Eugene to discuss independent fire district Oct. 22

Presenter: After more than a decade, Eugene and Springfield could decide on the future governance of the fire department by the end of this year. With the Eugene City Council Sept. 24, City Manager Sarah Medary:

Sarah Medary (Eugene, city manager, Sept. 24, 2025): Just over a year ago we had a presentation from an outside consultant, AP Triton, who had conducted a feasibility study on different governance models for Eugene Springfield Fire. As you know, we undertook this study to explore models that could solve some of the challenges of running what we’ve called a functionally merged department, either challenges that have continued, or new challenges that have developed over, I think the last 18 years.

[00:00:37] Presenter: Here’s that AP Triton consultant just over a year ago, explaining the issues with how the department is currently organized. July 8, 2024, Dan Petersen:

[00:00:47] Dan Petersen (AP Triton, July 8, 2024): The really key challenges with the model that we have today is there’s two separate city councils and city managers. There’s two separate budgets. And staff are employed by either Springfield or Eugene, not by ESF.

[00:01:01] That structure creates a lot of the complexity and inefficiencies that are present today that staff has worked extremely well together in, in city staff, both cities, the fire department have really worked well at identifying a way to manage them and reduce them, but fundamentally they can’t seem to do much better than they are today. There’s persistent issues that just continue to create those administrative challenges almost daily.

[00:01:31] Continuing as currently organized does not provide single governance. Each city can plan somewhat long term, but ESF can’t plan really long -term at all in the current model. We do not find staying in this model as a feasible option. We believe that staff have worked very hard for 13, 14 years to make it work and it just fundamentally has some challenges that don’t allow it to work effectively, administratively.

[00:02:02] Presenter: One option is to move the fire department entirely under one of the cities, either Eugene or Springfield, with an agreement that one city would serve the other. Dan Petersen:

[00:02:11] Dan Petersen (AP Triton, July 8, 2024): We looked at one city serving another; day-to-day operation and employment of staff administered by one city or the other. The city managers can collaborate, but all oversight and support would be provided by a single city. This is the simplest method to address a lot of the challenges. It eliminates the duplication, offers some streamlining of decision making for fire and EMS services.

[00:02:38] Our key issues here that we found: One city would have more influence. That was a concern expressed by a number of elected officials. The ability for one city to manage the workload of the new staff, the increased cost if it was Eugene providing the service because of the impact of PERS and health care, and the potential impact of PERS in Springfield. Those were some of the issues that came on one city serving the other.

[00:03:07] Presenter: The consultant recommended a different model. Sarah Medary:

[00:03:10] Sarah Medary (Eugene, city manager, Sept. 24, 2025): One of the models was establishing an intergovernmental entity (IGE).  People point to the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission as an example of that. At the time of the last meeting, the consultant did say their recommendation was they felt the intergovernmental entity best met most of the desired outcomes that they heard from the stakeholders.

[00:03:34] Presenter: For the consultant AP Triton, Dan Petersen:

[00:03:37] Dan Petersen (AP Triton, July 8, 2024): An intergovernmental entity is a public body, municipal corporation created through an intergovernmental agreement. They’re granted governmental powers through an IGA. You get to determine those powers. Primarily funded from city funds. They can’t levy taxes as an entity in Oregon.

[00:03:55] Formation of an IGE board of directors is appointed by the cities. So the elected officials and city managers incorporated into some sort of a flow in how this would work in governance. And in our recommendation, the fire chief would then work for those board of directors. Somehow in that piece is the easiest way to get that streamlined process.

[00:04:18] The findings that we had, it does provide a single governance with an IGE board. Representatives from both councils, city managers can be involved in that space. It retains the operational advantage that you have today. The city councils maintain oversight through representation on this IGE board, for the overall policy level work of the fire department of ESF.

[00:04:44] And then the council, we recommend it would retain authority to approve the final ESF budget, their portion of that budget.

[00:04:51] Presenter: The firefighters themselves are advocating for a different solution. Sept. 24, 2025, Eugene City Manager Sarah Medary:

[00:05:00] Sarah Medary (Eugene, city manager, Sept. 24, 2025): I want to acknowledge you’ve heard from—you heard it at the budget committee table, you’ve heard it at the public forum, you’ve heard it in emails, a lot of folks that are pushing for us to explore an independent new taxing district more fully.

[00:05:14] As your city manager, I don’t know how any of us will be able to move forward without studying that a little bit farther, in particular because we have a number of employees that are asking us to do it. And even just based on morale and confidence in leadership, I think it’s going to be important that we look at that.

[00:05:31] Presenter: The outside consultant spoke about the fire district model in July 2024. Dan Petersen:

[00:05:38] Dan Petersen (AP Triton, July 8, 2024): The fire district model, a form of local government, independent entity, board of directors are elected from the community, primarily funded through property tax.

[00:05:49] The findings that we had here is that you do get your single governance, you retain your operational advantages, there’s no oversight from the cities. That would be done through a fire district.

[00:06:02] We estimate the initial tax rate of about $2.52 per thousand. This is a very simplified look at this. It’s expenditures less revenue for FY23. Taxable assessed value at FY23. The first-year collection rate for taxes which is estimated at 95.7% for Eugene and 95% for Springfield. It does not account for any future collections of delinquent taxes. It’s just a snapshot of one year.

[00:06:34] It does not include a capital fund or an initial fund balance for a district to operate. And it does not address any of today’s needs that are beyond today’s operational capacities. So it doesn’t account for the potential need of another engine company or another station that is not in this $2.52.

[00:06:56] To address some of the compression and issues, both cities should probably reduce an equal amount in their collection, which could be challenging, but it’s an option that would best serve the community.

[00:07:10] Springfield themselves are experiencing compression today. They’re losing $155,000 in their fire levy. That’s creating an issue and this could exasperate it if it’s not a reduction of equal or greater to what is done with the fire district.

[00:07:27] Both cities would eventually need to rightsize what they can in their support services without the fire department in their city. It’s a sustainable model with the right tax rate, but we all know how challenging tax rates are with growth and being able to keep up with service delivery.

[00:07:45] Long-term planning for fire and EMS would be provided with this model because it would be an actual district. Formation takes approval of the county, vote of the people, and election of a board. Key issues here is that it does a number of positive things for the community, but the challenge for you to reduce the collection, the full amount needed would, if you didn’t do that, you would be impacting your potential for compression and costing more to the citizens.

[00:08:16] Presenter: Sarah Medary:

[00:08:17] Sarah Medary (Eugene, city manager, Sept. 24, 2025): What I’m hoping to do is to bring back to you more information, deeper dive into some of the unintended consequences in order to allow you to potentially make a decision on direction before the end of the year. That’s my hope, that’s my goal.

[00:08:32] So right now we have a City Council work session, 90 minutes, held on Oct. 22, that will help us guide towards a decision.

[00:08:40] So the intent today was really just to let you and the public know this conversation’s coming and give you an opportunity to say anything or share any thoughts prior to our diving back in this fall.

[00:08:52] Presenter: Former Fire Chief and now Ward 8 City Councilor Randy Groves:

[00:08:56] Councilor Randy Groves (Sept. 24, 2025): I look forward to trying to get this thing brought to a conclusion, like I think we all do, but it just feels like it’s drug on for an awfully long time. And I understand that there are reasons why it has. And I think part of the discussion when we get to our next presentation is being able to share some of the information on what has delayed the process, because I think that’s just going to be part of the bringing transparency and credibility to the process.

[00:09:24] I do appreciate you putting a pause long enough to take a look at the district piece. I think there’s some questions that need to be answered on that, but if we don’t fully vet that like we have the other options, I think we lose credibility there as well, as well as maybe walking away from a viable solution,  although we won’t know that until the additional analysis is done.

[00:09:49] So thank you for that. Thank you for moving this forward. I do look forward to the rest of the process and seeing the subcommittee reengaging on the issue of governance.

[00:10:00] Presenter: An Oct. 22 work session will take a closer look at an independent fire district, which could include impacts to Eugene tax rates and its health plans if all ESF employees left to become employees of a new fire district.