The Legislature approved a measure to allow non-contiguous county islands to form a fire district, providing a way for thousands of East Valley residents living in unincorporated areas to receive fire protection.
The measure, H2780, is an effort to force towns, particularly Gilbert, and county islands to come to an agreement regarding fire protection for residents who currently have none, according to its sponsor, Rep. John McComish, R-20.
The bill was meant to be an emergency measure, meaning it would take effect when signed by the governor, but it failed to get enough votes in the House on May 22 for the emergency clause to be carried. That day the House approved the measure by a vote of 31-29. (An emergency provision needs a two-thirds majority vote to be effective.)
On May 29 it got the minimum votes to pass in the Senate — 16, with five voting against it.
The measure establishes procedures for creating a fire district. Once established, it can either contract with a municipality or a private provider, if no municipality is willing to provide fire protection.
If the district cannot get a private provider or a municipality for the service, H2780 mandates that the surrounding municipality provide fire protection. Its sponsor said hopefully the parties could come to an agreement before that.
The bill also creates a mechanism for compensating the municipality mandated to give fire coverage. A three-member board would be appointed to set a secondary property tax rate to be levied on the district’s residents.
“It’s not like the city is going to provide it and the rest of the city residents have to pay for the county islands,” McComish said. “Just like the city is mandated to provide coverage, the county island is mandated to pay for it.”
At the center of the dispute are Gilbert and some 4,000 residents living in unincorporated areas. The trouble became pronounced when Rural/Metro, a for-profit corporation, announced last year it was removing its services to the unincorporated lands that fall within Gilbert’s planning area. Rural/Metro ended its services in September. Counties are not authorized to provide fire or emergency medical services, and county islands therefore have to seek protection somewhere else.
Gilbert spokesman Glenn Svetlund summarized the town’s stand this way: “Basically our services are for the residents of Gilbert and that’s what the council has said.”
Some cities respond to county island fires. Others like Gilbert do not allow their firefighters to put out a fire unless a life is actually at risk.
Last year, the Legislature approved a measure that outlined the process for forming a county island fire district and required fire protection for county islands. The law was struck down as unconstitutional by the courts because it lacked elasticity.
Loss of fire protection is island residents’ own fault
One lawmaker said she was concerned that the burden of providing for the fire service would fall on city residents and that city resources would be stretched thin. Some remarked that the problems were, in a way, the result of the choices that the county island residents made — to live in an unincorporated area and to remain unincorporated.
Quoting an article during the floor vote, Sen. Meg Burton Cahill, D-17, said cities could be hooked to unforeseen expenses and would essentially be forced to provide services against their wishes. Another concern she raised was exposing firefighters to life threatening situations, such as when they battle fires or rescue individuals in buildings that may have lower standards compared to those in the incorporated areas.
Also, there would be no incentive to annex once they have received these services, Burton Cahill said.
“It is unfair for the citizens of the cities to be paying for the services, and if this law is enacted, they will not be only paying for services, but their services will be reduced, and there will be freeloaders,” she told the Arizona Capitol Times.
“They want to cherry pick, select services and not take the whole package,” she said, referring to what city residents get in exchange for taxes they pay.
What about the mechanism set in place for compensating the surrounding municipality for the service?
“If they are already getting fire services, it would be very hard to enforce that mechanism and have them pay,” she said.
Sen. Jay Tibshraeny, R-21, introduced a similar proposal early this session. The main difference is that his bill did not carry the “last resort” provision of McComish’s bill. That was, it did not require cities to provide fire protection.
While he voted for the House bill, Tibshraeny said chief among his concerns was that the measure removes the incentive to form a fire district since residents of county islands know they eventually would get fire protection. Some cities already respond to fires in unincorporated areas, he pointed out.
“In other words, if they don’t form… a district, it appears that there is no mechanism for the cities or whoever is providing for the fire service to get paid, and maybe (they won’t) even form the fire district. If they are already getting free service, what would be the motivation for somebody to sign up for fire service?” he said.
Yet despite the concerns, the condition that the measure aims to create is better than the current situation, according to Tibshraeny.
Still, the solution for him is simply that people who get fire service pay for it.
But for another senator it should have been a simple of matter of helping neighbors.
Senator: ‘It should be human nature to take care…’
“It should be human nature to take care… I can’t imagine a police officer showing up to a drowning incident and saying I’m from a different city, I’m not going to save that person,” Sen. Chuck Gray, R-19, told colleagues during the May 29 vote.
“While I realize that these are property issues, the principle is still the same. We need to help our neighbors,” Gray said. “We need to fix this issue.”
A fire broke out in a county island in Gilbert and gutted a mobile home late in May, sparking more debate on the issue. Gray referred to the incident when he explained his “yes” vote.
Reports said Gilbert firefighters showed up, determined that no one was at risk, and did not — as their policy dictates — put out the fire.
This prompted McComish and Rep. Bob Robson, R-20, to call on Gov. Janet Napolitano to declare a state of emergency for all county islands with no fire coverage. She rejected the request.
McComish said he believes the recent fire incident influenced the Senate vote and added that he thinks it, too, would influence the governor’s action on the bill. No Democrat in the House voted for the measure although it received two minority votes in the Senate.
McComish said the governor is clearly aware of the urgency.
“I believe because of that that she will sign it,” he said. “It brings home the real problem that we are trying to deal with.”
McComish said it is not accurate to say the burden of providing fire protection would fall squarely on city residents. Should a city be forced to provide for fire protection, county island residents would be levied to pay for it.
He said the argument that cities would be forced to send firefighters into burning buildings with potentially lower standards does not hold water. He said those who use this argument encourage incorporation, and when residents do, cities take them as is. They do not have to come up with some form of standards, McComish said.
Annexation is a solution
One solution at hand is simply for the unincorporated areas to be annexed, and Gilbert has encouraged annexation. In fact, many already have, said Svetlund, the Gilbert spokesman. Of about 9,000 people who were living in unincorporated areas near Gilbert, only some 4,000 have yet to be annexed.
“See, city residents have largely paid for these services and the council has said we don’t provide fire services to those outside of the city,” he said and used the same argument put forward by Burton Cahill, and that is that people should not be picking and choosing which service they want to have.