Sandpoint continues JPA discussion

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SANDPOINT — The city council unanimously voted Wednesday to extend the Selkirk Fire Joint Powers Agreement from the end of April to June 30 to allow for further discussion regarding the JPA’s benefits.

The decision follows a working session earlier this month that was hosted by the city of Sandpoint to encourage discussion regarding continuation of the Selkirk Fire JPA. This gathering offered opportunities for Sandpoint, Sagle and Westside fire districts as well as city officials and the public to discuss the pros and cons of the agreement.

Throughout recent meetings, supporters said continuing the JPA allows for more efficient use of resources and prevents “costly steps backwards” in terms of progress that has been made through joint training and 911 responses, and keeps firefighters safe and protects the communities they serve. 

The majority of commissioners and firefighters within the community are in support of the agreement, with some commenting at the beginning of the Jan. 31 working session that they have yet to hear the drawbacks. However, the council and Sandpoint Mayor Jeremy Grimm are still in the process of examining the agreement as they consider their options. 

To launch discussion at the working session, Grimm, posed a pair of questions for the room to discuss, following his examination of a Fitch report developed in 2020 which surveyed the effects of the JPA. His questions addressed the fiscal benefit of the JPA for the taxpayers within Sandpoint. 

“When I approach this, I hope I don’t offend anyone, I am simply approaching it from the perspective of a fiduciary steward of the Sandpoint taxpayer,” Grimm said. “I am asking questions that I would ask running my own business. I’m asking questions that I would ask as a land use planner. More than anything, the reason I am putting this out there is because I do sincerely want a genuine discussion so you can understand not only my concerns but concerns of the fellow council members here.”

Grimm pointed out topographical and geographical differences among the three distinct districts, addressing the different roads, patterns, and strategies involved in the different areas each district serves. 

The mayor said the Fitch study notes Sandpoint’s contrasting population density and infrastructure that result in different demands for service than other areas. He also referenced the low call volume in Westside providing limited mutual value for the city. 

“Overall, the city of Sandpoint benefits the least of the participating agencies from an operational standpoint and there is only a marginal shared cost benefit to the administrative capacity,” Grimm said, citing a passage from the study. “In other words, there is not a substantive fiscal driver for the city’s participation and the city is well positioned to function autonomously with little operational impact if desired for routine demands. The city would benefit from maintaining an automatic aid relationship for significant events.”

He also shared last year’s slider totals, a count of how often resources were sent to other districts, which showed that Sandpoint slid 70 days to Sagle and 24 days to Westside while Sagle slid 10 days to Sandpoint and Westside slid zero days to Sandpoint. 

“I could be uninformed, but it looks like Sandpoint is sliding a lot of people,” he said. “I know there is compensation but it seems like a lot of frenetic [motion] like a duck underwater moving its feet just to shift people around to get compensated from my perspective.”

However, Geraldine Lewis, Sagle Fire commissioner, asked if the slider statistics are relevant based on the organization of the districts and the “pool” of firefighters that serve all areas. 

“We understand that all the employees are Sandpoint employees — all the firefighters — and we’re just subcontracting them from you,” Lewis said.  So it’s not like you have a pool of employees and we have a pool of employees and you just keep giving us yours. We’re actually just paying you for firefighters.”

Kevin Amorebieta, battalion chief with Selkirk Fire, added that it is an administrative choice to slide. 

“I don’t advocate sliding — I don’t think we should slide,” he said. 

At this point, Guy Lothian, Westside fire commissioner, asked if the Sandpoint administration’s only concern was financial benefit. 

“For me it’s less the financial concern and more of the sliders to Westside and Sagle impacting our level of service in Sandpoint and our potential level of service,” Councilor Jason Welker responded. “Clearly, we’re getting compensated for those sliders … My secondary concern is the administrative burden it’s placing on our staff.”

Welker also said that he was impressed by the level of service in all three districts that emerged throughout the Fitch Report. 

“I was kind of blown away by the turnover rates,” he said. “Ninety-seven percent of the time if a call is received while firefighters are on another call they’ll respond to the second call on time … It’s really not a level of service concern as it is, across districts it's the impacts of staffing challenges, sick leaves, paid time off, vacation time in Sagle and other districts impacting Sandpoint’s day-to-day level of service.”

He referenced that the city’s HR team allocates close to 35% of its time toward the JPA human resources. 

“We can look at the flow of dollars, but there’s the opportunity cost in terms of how our staff time is being really consumed by administering the joint powers agreement,” he said. “I’ve heard advocates of the JPA argue that the solution to that is to take it out of the city’s hands and form an authority but it’s been 10 years and I haven’t seen that effort truly progress yet. 

Deb Ruehle, a councilor who has been with the city since the beginning of the JPA, summarized her experience with the JPA and her decision the last time its continuation came before the council.  

“I was a ‘no’ vote then because I saw a lot of these same things and I’ve been waiting a long time for fire to step up and make it happen and move forward with the authority and here we are, yet again, in another discussion,” she said. “Although I agree with a lot of what is said and things may run better, I don’t think there are a ton of benefits for Sandpoint. If a functioning joint powers authority could occur, then somebody needs to get out of the gate and start running.”

She also said that an effective flow of a cohesive unit could likely continue with distinct districts without the JPA. If districts ensure that operational manuals continue to resemble and continue consistent current, the JPA may not be completely necessary, she said. 

“Maybe I’m naive but the way fire has been presented to me … Is that you guys all work hard as a family,” Ruehle said. “To me it seems like if you guys are all updating your operation manuals and you know each department is doing it then you know, maybe there’s time within your schedules that that still happens as a group, but do you need to be Selkirk Fire to do that?”

Councilor Kyle Schrieber said that there may be cost savings in the shared efficiency of administrative expenses, which could even be improved moving forward. He also said that Sandpoint could gain the most substantial benefit from the JPA because of the city’s structure and size. 

“We do have the biggest potential for multi-structure fires that would take all hands on deck,” he said. “There is some efficiency that is not quantifiable on a balance sheet.” 

Lothian added that since many city stakeholders don’t live within city limits, it’s still within the city’s best interests to ensure the highest safety standards for surrounding areas. 

“Even though there is a dividing line, a border between Sagle and Sandpoint, and Sandpoint and Westside, the residents of those areas contribute vitally to the economic engine of Sandpoint,” he said. “So I think Sandpoint is well served by making sure these people have fire protection and to do it in the most efficient and smoothest way possible.” 

Clint Frank, president of the Selkirk Firefighters Local 2319 union, said he has been a community member and firefighter for 22 years. He shared his support for the JPA and offered reasons he believes it is necessary. At the Jan. 17 council meeting, he said ending the agreement would be a huge step backward for the departments and the communities they serve.  

“The community currently has a better equipped fire department since Selkirk Fire formed as a JPA in 2014,” he said at the time. 

He also said the current system provides a coordinated response plan through the 911 call center that supports firefighter and civilian safety by sending the right resources immediately. 

“This all leads to better outcomes on large-scale calls,” he said.  

He noted many concerns he believes would result should the agreement not continue,  including other agencies being left without a chief and direction, organizational difficulties caused by employees and equipment already being intermingled, a need to essentially gut 911 response plans, and exasperating current staff retention issues.

“To move back to three individual departments with mutual aid requests as a form of response plan is probably a 15- to 20-year step backward,” he said. “The city of Sandpoint currently does not have volunteers so we can’t handle those large scale calls just with the two or three firefighters we will have on duty. We’ll depend on mutual aid, which is always delayed.”

Clint said firefighters support the JPA and believe that with the right leadership, all parties can accomplish the objectives of why they came together in the first place — to better serve the public. 

Merlin Glass, who has 36 years in the fire service, stressed that staffing levels need to be a major component of upcoming conversations as they directly impact the safety of the community’s firefighters. 

“I don’t know if the public knows that on any given day we only have eight firefighters that cover these three districts, all the way from Laclede all the way to Sagle,” Glass said at a past council meeting. “To put out a fire in this building (referencing Sandpoint City Hall) you would need everybody in this room to participate … In any workshop you have, staffing levels have to be an ingredient because staffing levels cost money and that’s where you guys come in.” 

Michael Gow, with Selkirk Fire, echoed Glass’ statements and offered more context for what staffing in Sandpoint currently looks like. 

“The city of Sandpoint has a minimum of two firefighters on duty each day,” he said. “Right now, we have a potential of eight firefighters coming to the scene with three to four  different pieces of apparatus. That increases firefighter safety, rather than two people trying to figure out what is going on and how to mitigate that incident.”

He encouraged the council to put themselves in the shoes of those who elected them when deciding the agreement’s future.

 “I guarantee if you went out and told the public you’re going to take away firefighters that are responding to their house, they wouldn’t be supportive of it,” he said. 

Multiple attendees at the Jan. 31 meeting shared that both Sagle and Westside districts expect to pass levies that will increase staffing within their departments and their contributions toward the JPA, benefiting Sandpoint.

Other options supporting the JPA included suggestions to readdress how HR tasks are distributed, expansion of the JPA to other districts, the establishment of a Joint Powers Authority and/or readdressing the “sliding” process. Commenters also suggested additional workshops on the matter before a decision is made.