Springfield votes to join Eugene on new stand-alone agency for fire department

Springfield city councilors Tuesday, Jan. 20, gave the go-ahead for the city manager to begin working out the details with Eugene to turn Eugene Springfield Fire into a jointly governed stand-alone agency.

The decision to form a so-called “intergovernmental entity,” also known as an IGE, comes after many years of work by the cities to make the fire department more efficient and provide it with sustainable funding. 

“I absolutely support doing an IGE,” Councilor Kori Rodley said during the council’s Tuesday work session. “I look forward to seeing all the things that we can work out with it. And for our firefighters and responders who are in the room, I want to thank them for sticking with us.”

The Eugene City Council Dec. 10 approved former city manager Sarah Medary’s recommendation to restructure the fire department into an intergovernmental entity.

Eugene and Springfield merged their fire departments in 2010. Initially, the merger allowed for cost savings by eliminating some administrative positions. However, being governed by two cities has led to inefficiencies, officials say.

The fire department “still relies on two councils, two budget processes, two personnel systems and two administrative structures,” Springfield City Manager Nancy Newton said. “Over time, this dual structure has created increasing challenges in coordination, staff capacity, long-term planning and government clarity.”

She said the current model requires duplication in finance, human resources, IT and legal services.

“This level of complexity is inefficient and not sustainable, particularly as our service demands increase,” Newton said.

Board and funding to be determined

The Eugene Springfield Fire’s Governance Review Panel formed in 2021 and comprises two city councilors from each city. The panel commissioned a study to review governance options for the fire department, and the study recommended forming an intergovernmental entity, which is an independent public body.

The entity will be a single employer for firefighters and will have a governance board with representation from both cities. Newton said both cities will need to agree on how the governing board is structured, how members are appointed and how decisions will be made.

The study also looked at an alternative structure — forming a separate fire district — which the firefighters union had supported. Fire districts have their own boards and budgets funded by property taxes.

Newton said “Springfield and Eugene both made clear that they want to retain meaningful oversight of service levels, policy direction and financial participation.” She also said costs have grown faster than taxable value over time, requiring cities to use broader fiscal tools to sustain service levels.

Asked if the union would continue to advocate for a fire district, Brett Deedon, the union president for IAFF Local 851 Firefighters, told Lookout Eugene-Springfield, “Not at this time. We’ll be supporting the IGE going forward.

“We took a pretty staunch direction in terms of the fire district,” he said. “You know, there still remains a lot of positives in that direction. The political willpower to move in that direction is difficult. … And this IGE model presents, in its new form, a lot of the pieces of the district that we do like, that we were supportive of, and that’s why we support the IGE at this time.”

Initially, the intergovernmental entity didn’t have a new revenue channel, according to Deedon. He said the new system not only needs to be separate and allow for a “better functioning department,” it also needs to address the under-resourced needs of the department.

The intergovernmental entity will not have taxing authority. Medary, at the Eugene council meeting last month, said annual payments by Eugene and Springfield, called member fees, would make up most of the entity’s funding.

The fee structure is yet to be determined. Newton said she has a meeting scheduled this week with city of Eugene staff to discuss the councils’ decisions.

“To have Springfield give the head-nod to move forward on those initial negotiations really allows us to think about a future where we can start to plan, which is one of our biggest challenges right now,” fire Chief Mike Caven told Lookout Eugene-Springfield.