Feasibility study to look at options for MLFD

Jun. 7—Key points:
* Moses Lake officials say city has the option of keeping MLFD as it is, converting it to a municipal fire district or a regional fire authority.
* Feasibility study will look at all three options.
* Conversion to any fire district would require a public vote.
MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake city officials will advertise for a consultant to conduct a feasibility study to determine what changes, if any, would be beneficial for the Moses Lake Fire Department. City officials have been looking at ways to reduce expenses, including a restructuring of the fire department, and Fire Administrator Mike Ganz told Moses Lake City Council members May 23 that his analysis determined the city had three options.
"Those three options would be, maintain your current municipal fire department, or option B would be to convert it into a municipal fire district," Ganz said. "There are new laws, one in particular, that would allow the city to convert into a fire district within the city limits. The third option is a more traditional regional fire authority."
Council members included $75,000 in the 2025 budget to pay for the feasibility study after the then-interim City Manager Mike Jackson suggested looking at a regional fire authority.
"To make a significant impact on your budget, and something we've discussed, would be the formation of a regional fire authority," Jackson said in November 2024. "It is a way to free up millions of dollars to help support other city functions."
Ganz said the rules for a regional fire authority would require, among other things, another agency as a partner. A regional fire authority also requires a planning committee.
"If you're going to do a feasibility study, I feel like it's really valuable to do a planning committee of stakeholders and just follow that process, whether you're doing the RFA or the municipal district," he said. "I think the benefit and the transparency is going to be the right way to go."
Either a regional fire authority or a municipal fire district would require a vote, Ganz said, and in either case, there would be some deadlines city officials would have to meet.
City Manager Rob Karlinsey said the rules for a municipal fire district are a little unclear, especially concerning who the governing body actually is. That would have to be clarified, he said.
A lot of decisions would be required if council members decided to convert to some kind of district, Ganz said, from transferring equipment to impacts on retirement.
Mayor Dustin Swartz asked how many cities in the state have established a municipal fire district.
"We'd be the first," Ganz said.
In answer to a question from council member David Skaug, Ganz said the laws for a public vote would determine the deadlines for the council to make a decision. Karlinsey cited the example of converting to one kind of fire district or another in 2027. The best time for a vote would probably be the August 2026 election, which means the preliminary work would have to be finished by the first quarter of next year.

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