Consideration of a Regional Fire Services Model

We appreciate you reaching out with your concerns around this process, ultimately intended to maintain the highest level of safety for Mercer Island residents.

A project with this many stakeholders and moving parts often involves some aspects of the timeline moving faster or slower than originally anticipated, something City Manager Bon addressed in her recent letter to the community. There has been no intention of rushing into any steps or trying to avoid public scrutiny.

The City takes pride in the transparency of this process since it was first brought to the City Council in April, and have encouraged Islanders each step of the way to join our City Council meetings and engage on Let’s Talk, where there are opportunities to ask questions and leave comments as well as learn more about the history of this project. We have also been regularly communicating about it through our weekly email updates, as well as on Nextdoor and other social media channels.

In that spirit, we encourage Islanders to share comments with the City Council at the July 5 meeting and continue to ask questions here on Let's Talk.

The regional fire agency would not have taxing authority on Mercer Island. Consequently, adopting a regional fire services model would not have an impact on your taxes.

Mercer Island fire personnel will continue to respond to the same calls under a regional fire services model that they respond to now as a standalone fire station. We have no reason to anticipate that the type of calls would change under a new model. 

For health emergencies, the City of Mercer Island leverages King County Medic One, a county-wide system for providing emergency medical services. Mercer Island firefighters are trained in Basic Life Support (BLS) and provide these services on island. Mercer Island generally receives Advanced Life Support (ALS) services from Bellevue Fire Medic One. Should the City adopt a regional fire model with Eastside Fire & Rescue, on-island firefighters would continue to provide BLS and Bellevue Fire Medic One would continue to be the primary provider of ALS services.  

Recently, the City Council directed the City Manager to begin negotiations with Eastside Fire & Rescue as part of the process to explore regional fire services for the Mercer Island community.  

While we understand why a shift to regional fire services may cause concern, under a fire service model with Eastside Fire & Rescue both fire stations on Mercer Island would remain open and staffed by Island-based firefighters, including current firefighting staff. 

In addition to our own teams, the City of Mercer Island has regularly had off-island firefighters operating successfully on the island for many years now. To illustrate this, the concepts of Mutual Aid and Automatic Aid in the fire service may be helpful to explore: 

Mutual Aid, governed by the King County Mutual Assistance and Interlocal Agreement, is used to describe emergency responses that occur between dispatch centers. The process involves NORCOM, the City’s emergency response dispatch center, calling the other dispatch centers and requesting resources.  

Automatic Aid is the tool used to manage, coordinate, and share resources within a singular dispatch center or “zone,” such as Zone 1 - the area from Shoreline to Bellevue. Most agencies within Zone 1 have entered into an Interlocal Agreement governing the sharing of resources to address fire and emergency response services in that Zone. This approach ensures efficient coordination of services, minimizes response delays, utilizes the same radio frequencies, and eliminates manual dispatch.   

A recent example of Automatic Aid occurred on April 14, 2023, when a ladder truck from Eastside Fire & Rescue, along with units from Bellevue Fire responded to Mercer Island for a working fire. In this example, three agencies were involved to handle this alarm, and all were dispatched by NORCOM.  

An example of both Mutual and Automatic Aid occurred on February 15, 2022, in which Mercer Island units responded to a hazardous materials response at the 3000 block of 80th Ave SE on Mercer Island, and both Automatic Aid and Mutual Aid were required. NORCOM contacted Seattle Fire Dispatch, and Seattle Fire Hazmat responded to mitigate this dangerous situation along with units from Bellevue.  

Firefighters in our region regularly train and collaborate with other departments, meaning firefighters across King County are familiar with the various regional fire agencies and with the unique contexts of different cities. 

This document gets into these automatic and mutual aid arrangements in more detail: https://mccmeetingspublic.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/mercerwa-meet-03a5a059c9d04d54899852a0e261a622/ITEM-Attachment-001-83c700cbdf254bdf8f8c3e8d2bbf9a91.pdf  

The City of Mercer Island is committed to continuing productive conversations with the Professional Firefighters’ Association of Mercer Island (International Association of Firefighters Local 1762). The City is receiving and is sensitive to Local 1762’s feedback. We appreciate their positive engagement in the process so far and look forward to continued conversations. The outcome of meetings between the City and Local 1762 will become public.

Yes. The Request for Proposal (RFP) process includes detailed review of each proposal’s anticipated benefits and costs. The City will evaluate proposals to determine if the adoption of a regional fire services model makes the most sense for Mercer Island now and into the future. A list of objectives and factors to guide the evaluation of regional fire services proposal can be found in the RFP document. Public engagement is a key part of this process and Islanders are encouraged to stay updated and engaged here on Let’s Talk.

All fire departments, whether local or part of a regional agency, assist other local departments with emergency response – and Mercer Island has been doing so for years already. For more than a decade the Mercer Island Fire Department has operated under a Regional Coordination Framework through King County which brings together surrounding agencies to share personnel, equipment, and information during a response when necessary. This coordination and regional framework would continue under a regional fire services model, and we requested that proposals address any necessary updates to automatic and mutual aid agreements if needed. 

Mercer Island will retain service level authority with the expectation that no matter the nature of the emergency call, response times will not be impacted by a transition to a regional fire services model. 

Yes. Any adoption of a regional services model for Mercer Island would specifically ensure that both Fire Station 91 and 92 remain open and fully staffed. The City would continue to control service levels for all fire and emergency medical services provided by a regional agency on Mercer Island – these would match or even exceed current service levels.