Neighboring city councils fail to find formula for merging fire and police departments
By Eric Valentine
Efforts to merge the fire and police departments of Ketchum and Sun Valley fell far short last week, but left a number of officials from both cities feeling they are closer than ever to this long-sought union.
At its meeting on Monday, March 4, Ketchum City Council voted 4–0 to reject a proposal that would have joined forces with Sun Valley when it comes to delivering fire services and police protection here. At its Thursday, March 7, meeting, Sun Valley City Council let the proposal it spearheaded die, but not before city officials and members of the public held an hour of lively discussion and debate.
Meanwhile, Ketchum’s unanimous vote to not unify emergency services with Sun Valley leaves the smaller of the two cities with more than one option for its goal of improving public safety while saving on costs. Sun Valley Director of Public Safety Walt Femling told his city council that 24 hours after the Ketchum merger, he was given a request for proposal (RFP) by the Ketchum Rural Fire District asking Sun Valley to bid on providing the management of its fire protection services.
“They see we are a state-of-the-art facility in Elkhorn. They see that we have apparatus in all of our bays that are top-of-the-line equipment,” Femling said. “They also have said to me numerous times how impressed they are with our young chief, Taan Robrahn.”
Femling spent several more minutes lauding the rural fire department’s facilities, equipment and personnel, and how Sun Valley is in a strong position to take over the contract the City of Ketchum has managed since 1957.
A contract between Sun Valley and the rural fire district could spell the following challenges for Ketchum:
The city would be left with only one fire truck (a 2004 model) to serve its residents.
The city would have to find a new way to fund 3.5 full-time firefighter positions.
The city would have to pay Sun Valley for any mutual aid or so-called “shared apparatus” agreements.
“So this is a big deal,” Femling said.
All Talk, No Action
City officials from Sun Valley made it clear that taking action on the merger proposal with Ketchum was a moot point given the bigger city’s rejection. And, ultimately, they declined to make a motion that would have called for a vote. However, it didn’t stop them from addressing the matter in detail and opening the floor to public comment.
“They have made a judgment in my opinion that will come back and haunt them for a long, long time because (their situation) is just not sustainable,” Sun Valley Mayor Peter Hendricks said.
Blaine County Commissioner Dick Fosbury encouraged city officials to not be detered by the flop. He expressed a desire at the county level to see a merger take place.
“We feel confident that some type of consolidation would be the right thing. We believe there are solutions to this,” Fosbury said. “A little more work would be worthwhile in the long run.”
Size Matters
Remarks made at the Ketchum council meeting days before about Sun Valley being the smaller city that should potentially dissolve its first-responder services into the larger city’s were returned with some tension. However, public comment from Ketchum-based officials seemed to quell the contentiousness some.
Ketchum firefighter Coleen Quinlan told Sun Valley officials that the issue of dissolving an entire fire department is no small matter, and that asking the question about which department should dissolve should be asked. She stressed that Ketchum and Sun Valley firefighting personnel have a strong, professional respect for one another and that anti-merger folks simply had issues with the way the contract for services proposal was written.
In phone interviews with The Weekly Sun, both mayors said the Ketchum city council members seemed more comfortable entering into a so-called joint powers agreement (JPA) rather than a contract for services. A JPA is when all existing departments are kept intact and—in this case, for the purpose of fire and police protection—a new, defacto government body is created. Without a JPA, the Ketchum fire department would have to be dissolved and the City of Ketchum would enter into a contract that would guarantee certain services at certain costs.
For now, giving up that degree of control hasn’t passed muster with the Ketchum city council. And it’s leaving Sun Valley’s mayor feeling the ball now is in Ketchum’s court.
“I think we put our best efforts forward and we’ll wait to see what their proposition would be,” Hendricks said.
Nonetheless, Ketchum Mayor Neil Bradshaw told his Sun Valley counterparts he’d keep pressing on to find some way to bring what he called “unified services” to their mutual parts of the Valley.
“I’m committed to being a good neighbor and I’m committed to providing our fair share to any partnership in the future,” Bradshaw said.
