County commissioners headed to EMS vote

NEWPORT — Pend Oreille County commissioners Robert Rosencrantz and vice chair Brian Smiley seem inclined to bring the formation of an Emergency Medical Services district to a vote of county commissioners.

“Emergency Medical Services are not optional, they are core infrastructure, particularly in rural America,” Rosencrantz said in a commissioner meeting Monday, April 28. “It’s public health emergency hiding in plain sight.”

The financial reality is that fire districts can only piece together external funding sources so long before they have to reduce services, he said. The creation of an EMS district has some costs, but they are modest compared to the benefits, which are the consolidation of EMS efforts in the county.

Rosencrantz has headed up a more-than-yearlong effort to investigate forming a district. All the fire districts in the county except South Pend Oreille Fire and Rescue are in favor of an EMS district.

SPOFR Fire Chief Shane Stocking and SPOFR commissioners spoke against the need for an EMS district at a public meeting in February. SPOFR commissioners released a letter outlining their reasons a year earlier. Stocking and SPOFR commissioners didn’t attend the Monday meeting.

SPOFR has maintained that its voters, about half the voting population in the county, will not go for additional tax since they approved a levy lid lift in August 2023. Because SPOFR has merged with several districts, some of the annexed districts saw their rates go from 45 cents per $1,000 to $1.25, according to the letter.

Answers to questions posed to the Municipal Research and Service Center made it clear to Smiley and Rosencrantz that county commissioners could form an EMS district by a county commissioner vote after a public hearing.

“RCW 36.32.480 allows a county to establish an EMS district with the county legislative authority as the governing body of the EMS district,” MRSC said in its response to the questions submitted to it.

“The benefit of setting up an EMS district is to serve both incorporated and unincorporated areas within a county (RCW 36.32.480) in an efficient and cost-effective manner,” MRSC wrote later in its response. “The challenge is getting all the governing bodies of the local jurisdictions to the table to effectuate this coordinated effort.”

Rosencrantz said forming an EMS district may be what it takes to get that coordinated effort.

“Getting people to the table, slash forcing people to the table, is sometimes what it takes in order to make progress,” he said.

While commissioners could form the district, any taxes to fund it would have to go to a vote of the people. Town and cities would have to opt in to be included in an EMS district.

“A city or town council must adopt a resolution approving inclusion in the EMS prior to EMS formation,” MRSC wrote. “If the city or town does not adopt a resolution approving inclusion in the district, then the district does not encompass that city or town. The statute doesn’t address amending the boundaries of an EMS district post-formation.”

Newport City Administrator Abby Gribi was at Monday’s meeting via Zoom. At the February meeting, she said she wasn’t sure what the benefits of forming the district were.

Gribi asked if the next steps were to have meetings and to form a committee. Smiley said he and Rosencrantz were going to discuss a timeline for the hearing.

“It would go straight to public hearing?” she asked.

Smiley said yes, and that the purpose of a public hearing was to allow all parties involved to testify.

Rosencrantz said the commissioners could form the district, then form an advisory committee to provide input. He said he had no strong opinion on the makeup of the advisory committee.

He said fire districts were subsidiary entities to the county and could be included in a county-wide EMS district. As for the towns and city, it was up to them to opt in.

He said he wanted to see the process get to a vote of the commissioners, which involved advertising a public hearing for two weeks prior to the meeting in the newspaper of record, The Newport Miner.

Rosencrantz said he would like the process to get to a vote sooner than later. Smiley agreed.

“For a long time, the creation of a district has been bandied about,” Smiley said. “Somebody needs to take leadership and anticipate the future instead of reacting to a crisis.”