Agenda - Council - 08/13/2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ramsey, NJowthen, St. Francis, Oak Grove, and Bethel, Minnesota Feasibility Study for Shared or Cooperative Fire and Emergency Services Fire District with Taxing Authority A fire district with taxing authority within the State of Minnesota is an uncommon entity. In fact, only one currently exists: Cloquet Area Fire District. This district was created by special law in 2009 after the Cities of Cloquet and Perch Lake petitioned the legislature. Today, the district has expanded to include the City of Scanlon as well as providing service to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa through a professional services contract. What makes a district vastly different from a JPA is that the district is an independent quasi - governmental entity with taxing authority granted by the state. In other wards, it would stand as a separate unit of local government. The primary advantage to this type of governance model is that the cities involved, would no longer be responsible for fire protection. Rather, the newly created district would have that responsibility as outlined in the enabling legislation. In addition, the covered municipalities would no longer be responsible for funding fire protection in their communities. This would lie with the taxing authority of the district. Unlike the formation of a JPA, the State of Minnesota gives little guidance to how a board of an independent taxing fire district should be determined. Given the :ack of guidance, local officials are left with the responsibility to determine how the board of a taxing fire district will be determined prior to requesting special legislation to create that entity. In the case of Cloquet Area Fire District, the initial board members were selected based on representation from the participating agencies; the City of Cloquet (three) and the Perch Lake Township (two) as well as one at -large member. Since the district has expanded to include the City of Scanlon, one additional representative has been appointed to the board. Although the Cloquet Area Fire District has chosen to maintain representation from member communities in a more controlled distribution, the creation of a taxing district allows that entity to hold elections at large as part of the general community election. The downside to this method of staffing governing positions is that some communities, particularly those with less dense populations, will not be afforded equal representation given the drastic differences in population levels among the member organizations. Still, districts with taxing authority can blend the aforementioned methods of governance and have a constant representation from predetermined participants as well as members selected during at -large page 96 iCmergeney Services Consufnng