Ketchum faces an imminent capital need of $2 million to buy firefighting apparatus. Without the purchase, we face the risk that our ISO safety rating will be downgraded, leading to a substantial increase in the insurance premiums for Ketchum residents and businesses.
The proposed contract for emergency services with Sun Valley, if approved, would unify the emergency services of north Blaine County. Combining the assets and expertise of Ketchum Fire, Ketchum Rural and Sun Valley would avoid the need to purchase the apparatus immediately and would leave our ISO rating intact. (I will leave the police side out of this opinion piece.)
Without attributing blame, over the last 15 years the City of Ketchum has chronically underfunded its fire operations, leaving us with a “deplorable” fire station, unsatisfactory working conditions, one fire truck and one semi-operable ladder truck. It has also left the firefighters with a culture of mistrust and a resistance to change. With such underfunding, who can blame them?
We now face the prospect of having to bond for approximately $15 million, rather than $8 million, to build a new facility and replenish our fire department’s assets. I have no appetite for a $15 million bond, and I am sure many voters feel the same.
Two main issues surfaced during our consolidation process that led to an initial lack of support for the proposal.
First, under the proposal, the current professional firefighters’ union Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) would no longer exist. The CBA protects employee rights to negotiate annual contracts. In addition to pay, working conditions, etc., the CBA contains a prescribed work schedule and overtime requirements.
Disbanding the Ketchum fire department, and therefore the CBA, would remove those scheduling requirements. The work schedule adopted by the Sun Valley fire department (and many other fire departments) saves substantial amounts of taxpayers’ dollars compared to Ketchum’s. It is impossible to merge best practices if encumbered by the limiting effect of the CBA. Additionally, any type of Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) also eliminates the flexibility to make changes, as the CBA would still remain in place.
The second issue was the perception that “big” Ketchum was giving up control to “little” Sun Valley. It is worth pointing out that “big” Blaine County contracts with “little” Ketchum to provide emergency medical service—they do that because Ketchum has the expertise to do so using the county’s ambulances. A contract for service does not hand over control; it simply assigns responsibilities for delivering the service. If contracts are not working, then elected officials should take action or face the consequences at the next election cycle.
While Sun Valley may be smaller in population, they have a superior fire station and apparatus. That is why Ketchum Rural Fire Department is now looking to contract with Sun Valley instead of Ketchum. If this happens, Ketchum can no longer use Ketchum Rural’s fire engines and an ISO downgrade would follow.
If we can have complete flexibility to correctly structure a unified fire department, then we can make our community safer in a financially prudent manner. I am confident our professional firefighters and volunteers will do a great job for the entire Valley, no matter what badge they are wearing on their uniform.
I don’t want this setback in the consolidation process to derail what I believe to be a fundamentally good idea with substantial benefits. Make no mistake, there is a cost of doing nothing and, in the short term, it could lead to an increase in all of our insurance premiums.
Neil Bradshaw is mayor of Ketchum