Nov. 23--Union Gap's fire protection services may fall under the wing of the Yakima Fire Department if the two cities can reach an agreement.
The Union Gap City Council will consider a resolution Monday that would authorize City Manager Rod Otterness to negotiate an agreement with Yakima for fire services. Union Gap is currently without a fire chief after he was terminated Nov. 1, the same day the city announced a restructuring of its departments to cut costs and balance the budget.
The agenda item is summed up in one carefully worded sentence, with no estimate of how much might be saved or how such an agreement with Yakima would be structured.
"To ensure the continued provision of high-quality fire protection services, the city should explore additional opportunities for cooperation with the City of Yakima for the delivery of fire protection services," Otterness wrote in the agenda item's synopsis.
Union Gap Councilman and Mayor Roger Wentz said the effort is part of the city's ongoing search to provide the best services for the best price, allowing the city to build up its reserves after cuts were made to avoid a deficit in the 2014 preliminary budget.
Total expenditures for the Union Gap Fire Department and EMS services are budgeted at just under $1.4 million in next year's preliminary budget.
Wentz said there are no exact details at this point on how much the city's costs would be reduced or what the arrangement would look like. It's up to the council to decide, Wentz said.
"It should be an engaged conversation," he said.
Otterness is on vacation this week and did not return calls for comment on the proposal.
Union Gap officials are sensitive to how contracting out city services is perceived to affect the town's identity, with the municipal court currently being transferred to Yakima County District Court, Union Gap's website being developed by the city of Yakima, and officials' decision to close the city library last year. In each instance, Union Gap officials argued the decisions were based on cost management and efficiency.
The issue was briefly discussed at the Yakima City Council's Tuesday meeting when Councilwoman Maureen Adkison asked City Manager Tony O'Rourke whether the city was "picking up" the Union Gap Fire Department.
"Their manager is looking at different alternatives," O'Rourke said Tuesday. "They're doing research and when they want to approach us we'll talk to them."
In February, the Yakima City Council voted 6-1 to reject a proposed regional fire authority that would have put Yakima, Union Gap and two other fire districts under a single department governed by an elected group of commissioners. The authority would have required a voter-approved tax increase, which council members didn't believe could win enough public support.
The Yakima Fire Department spent two years conducting a feasibility study on a regional fire authority leading up to the vote. Some of the results of that study are being incorporated into the discussions of combining Union Gap's and Yakima's fire departments, Wentz said.
"It's a continuation of that same conversation," Wentz said.
Union Gap terminated fire Chief Chris Jensen on Nov. 1 as part of its departmental restructuring and combined the fire and police under one department managed by acting Public Safety Director Greg Cobb.
Union Gap officials have refused to say whether Jensen will be paid a severance package following the abrupt dismissal. If Jensen is given severance, it would have to come before the council for a vote.
Copyright 2013 - Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash.
