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

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Ramsey, Nowthen, St. Francis, Oak Grove, and Bethel, Minnesota Feasibility Study for Shared or Cooperative Fire and Emergency Services Conclusion Several of the study departments currently share certain services and work homogenously while all of the study departments benefit from mutual aid responses from one another. Expanding the existing spirit of cooperation to gain even more efficiencies is the next logical step. Given that the State of Minnesota does not currently have legislation allowing the creation of special fire districts, a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) appears to be the preferred method of joining the study agencies under a single model of governance. Under this model, each municipality would retain its current level of control and a methodology for funding the joint agency would be determined as the details are nailed down. The following pros and cons should be considered with the JPA decision: Pros: From a system design standpoint, service delivery is standardized, use of available resources is maximized, and overall system proficiency is achieved. Further, under a JPA, each entity maintains autonomy regarding taxation and each retains the ability to withdraw from the agreement in the future. Each participant provides a defined financial contribution to the operations of the JPA as outlined in the enabling documents. No legislative approval is required for this type of agreement and the intergovernmental agreements created would define how the JPA was governed as well as how each participant is represented. Cons: The fact that each entity remains autonomous also presents a disadvantage. Since any participant can withdraw at any time, there is no long-term, established commitment to the JPA. The advantages realized by joining efforts may be reversed unexpectedly and long-range planning is particularly difficult when the group is not sure what the JPA configuration may look like in the future. As part of a comprehensive implementation process, the issues of representation, funding, operations, relief associations and others will be worked through and implemented by consensus of the participating entities. While a JPA allows individual agencies to join and/or leave the combined organization, for the optimum advantage and efficiency to be gained, all study departments would need to participate. BFD, being located in the far northeast corner of the region is the least impactful but can still provide a valuable service to eastern St. Francis and northern Oak Grove through mutual and automatic aid or through a joint dispatch of the closest available unit. Oak Grove, however, is the most impactful as it is, more or less, in the middle of the region and provides the needed central core response resources to a regional system. While a continuation or even expansion of the current joint t.Ereverleency Services Consulting page 131