The Black Diamond City Council could finally be putting a fire department annexation proposal to its residents.

For months now, elected officials have been discussing how to move forward with fire and emergency services after Mountain View Fire and Rescue, which serves the city, announced on December 2024 it would not renew its contract in 2028.

This is the second time MVFR has moved to cancel its contract. The first time was in 2019, and the reasoning both times is that the city does not pay enough money to the department to cover the cost of services.

Black Diamond budgeted to pay MVFR $1.28 million this year, but Fire Chief Dawn Judkins said it costs closer to $2.86 million for two full-time firefighters to man Station 98.

Last time MVFR moved to cancel its contract, Black Diamond agreed to pay $500,000 more initially for a total of $1.05 million, plus small yearly increases.

But the department is no longer interested in contracting with the city — it’s annexation or bust.

“The MVFR Board of Fire Commissioners is committed to working through the annexation process with the City, as outlined in our current Interlocal Agreement and the previous Interlocal Agreement,” Judkins said in an email interview. “Annexation into MVFR is essential for ensuring financial sustainability in providing fire and emergency medical services to a growing city, like Black Diamond.”

That’s where the council stands now, looking at how being annexed into MVFR’s district could affect the city budget and the property taxes of city residents.

There’s also the option of contracting with or annexing into Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority’s district. PSRFA has not yet come to the table with an offer, though one is expected on May 27.

The city briefly looked at starting its own fire department, but according to city meeting minutes, FCS Group, a financial consulting firm Black Diamond hired to study the financial impacts of contracting and annexing, said such an endeavor would cost $7 million to start. It appears the council agreed this was cost-prohibitive and dropped the option.

FCS is expected to give its full analysis of how a possible contract or annexation will financially affect the city in early June.

Once that report is given, it appears council members wants to race the clock and approve a ballot measure for the November general election.

“I feel strongly, we need to put this, sooner than later, into the hands of the people so that the citizens can actually decide their fate for fire and rescue services as we go forward,” Council member Natan Jones said at the May 15 meeting.

Council member Debbie Page agreed.

“We know there is going to be a financial impact regardless of what decision is made. But for us to be able to come to the table by the 10th with the information we’ve been asking for… we have to be able to say ‘yes,” she said. “Let’s do this. Let’s make our decision.’”

There are some factors that complicate this endeavor.

First, the city can’t just craft the ballot measure without first creating a pre-annexation agreement with Mountain View.

Second, they have to do so by Aug. 5, the deadline for filing a ballot measure for the general election, and the city meets only four more times between now and then.

City Attorney said “this seems like fairly aggressive timeline” and questioned whether such a complicated contract could be agreed to by then.

Chief Judkins appears optimistic, however.

“We anticipate that the negotiations for the pre-annexation agreement will take a few months to complete,” she said. “A joint commitment to completing it on an expedited timeline by the August filing deadline… is possible. The MVFR Board is very willing to work with the City through that process.”

ANNEXATION EFFECTS

The biggest effect of an annexation will be higher property taxes for residents.

If Black Diamond were to be annexed into Mountain View Fire and Rescue, this would result in an additional property tax of $1.50 per $1,000 in assessed property value.

If it’s Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority, it would be a new tax rate of $1, but there is also a fire benefit charge (or “fire fee” that is not a property tax) that is based on various risk factors and can increase residents’ total tax bills.

Either option could benefit the city, however, as this would mean Black Diamond would no longer be paying more than $1 million to MVFR, meaning the money could be spent elsewhere to support other city services.

CORRECTION

Back in 2021, FCS reported that an annexation into Mountain View (or PSRFA) would reduce the amount of money Black Diamond collected via property taxes. The Courier-Herald has reported this numerous times over the years.

However, this was incorrect.

Washington cities can have a maximum property tax levy of up to $3.60 per $1,000 in assessed property value. However, if those cities were to join a fire or library district, those district agencies instead collect their own property tax, leaving less for the city to collect.

The city’s current maximum is $3.10.

If the city is annexed into Mountain View, that maximum rate would be reduced to $1.80.

However, the city is only collecting $1.34 per $1,000 in assessed property value. Because this is less than the city’s current maximum and the reduced maximum were an annexation were to occur, the annexation would not affect the city’s current property tax rate.

As such, the city would not need to also ask voters for its own property tax “lid lift” to continue funding city services on top of the annexation proposal.