Commissioners approve sending second draft of county fire-service agreement to departments for comment

County manager Jeff Samborn presented a revised, streamlined draft of a countywide fire-service agreement and said the draft incorporated extensive work from the fire commission and input from multiple departments.

"They met three or four times over the course of the month, many hours working together to improve on that product," Jeff said, noting he accepted most of the commission's edits but overlaid several of his own changes.

Commissioners praised the collaborative work but identified several areas likely to be contentious when sent to volunteer departments: whether fire stations built or funded in part with public dollars should be available for political meetings; design-and-build approval authority for new stations; whether the county should centralize auditing or purchasing; definitions and application of non-suppression services; and provisions that would place the county as a lienholder on equipment purchased with public funds.

Several commissioners said they supported sending the second-draft as a "second draft — comments" document rather than a final contract so departments can respond. Commissioner Rick said the board should defer to departments on politically sensitive facility use as long as access is balanced; others argued for a countywide, consistent facilities-use policy.

The board voted to send the draft out for comment and requested that staff emphasize to departments which sections (for example, facilities use) the county wants focused feedback on. The timeline presented anticipates department comments over about a month with a target to consider a final product in November and possible contract adoption in February if the schedule holds.