City manager nears recommendation on governance of Eugene Springfield Fire

Eugene City Manager Sarah Medary outlined two possible paths for the future of Eugene Springfield Fire on Wednesday, as the cities look to restructure their shared department and bring in more funding.

The Eugene City Council heard a detailed presentation from Medary on the two options: joining a independent fire district, or forming an intergovernmental entity. Both would replace the current model, in which Eugene and Springfield share one operational department but maintain separate budgets and oversight. 

The department has functioned that way since the two cities merged their separate fire departments in 2010 — and most agree it is not working. Union members of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 851 have described it as “fractured.” A study commissioned by the cities in 2024 found the structure led to a “duplication of effort” and inefficiencies.

“Imagine running a merged business where you still had two boards of directors or two councils, two CEOs or city managers, two CFOs, and on and on and on,” Medary told the council at a work session on Wednesday.

The study recommended exploring an intergovernmental entity, the option that Medary seemed to favor. Some members of the firefighters’ union, on the other hand, are pushing for a fire district with its own board and property-tax funding because it gives them autonomy and a dedicated, stable budget.

Medary said she plans to bring a recommendation on the department’s governance to the council on Dec. 10, with the new model being implemented in winter 2026. The Springfield City Council is expected to hold its own discussion in mid-November, she said.

Though funding and tax rates were a focus of Wednesday’s discussion, Medary pledged that her eventual recommendation “will not be solely based on finance.”

Fire district

A fire district would be a completely new government agency with its own elected board and funding structure, like the Willamalane or River Road park and recreation districts.

Medary said forming a new fire district “didn’t appear to be” an option because the Eugene-Springfield area is urban, not rural. Another option is to annex into an existing district, she said.

Medary used Willakenzie Rural Fire Protection District, which currently contracts with Eugene Springfield Fire, as an example during her presentation, though she said she was uncomfortable doing so because she has had “zero conversations” about a potential annexation with their team.

That district taxes property owners at about $3.07 per $1,000 of assessed value. Applied to Eugene, that rate would cost a typical residential property $65 per month, and a typical commercial property $115 monthly.

She said that would generate about $56 million per year — about $12 million more than the city is currently allocating to fire and emergency medical services in its general fund.

“It’s unclear how much of a service impact you would get with that, if any,” Medary said.

Switching to a fire district would take four to five years, Medary said. She said the plan would require interest from the existing district, multiple city council votes, plan amendment approvals, city code changes, discussions about asset sales and agreements, a vote of the citizens, a cancellation of the existing arrangement and “a whole lot of untangling of resources.”

Intergovernmental entity

By contrast, an intergovernmental entity would keep Eugene and Springfield as members but create a single new agency to employ firefighters and manage operations.

Medary said this system would have its own governing board made up of existing government representatives, similar to the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission.

“The chief would actually report to that new board and not to the city managers,” Medary said. “It’s not part of the city. It’s still supported by the city.”

That option would require developing a memorandum of understanding and discussions about service levels, member fees and who sits on the governance board. The process would take more than two years, Medary said.

An intergovernmental entity would collect member fees from each city or set up a utility-style fire service fee paid by all account holders based on square footage, including those that don’t pay property taxes like the city of Eugene, nonprofits and the University of Oregon. 

If the department was trying to match the $12 million in new general fund revenue that the fire district could generate, the city would need an additional funding source under the intergovernmental entity arrangement, Medary said.

“Once those membership fees are set, and this is the cost, whatever jurisdiction could choose to have a levy to supplement that, or a fee to supplement that,” she said.

Medary said for a total of $12 million annually, a typical residential account would pay $13 a month and a commercial account would pay $50.

How taxes factor in

Much of Wednesday’s discussion centered on two Oregon laws that define the state’s local-tax landscape: Measure 5 and Measure 50.

Measure 5, passed by voters in 1990, caps the total property taxes that cities, counties and special districts can collect at $10 per $1,000 of a property’s real-market value, or its estimated sale price. 

If combined rates go higher than that, taxes are reduced or eliminated to avoid exceeding the limit, a phenomenon known as compression. Every local government on the bill shares the lost revenue.

Measure 50, approved in 1997, created the concept of assessed value, or the value that a local government assigns to a property for tax purposes, which usually sits well below real-market value. The measure also caps assessed-value growth to 3% per year, meaning that service costs often grow faster than revenues.

Those two measures mean that adding a new $3.07-per-$1,000 fire-district tax could push many Eugene properties over the $10 limit. Medary estimated that change could cost Eugene about $2.4 million a year in lost revenue and $1.75 million from Lane County. 

That’s why Medary preferred a fee-based model, like a utility charge, that might bring in more growth over time and avoid those limits.

Reactions from the council

Councilors and city staff all agreed that Eugene Springfield Fire needs more resources and a better structure, but several wanted to know the extent of the public’s interest in the plans and residents’ willingness to pay higher fees or taxes.

Councilor Randy Groves, a former Eugene Springfield Fire chief, called for a plan to “catch up” after 44 years of “stagnant” growth and capacity limitations. He said firefighters believe the fire district will give them more autonomy, which he thinks an intergovernmental entity will accomplish as well. 

He asked what the public’s appetite for the fire district plan was. Medary said she hadn’t discussed it with the public, adding later that polling may be part of the implementation process.

Councilor Mike Clark said the department “needs the resources to do the job more effectively without having to scrimp.”

“It is my belief that they need a single organization that manages them,” he said. 

Councilor Eliza Kashinsky said she wanted to identify possible barriers with both options, such as the public’s interest in the proposals.

Councilor Jennifer Yeh said people won’t be paying the same amount under the fire district system due to the tax system.

“It is just not an equal system,” she said.