North Lincoln Fire & Rescue - 2021 Tax Levy Initiative Information

North Lincoln Fire & Rescue District #1
2021 Tax Levy Initiative
Background Information

Overview:

North Lincoln Fire & Rescue District #1 has a Levy in place (expiring in 2022) that funds 12 paid firefighter positions and and one paramedic firefighter position.  The District believes there is a compelling need to retain the existing paid firefighter positions and add seven additional paid firefighter positions to staff the St. Clair Station (#16) 24x7x365.  Doing so will reduce response times and better manage the call volume resulting from growth in the service area and the impact of tourism. 

The information below explains how the District arrived at the situation today.

Need for Paid Firefighters:

Two articles in the NewsGuard provide some context for why the District felt it was important to hire paid firefighters:

March 2017 Article and interview with Captain Jim Kusz:

June 30th, 2017, Interview with retiring Chief Baker:

Voter Pamphlet (sample ballot) - May 16th 2017 Election (Lincoln County Website):

This is what established the current Levy that expires in 2022:

Here are the results of the vote (5/16/2017) from the Lincoln County Elections website:

The image below is from the NLCC meeting on Wednesday, July 7th, 2021.  Chief Dahlman posted this on the white board for discussion at the North Lincoln Fire & Rescue Board of Directors meeting.  

With the permanent tax base of 68 cents/thousand in assessed value, and the proposed levy (which would replace the existing levy of 84 cents/thousand when it expires in 2022), NLFR District #1 would increase to $1.8983/thousand.  The math is:

$0.68 - permanent tax levy for District

$.084 (existing levy expiring in 2022)

$.038 (increase to existing Levy)

$1.90 - Total Assessed value/$1000 valuation 

As the chart indicates, NLFR's proposed levy of $1.90/$1000 is lower than existing levy's in Depoe Bay and Central Coast (Waldport) while the call volume for NLFR is 313% higher than Depoe Bay and 307% higher than Central Coast.

The call volume trend for NLFR is represented on the graph below and in the image.

 

May 18th, 2021 Special Election:

The sample ballot and results of the recent election are below.  The levy failed by 20 votes which is 0.6%.  Less than 1%.  Very close.  The result is somewhat surprising given the Fire District's work on the Echo Mountain Complex fires and vaccinating 8,618 people (first and second dose).

As may be expected, the public reports concerns about the District and Levy including:

• "Government needs to spend within its means"
• "The Fire District is padding its numbers by responding to too many EMS calls when the Ambulance Service could handle it just fine"
• "The District should be 100% volunteer like other coastal communities"

It is important for voters to get informed by attending open houses, learning more about Fire District operations and asking tough questions.  Then people are in a better position to decide for themselves if concerns like those expressed above are valid (or not).

Election Result:

How Busy is North Lincoln Fire & Rescue?

The July 2021 NLFR Board meeting report from Chief Dahlman paints a picture.  Interesting content includes:

EMS Report:

• 7 transports in June

Alarm Response:

June 2021 alarm responses 329. June 2020 alarm responses 253, an increase of 30% over June last year. June 2019 incidents were 260 so that increase was 27% for the same month.

For the year 2021 we responded to 1604 calls for an average of 9 per day. Overall, 2021 is higher by 351 calls for the year, a 28% increase. Increase over 2019 is 172 calls or 13%.

Grant Applications:

• OSFM WUI Assistance was awarded, $ 30,850 is being spent. Training and equipment purchases have been started.
• No determination on the submitted the FEMA Assistance to Firefighter Grant. Asking for direct capture exhaust system for Station 1600. Third time. $ 92,470 
• No determination on the submitted a SAFER staffing grant. Funding request for 3 Firefighter positions. $ 1,178,103. If the Levy does not pass, we cannot accept this grant.
• State Homeland Security Grant, $ 20,000 for portable radio’s was approved. We will see funding late October or early November.

November 2nd, 2021 Election:

Here is the how the Levy request was filed with Lincoln County elections:

Here is a detailed explanatory statement for the levy:

 EXPLANATORY STATEMENT FOR COUNTY VOTERS’ PAMPHLET 

Ballot Title Caption:  North Lincoln Fire & Rescue District Local Option Levy Measure 
Measure Number: 21-204 

North Lincoln Fire & Rescue is asking District voters to renew, with an increase, a five-year local option levy to: (1) fund the current career firefighting staff of 14 and hire 7 additional firefighters. (2) continue District Volunteer programs, (3) purchase and maintain firefighter protective equipment and (4) fund general operations of the District. 

What is the impact if the levy fails? 

The current levy of $0.84 expires June 2022. If this levy expires the resulting loss of 2.2 million dollars will lay off 14 Firefighters, reduce volunteer programs and increase response times. There will be less funding so facilities and safety equipment maintenance will be prioritized with some not being done at all. 

The costs of providing Fire Protection are increasing faster than revenue. The Fire District is not part of, nor does it receive any funding from city, county, or state government. 97% of our funding comes from property taxes. 

The proposed rate for this measure is $1.22 per $1,000 of assessed value. This is adding $ 0.38 cents to the expiring levy. 

Based on the best information available from the county assessor at this time, the owner of property assessed at $300,000 would pay an estimated $30.50 per month, or $366 per year. This would be an increase of $114 per year, or $ 9.50 a month, from the current Levy. 

The Fire District will use the resulting tax revenues to do the following: 

1. Maintain the Current 14 Firefighter/EMT positions and  hire 7 additional Firefighters 

The Fire District continues to see a trend of increasing call volume and decreased volunteer availability. Often several emergency calls occur at the same time. It is difficult to meet this service demand.
Explanatory Statement for County Voters’ Pamphlet – November 2, 2021 Election Page 2 of 2 

A combination of volunteers and career staff on shift 24 hours per day, 7 days a week at fire stations significantly reduces response times, saving lives and property. 

Hiring an additional seven firefighters would ensure that three Firefighters are on duty at the Oceanlake Fire Station covering the north District and three Firefighters at the Taft Fire Station covering the south District. This staffing level of Firefighter/EMT’s will be provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

Paid firefighters do not eliminate the District’s need for Volunteer Firefighters in any way. Volunteer Firefighters are an important part of the Fire District every day. This levy would enhance the overall capabilities of the District to provide service. 

2. Continue Volunteer Programs 

Volunteers continue to be essential to the District’s emergency response. In order to recruit, encourage participation, and retain Volunteers, incentive programs have been established. This levy would allow the District to continue funding those Volunteer programs. 

3. Purchase and Maintain firefighter Protective Equipment 

Firefighter safety and protective equipment must be continually replaced and maintained for compliance with regulations. 

4. Fund General Operations of the District 

This levy would allow the District to repair and maintain facilities, equipment, fund general operations. 

More Information - Miscellaneous:

• Community concerns about lawsuit dismissed in June 2020 involving the Fire District
• There is no pending legal action against the District or any employees. The lawsuit was dismissed by the judge June 15, 2020.  You can read the text of that public document here.  It concludes that there was “no material fact to the lawsuit”. Currently NLFR employees a full-time female Firefighter/Paramedic and 5 volunteer females.
  
  
• Information about the remodel of the Bob Everest Station ... background:
• As the Bob Everest was evaluated by engineers and found to be deficient to the point of being unsafe. The building was three different buildings built in 1964, 1975, 1992 and found not to be seismically sound. The Bond was passed in 2018 by the voters with the main focus and publicly stated to rebuild this station and Rose Lodge in conjunction with over $2,000,000 dollars of State grant funds. Bond funds can be used for “brick and mortar” and equipment. Levy funds are for operations, maintenance, and equipment replacement. Oregon law is very clear on how and where those funds can be spent. $4,000,000 was spent on the station. 1.3 was grant funds. Upgrading to ADA standards was a requirement. 
  
  
• Fire District response to medical calls .. versus ambulance only
• The ambulance has a response time requirement here in Lincoln City of 12 minutes 90% of the time. Public documents in the agenda packets show in ASA-1, the NLFR district, Pacific West Ambulance fails to meet that time with ambulances every month. NLFR does have a response time of under 6 minutes in the north end of the city and 9-10 minutes South. This is when only one call is active. NLFR backs up the ambulance and this year have transported 35 times this year in the district's licensed ambulance.  If NLFR arrives before the ambulance they standby until NLFR turns over care to them for transport or tell them they are not needed, at which time they cannot bill the patient.
• If the ambulance arrives before NLFR, they do the evaluation and charge for that service.
• If the ambulance goes to a medical incident and the person decides not to go by ambulance, they charge an evaluation and response fee. $360.  The Fire District does not charge for any of these services.
• It is not unusual for both on-duty ambulances to be unavailable due to the reality of providing service during a busy time.
• Of NLFR's total call volume, 60% are for medical compared with a national average for Fire Departments/Districts of 65.7%

• Volunteer firefighters -- hugely important to district and support the levy
• The volunteer firefighters have paid for an argument in favor of the levy that is going into the voters pamphlet.  With 80 square miles and 6 stations, 3100 calls for service yearly, NLFR is not going to be handled by 6 on duty people out of two stations. 
  
  
• Pacific West Ambulance Service Challenges:
  
• Article in Yachats News (10/4/21) describing situation with PacWest Ambulance Service in Lincoln County.  From article:
• A shortage of paramedics is forcing the company that provides ambulance service to most of Lincoln County to seek two temporary exceptions to its contract.
• Pacific West Ambulance is asking to cut the number of advanced life support ambulances it has available from five to four in the four districts it serves and to suspend response time requirements until March 31, 2022.
• PacWest general manager Jeff Mathia is also asking that a fifth ambulance on duty during the day be a “basic life support” ambulance staffed with emergency medical technicians instead of paramedics to handle lower-priority calls.
• Mathia said PacWest currently has 38 paramedics and EMTs in Lincoln County but needs 46 to fully staff five ambulances 24/7. The company was last fully staffed in May, he said.
• In turn, call volume has risen to as high as 900 a month, with an average of 600 of those requiring transport of a patient. That’s 18-23 percent more than before the pandemic began and more than the 500 a month just five years ago, Mathia said.
• "We’re almost double what we were doing and we’re doing it with basically the same amount of people,” he said.