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Council approves ballot measure language and calls special election on annexation into South Snohomish County Fire and Rescue RFA
Summary
The Edmonds City Council approved a resolution calling a special election on annexation into the South Snohomish County Fire and Rescue Regional Fire Authority and accepted a city attorney revision removing an assertion that the RFA would "continue providing current level of service." The resolution passed with one abstention.
The Edmonds City Council on Jan. 7 approved a resolution calling a special election to ask voters whether the city should annex into the South Snohomish County Fire and Rescue (SCF) Regional Fire Authority.
Councilors voted to place the measure on the ballot and finalize the explanatory statement for the election after the city attorney said one line in the draft explanatory language overstated what the pre-annexation documents legally guarantee. The attorney told the council he would remove a fourth bullet in the explanatory statement that read, in effect, that SCF "will continue providing current level of service," saying that while he believed that to be the intent, the plan amendment and pre-annexation agreement do not legally lock that specific statement into place.
Christie, a representative of SCF who spoke to the council, said the authority has provided Edmonds fire and EMS service for 14 years and said the organization was "committed to the level of service that we have been providing to the people of Edmonds" and would seek to maintain or improve service.
Council member Nand offered a minor typographical amendment to the ballot language to standardize capitalization in the yes/no labels; the council approved that editorial change. After debate the resolution passed with six votes in favor and one abstention.
What the measure does: The resolution calls the special election and attaches ballot language and an explanatory statement describing the proposed annexation and its effects. The final explanatory language will reflect the city attorney27s removal of the statement that SCF "will continue providing current level of service" so the explanatory text does not state an absolute legal guarantee about future RFA policy decisions.
Next steps: The resolution sets the city27s ballot materials for the special election. Additional materials, public outreach and voter information will follow as the election timetable is finalized.
