are no additional services. No new fire stations, fire engines, aid cars, so no reduction in response times. I know the fire chief would prefer to escape the accountability of the fire services contract, but it is the citizens’ best interests to keep the contract terms in place.

I apologize for the length of this response. However, I know the intricacies of fire district budgets is foreign and complex. I feel very comfortable with the accuracy of my statements. Thank you for taking the time to read my response.

I disagree with this
This is unverified
Spam
Offensive