“Efficiency in government”…I’ll wait a few seconds in case you just fell out of chair laughing at the irony. Ready yet? That was not a typo, but a fact that fire departments in our very of own county are taking steps to provide and improve already excellent service but are being pro-active and fulfilling their mission without dramatic increases in taxes.
What I am talking about is something called a “regional fire authority” or “RFA” where by fire departments are forming new single organizations by converting multiple fire departments into one department. This eliminates redundant overhead and costly administrative infrastructure and re-organizing into one single combined entity. Or more simply put, doing the same job better for a larger area, but eliminating all the duplication and expense that multiple fire departments used to do.
In our county, this year could see four fire departments combine in two departments by this fall, and likely they leave the door open to even combine more fire departments in the near future. Other fire department’s are following suit or have already formed RFA’s. Some big cities include Centralia/Lewis FD12, Auburn/Algona/Pacific, Kennewick/Pasco/Richland, most of Kitsap County, Kent/and multiple fire districts, Renton and the adjacent fire district, and a whole bunch more!
We just wanted to congratulate local fire departments of Yelm (District #2) and Rainier (District #4), and Littlerock (#11) and Rochester/Grand Mound(#1/14) fire departments on their pending RFA’s. You’re citizens are truly lucky for your progressive leadership.
Please check out this article from the Centralia Newspaper that talks about their partnership!
http://www.outdoorslc.com/story.php?subaction=showfull&id=1240506830&archive=&start_from=&ucat=5