Bellevue council directs staff to place King County Medic 1 EMS renewal on November ballot

Bellevue City Council on Feb. 11 directed staff to prepare a resolution supporting placement of the proposed King County Medic 1 six-year emergency medical services (EMS) levy on the Nov. 2025 ballot.

The move followed a presentation from Michelle Plourde, director of King County Emergency Medical Services, and Bellevue Fire Department Battalion Chief Matt Burrow, who described regional EMS operations and how levy dollars fund paramedics, basic life support programs and countywide initiatives such as mobile integrated health.

The proposal is the product of a yearlong regional EMS advisory task force and would seek a 25-cent-per-$1,000 assessed-value levy that the task force and King County staff say would sustain advanced life support (ALS) and basic life support (BLS) services from 2026 through 2031. Michelle Plourde said the task force recommended the plan to ensure “our services [are] uninterrupted” and to provide programmatic reserves over the six-year period.

Plourde told the council King County’s EMS system responds every two minutes on average, serves roughly 2.3 million people and, she said, achieved a 51 percent cardiac arrest survival rate in 2023 — a metric the system uses as a performance benchmark. Chief Matt Burrow described Bellevue’s ALS role in the regional system and said Bellevue’s four medic units receive levy funding that helps cover paramedic staffing and training.

Mayor Lynn Robinson, who served as chair of an EMS subcommittee during the task force process, said she reviewed the task force work and found its recommendation “well thought out” and moderate in scope.

Deputy Mayor Devdura Malakoutian moved the council instruction directing staff to bring a supporting resolution to the consent calendar following King County’s ordinance introduction; the motion was seconded and passed unanimously. The motion instructs city staff to prepare a consent-calendar resolution supporting placement of the levy on the November ballot but does not bind Bellevue voters; final action would occur if and when the measure is placed on the ballot.

Council members emphasized the levy’s role in funding Bellevue services including Bellevue’s ALS paramedic units, the CARES mobile integrated health program and ongoing EMT training. Several council members asked county staff to provide ongoing, readily accessible performance metrics — for example, annual cardiac-arrest survival counts, bystander CPR rates and other regularly tracked measures — so the council and public can monitor levy impacts.

King County presenters said the levy package would start at a 25¢ rate per $1,000 of assessed value; the task force estimated an annual cost of about $212 for a homeowner with an $850,000 home (Bellevue staff and King County also cited an approximate $250 annual cost for a $1,000,000 home). The task force recommended using reserves and contingencies to manage risk over the six-year period.

The council’s vote was procedural: it authorized staff to draft a resolution supporting placement on the ballot and return the resolution for adoption on a future consent agenda after King County formally introduces its ordinance. No ballot language or final levy ordinance was adopted by the council at the Feb. 11 meeting.

Ending: Staff will return the supporting resolution to the council’s consent calendar after King County introduces its ordinance; final voter approval would occur only if the levy is placed on the Nov. 2025 ballot and subsequently approved by voters.