QuickTake:

Eugene Springfield Fire Chief Mike Caven discussed joining a fire district, which could levy property taxes, or creating an intergovernmental entity that would charge a fee. Both are intended to create more sustainable funding for the department.

The Springfield City Council on Nov. 10 looked at two options to make the consolidated Eugene Springfield Fire department more efficient and stabilize its funding. 

Fire Chief Mike Caven said in a presentation to the City Council that a study looked at five funding scenarios for the department. He said he would focus on the two that have garnered the most interest: a fire district, for which the firefighters union has strongly advocated, and an intergovernmental entity, which was the study’s recommended option.

The Eugene City Council heard a similar presentation on Oct. 22. Eugene City Manager Sarah Medary plans to bring a recommendation on the department’s governance to Eugene’s council on Dec. 10, with the new model being implemented in winter 2026.

Springfield City Manager Nancy Newton said she would give a recommendation to the Springfield City Council in January. 

Eugene and Springfield merged their fire departments in 2010 under an intergovernmental agreement. The cities share one operational department but maintain separate budgets and oversight.

Initially, the merger allowed for cost savings by eliminating some administrative positions. However, Eugene Springfield Fire staff serve as employees of either Springfield or Eugene. The different processes and policies of each city result in a duplication of efforts, creating inefficiencies, according to the governance study.

Additionally, Caven said the fire department has a $1 million funding gap for ambulance services and needs additional funding for administration, training and capital improvements.

City Council presentation 

Caven said the department is “looking for a stable, efficient, scalable governance model that ensures long-term stability and grows with the community it serves.”

He said this is particularly important as investments continue to be made in downtown Springfield.

“When we think about fire and life-safety services, they’re not something you really want to reactively plan for,” the fire chief said. “We need to be proactively planned and resourced.”

Special districts are a form of local government created to provide a specific service, like fire protection. A fire district would have its own board and budget funded by property taxes. 

Caven said the department could not form its own fire district because state law only allows the formation of a fire district in a rural area. He said the fire department could annex into an existing district, such as the Willakenzie Rural Fire Protection District, which currently contracts with Eugene Springfield Fire.

“I’ll mention that nobody has engaged with that district to see if they’re interested in annexing our cities or not,” the fire chief said.

The Willakenzie Rural Fire Protection District currently taxes property owners at about $3.07 per $1,000 of assessed value, he said. In Springfield, that would cost the typical residential property owner about $65 a month and commercial property owners $115 per month.

He said that would generate about $18.8 million in revenue, which exceeds the current general fund and fire levy by about $1.5 million.

Caven said the district would be subject to the “same limitations and restrictions as the city of Springfield would be” when it comes to property tax growth. He talked about “compression” that could be created by the fire district. Compression is when combined taxes on a property’s bill are reduced to avoid exceeding caps set by state legislation.

Caven said adding the new tax could put some properties into compression, leading to lost revenue. He said he didn’t have figures for Springfield but did for Eugene, which could face $2.3 million in lost revenue to compression. Lane County, he said, could lose $1.7 million.

“It’s important to understand that the cities are giving up a service, meaning, plausibly, there’s general fund surplus for what was being paid to the fire department beforehand,” the fire chief said.

He said the recently renewed Fire and Life Safety Levy in Springfield would likely be eliminated under the district model. 

The second option

An intergovernmental entity is an independent public body. Caven said they are typically single-service and governed by existing government representatives. The entity would not have taxing authority but could charge a fee. He said the entity would be a single employer for firefighters.

To create the same $1.5 million in new revenue as the district, the fee for a typical home in Springfield would be $12 a month and $50 per month for a commercial property.

Councilor Alan Stout said the fire department has been underfunded for years. He suggested assessing fire fees for commercial properties based on whether they have full sprinkler systems.

Mayor Sean VanGordon said it was important to him that the city managers make budget decisions and supervise the fire chief if the cities went with the intergovernmental-entity model. 

“Protecting the role of our city managers and balancing that with the electoral oversight is critical to me here,” the mayor said.

Councilor Kori Rodley said it was important to her to understand who’s going to be affected by these decisions.

“I think it’s really helpful to think about how is it going to impact our commercial property owners, and how is it going to impact our homeowners,” she said. 

Councilor Andrew Buck said it was important the city be transparent with the community about this discussion, especially given that voters just increased the rate of the fire levy. 

“How are we going to communicate this in a way that the public can digest it and say, ‘Oh, I get what we’re doing, and I get why we’re doing it,’” he said.