Briefing: proposed Snohomish County EMS interlocal would replace failing oversight agency, officials say

Chief DeMarco provided the Everett Safe Community Committee with a detailed briefing on Jan. 8 about a proposed interlocal agreement that would form a new Snohomish County EMS agency to take over statutorily required medical-program-director functions the state currently charges counties with overseeing.

DeMarco said the state expects a medical program director to oversee training, certification and quality assurance for EMS providers but the state budget offers only about $5,000 a year for that role, an amount DeMarco described as insufficient for densely populated counties. He told committee members that the current Snohomish County oversight agency "essentially failed" after an employee destroyed financial records and that the Washington State Department of Health regards the county's oversight system as among the worst in the state. "Thatis sort of when it kind of got on my radar," DeMarco said.

The proposed interlocal agreement would create a new, countywide agency structured as a nonprofit (per the presentation) with a governing board composed of six fire-agency executives (districted by fire jurisdiction) and one elected official. The board and agency would not form unless signatories representing at least 90% of the county's assessed valuation join the interlocal agreement, a threshold DeMarco said is necessary to make the agency viable. The new agency is proposed to staff 3.1 full-time-equivalent positions and to purchase shared administrative services (human resources, information technology, finance) from Snohomish County 911, which DeMarco said has available office space in a large new 4th Avenue development and could provide back-office support.

On funding, DeMarco said the agency would be paid from the existing EMS levy system; the city of Everett's current EMS levy rate is about $0.38 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Under the draft interlocal presented to the committee, Everett's initial contribution would be roughly a "fraction of a cent" of that levy: DeMarco described the proposal as approximately 0.0046 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation (presenter-provided figure). He said the interlocal contains a 3% annual cap on any levy increase and other revenue controls intended to prevent overcollection; the initial term of the interlocal would be three years.

DeMarco said multiple agencies in the county ("7 or 8" at the time of his briefing) had already agreed to sign the interlocal, and that the remaining large agencies include Everett and South County Fire (Everett was the principal deliberating body in the committee). If the interlocal cannot reach the 90% assessed-valuation threshold, DeMarco said the county executive would likely need to be asked to resolve the problem. The committee was told the interlocal's proposed structure is intended to be frugal but sufficient to meet statutory functions; the prior agency reportedly had 2.1 FTEs and failed to meet legal requirements.

Committee members asked questions about which agencies had signed and whether there was resistance; DeMarco said there was no known opposition among EMS-providing agencies. He also emphasized that the new agency would not be a county department but a separate nonprofit governed by the interlocal agreement. The committee did not take a vote; staff said the interlocal and its executive summary are being shared with councils across the county and that Everett's full City Council would consider the matter later that night.