By DION LEFLER
The Wichita Eagle (Kansas)
Wichita and Sedgwick County took the first step Tuesday toward merging their fire departments.
At a joint workshop meeting, City Council members and county commissioners both expressed support for the concept and agreed to meet again in January after giving their staffs a chance to work out the framework of a merger.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Mayor Carlos Mayans. “We can be moving forward.”
County officials have wanted to consolidate fire departments with the city for a long time.
The city’s growth through annexation has reduced the tax base that funds the county fire district and made it more difficult to provide service.
County Public Safety Director Bob Lamkey pitched the merger idea Tuesday on the county’s behalf.
He proposed a fire department that would be partially separate from city or county government and have its own tax funding, similar to the way the county fire district operates now.
The new fire agency could be governed by a board appointed by the city council and county commission, with the majority of the seats going to the city because of its larger service area.
Lamkey said that while staff experts can handle the operational details, three major issues will have to be decided by the elected officials:
Governance -- selecting or creating a body to make policy, set taxes and be accountable to residents.
Financial equity -- ensuring that city and county residents pay a fair share of taxes for the services they receive.
Administrative support -- deciding whether the city and county, or a combination of the two, will provide needed legal, technical and managerial support in exchange for payment of administrative fees. Councilman Paul Gray suggested that the city and county could bid against each other for contracts to provide the services.
Gray also said he has studied government consolidation and he warned his city and county colleagues not to expect deep cost savings, at least to start.
However, he said there is a payoff in providing better service to residents.
City and county firefighter union representatives said they back the concept of consolidation but want to see more details before committing to it.
Doug Pickard, president of the city fire union, and Jeff Cowley, who heads the county union, said there will probably be some difficulties in melding their labor agreements into a single pact.
“As union leaders, our No. 1 concern is to make sure no incumbent worker is harmed in any way,” Pickard said, while Cowley nodded in agreement.
This is far from the first time that the city and county have discussed consolidating fire departments.
An effort to merge one part of the operation, fire truck maintenance, ended badly in 2002.
The cooperative fell apart after city officials involved in a personnel action raided the maintenance shop and seized records and equipment belonging to the county.
Chris Cherches, the city manager at the time, apologized and returned the county’s property.
But the incident led to strained relations and each department went back to maintaining its own trucks.