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Puget Sound Fire chief describes regional fire authority model for Spokane
Summary
Chief Brian Carson of Puget Sound Fire told Spokane city council members that a regional fire authority (RFA) can combine multiple city and district services, change funding formulas and erase jurisdictional borders — but noted start-up, governance and funding challenges.
Chief Brian Carson, fire chief of Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority, told Spokane council members at a public safety meeting that a regional fire authority can combine local fire districts and municipalities to provide fire and emergency services.
"It's a municipal corporation that allows fire districts, municipalities, or tribal nations to join together for the provision of fire and emergency services," Carson said, describing the statutory tool used in Washington and noting three RFAs already exist in King County.
Carson said RFAs are one mechanism among several — they do not prevent mergers, annexations or interlocal agreements — and that Puget Sound Fire grew from the Kent Fire Department into a regional authority after nearby cities and districts joined. He said the authority now serves what he estimated is a workforce and station footprint comparable to Spokane's fire department.
Why it matters: an RFA changes governance, funding and operational boundaries. Carson said the funding model for Puget Sound Fire relies on a mix of a small property tax levy and a board‑set fire benefit charge that assigns fees by structure size and risk rather than a flat levy. "Historically, fire districts in the state of Washington collected dollar 50 of revenue for every thousand dollars of assessed valuation. We do it a little bit differently. We get $1. That's that's the entirety of our levy... we're down to 91¢," he said, referring to erosion of levy capacity and use of a benefit charge to allocate cost by structure and hazard class.
Carson outlined start‑up and governance hurdles: converting a city department into an independent taxing authority requires staffing payroll, HR and finance, and maintaining ties with the city the authority replaces can be politically difficult. Governance can also become unwieldy; Carson said Puget Sound Fire’s charter originally gave equal voting seats to each joining agency and contracts, producing a 13‑member board he now finds too large. "The board is too big. It is 13 members big," he said, and the authority planned to revisit representation before future annexations.
On timeline and process, Carson said forming an RFA typically takes roughly two to three years from planning to implementation, citing Kent’s experience and a recent annexation of Tukwila where a contract preceded full annexation. He also pointed council members to RCW 52.26 for statutory details on how RFAs are formed and governed.
Council members asked about board structure, equipment transfers and available revenue tools. Carson reiterated that RFAs have limited voter‑approved revenue mechanisms beyond levies, benefit charges and bonding; cities retain other taxing tools such as utility or sales taxes if they choose. He described equipment transfers as negotiated trades: "We take all the personnel from the city fire department that we annex, and we essentially trade the apparatus for the liability of the leave bank," he said.
No formal action was taken during the meeting. Council members said they invited the presentation to begin a local discussion about whether Spokane should explore regionalization in the future.
