Camas weighs revising regional fire authority proposition

Camas city officials say they will consider revising a failed regional fire authority proposition to put before Camas-Washougal voters in November.

During the Camas City Council’s June 16 meeting, the council voted 6-1 in favor of resurrecting the issue. Councilor Jennifer Senescu abstained from the vote, saying she needed more information.

In April, Camas-Washougal voters rejected the regional fire authority ballot measure known as Proposition 1 by about 300 votes. The proposition would have created a separate taxing district to oversee fire and emergency medical services in the two cities and replace the problematic interlocal agreement that formed the joint Camas-Washougal Fire Department in 2013.

Under state law regulating the formation of regional fire authorities, the cities have two more chances to sway voters.

“It’s three strikes and you’re out,” Camas Mayor Steve Hogan told The Columbian earlier this month. “We have to take the time to get it right the second time.”

James Cliburn, the president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 2444 union representing Camas-Washougal Fire Department and East County Fire and Rescue firefighters, has called on Camas officials to revise the proposal, lower costs to Camas taxpayers and get the measure back on the ballot before the end of the year.

Cliburn said union leadership agreed that the proposed levy rate of $1.05 per $1,000 assessed property value was “the bare minimum” needed to run the regional fire authority, but believed the Camas City Council’s decision to return just 60 cents to Camas taxpayers while Washougal city leaders agreed to give back nearly 90 cents per $1.05 contributed to the ballot measure’s failure.

The agreement that merged the Camas and Washougal fire departments over a decade ago stipulated that the city of Camas would run the fire department and take on about 60 percent of the agency’s overall costs. Washougal, meanwhile, would pay for about 40 percent of the department’s costs and would have a voice at the table through a joint fire department advisory committee made up of elected officials and staff from both cities.

So, when it came time for Camas officials to decide how much the city’s taxpayers were spending on the joint fire department, the figures were wrapped up in other city departments that have provided the fire department with human resources, information technology, legal and other administrative services for the past 12 years.

Hogan said the city’s finance staff said Camas could afford to give back only 60 cents, leaving Camas taxpayers on the hook for an additional 45 cents per $1,000 assessed property value to pay for the regional fire authority, while Washougal taxpayers would have paid just 17 cents per $1,000 assessed property value by 2027.

Cliburn said he has since talked to many residents who said they would have voted for the regional fire authority if they could have understood why Camas taxpayers were expected to contribute so much more than Washougal taxpayers.

“There was distrust with the city of Camas,” Cliburn said. “Nobody knew why or what they needed it for, so we’ve got a lot of questions.”

During the June 16 Camas City Council meeting, several community members echoed Cliburn’s plea.

Former Camas City Council candidate Gary Perman — an outspoken Proposition 1 opponent ahead of the April 22 special election — said he and other opponents were prepared to back a second ballot measure with some caveats.

“We met with fire union leadership and discussed (our) willingness to support a revised RFA that reflects benefits for all of us,” Perman said. “We ask the council to consider revising the RFA proposal (to give) 100 percent payback to Camas taxpayers and also ensure citizens’ participation or representation on the RFA board.”

Those revisions, Perman said, would go a long way toward swaying some of the opponents who voted against the proposition in April and would, he predicted, “create a strong foundation of trust and accountability and lead to broader level of support and approval of (the) RFA in November.”

Hogan has asked the city’s finance director to provide a detailed accounting of every cost the city of Camas incurred in 2024 that was related to fire or EMS services.

Camas Councilor and Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue Chief John Nohr has voiced support for revising the regional fire authority proposal and getting it back to the voters before the end of the year.

“It’s important for us to put it back out before the voters and to increase our property tax by the amount it costs to fund the fire department,” Nohr said during the June 16 council meeting.

Without the regional fire authority, Camas-Washougal fire department leaders and city officials have said the likely end result will be a dissolution of the cities’ interlocal agreement, which expires at the end of 2026, and a return to individual fire departments in Camas and Washougal.

Kelly Moyer: 360-735-4674; [email protected]