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Weston board asks SAFER and staff to model potential fire fee after discussing options
Summary
After a broad discussion about funding SAFER hiring and response goals, trustees voted to have staff and the SAFER board explore fire-fee options, modeling impacts on homeowners and large commercial properties.
Trustees authorized staff and the SAFER board to research and model a potential fire fee to fund fire-protection services, part of a larger conversation about how to pay for SAFER staffing and response-capacity goals.
SAFER leadership and the chief briefed the board on mechanics and constraints: "Fire fees can be used for fire protection services only," a SAFER representative said, and the fees cannot be used for EMS. The chief described modeling challenges, including separating personnel and equipment costs between fire and EMS and possible credits for sprinklers.
Trustees asked staff for concrete examples showing how a proposed fee would affect a representative single-family home and large commercial parcels (for example, the district’s largest property). Trustees also discussed phasing options to limit immediate levy impacts and noted potential impacts to expenditure restraint programs and the timing relative to SAFER grant funding for additional hires. The board agreed the exercise should return specific scenarios (square-footage or assessed-value bases) and revenue targets tied to the 2026 budget and to show distributional effects by property class.
Board members emphasized that any fee would be presented with sample bills and a clear demonstration of who benefits and who pays; staff said they will return with modeling, software-cost estimates to manage parcel data, and examples of phased implementation.
