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Some of the obstacles include: <br />• Loss of pension value due to more personnel sharing in the pot or due to differing benefit amounts <br />joining into one will then lower the benefit amount per member. <br />• Fears that service years will be lost and firefighters will have to start their pension cycle over again. <br />• Some fear that focus will shift to less fundraising efforts. i.e.: annual community fundraising events <br />sponsored by the relief association. <br />• Obstacles which cannot be identified <br />• Municipal contribution to the pension funds vs. hourly pay rates <br />SBM Fire Chief Nyle Zikmund who is an expert in the shared services model said; there are a number of <br />ways to make it work. Some have completely merged and others have maintained separate relief <br />associations. <br />History has shown from previous shared services attempts in other regions that the relief association <br />can be a major obstacle to overcome. Many have successfully mitigated these known and unknown <br />obstacles by maintaining open, honest and clear communication among all parties. Identify and correct <br />all possible misperceptions to avoid a complete disruption, expect the unexpected and to be patient. <br />This process will take some time to complete. A more detailed look into the firefighter relief associations <br />is needed to clearly identify the best ways to fit the relief association/s into a shared services model that <br />works for all the members. <br />2. Allocations of existing Capital & Debt <br />A possible barrier to overcome during further study of any type of shared services effort could be the <br />allocation of existing capital resources and/or existing or future debt obligations from participating <br />communities. Additional effort needs to be put forth to discuss with all community participants on <br />exactly where their community property stays/goes. Observations, NOT DIRECTION, by participants on <br />the group have indicated there COULD be a better physical placement of existing resources in another <br />geographic location to BEST serve our citizens. There must be a transition plan on how any equipment <br />ownership transitions occur. <br />The next phase of the study should examine all current and future debt relating to the physical buildings <br />should be kept with each community. Also the group should address normal maintenance and repair of <br />facilities should be budgeted into any type of future budget of a shared service. Finally the group should <br />address any major upgrades in buildings/property that should be financed. <br />3. Increase in Budgets for some — <br />Creating new public service system structures and delivery models is no easy feat. Cutting costs alone is <br />not reform or redesign. Redesign, by its very nature, is not neat or easy. Some new ideas may not <br />produce the outcomes planned; others may take years to generate significant cost savings, but it has <br />been proven that redesigns are possible when they protect public service outcomes and save taxpayer <br />7 <br />