JACKSON, Wyo. — On Monday, Oct. 6, Town Council directed staff to advise Teton County to amend the distribution of funds for the Joint Fire/EMS Department due to rising costs in emergency services. The Board of County Commissioners and Town Council will be reviewing the proposed funding model during their Joint meeting on Nov. 2.
Town Manager Tyler Sinclair told Town Council that the joint power agreement is expiring, so both Town and County need to evaluate the percentages of funds dispersed to local services.
“The Town and County agreed last fall for the Specific Purpose Excise Tax (SPET) ballot for a new justice center,” Sinclair said. “As part of that agreement, we decided to go through all the joint power agreements to make the funding split as we would like it.”
The Joint Powers Funding Assessment report, prepared by Emergency Services Consulting International (ESCI), recommended six areas to be included in the Fire/EMS’s budget: call volume; assessed valuation; response area; facility/fleet budgets; staffing; and population served.
During the meeting, Mayor Arne Jorgensen said that ESCI brought forward a set of standard recommendations, without taking into consideration the unique character of Jackson Hole. According to the Town, a higher need for emergency services in the community has increased staffing and fleet expenses in the department. According to the Fire/EMS department, staff and fleet, which includes type 1 and type 3 “wildland urban interface” trucks, a rescue pumper and other specialized vehicles, respond to a wide range of incidents, such as structural fires, wildland fires, vehicle accidents and swift water rescues.
“Our economy is tweaked by the wealth outside of our community,” Jorgensen said. “The community is driving a much higher level of expected service.”
Currently, the County has a much higher demand for fleet at 66% compared to the Town at 34%, and it could continue to grow. Town staff wrote that an increase in the County level of service through increased staffing, fleet and additional stations has the potential to impact the Town disproportionately moving forward. To address future County needs, Town staff recommended an equal division of funding between the two entities.
“By increasing the percentage that staffing and fleet make up in the formula, the Town and its residents will not be asked to pay such a large portion for future increased levels of service in the County, should it occur,” staff wrote.
In August, the County recommended the combined funding splits for Joint Fire/EMS: 35% for incident count; 35% for population served; 15% for staffing; and 15% for fleet costs. Sinclair suggested adjusting the funding distribution to 25% across these four areas instead — assessed value, population served, staffing and fleet — and to increase funding for staff and fleet.
“Staff and fleet are the biggest drivers of cost,” Sinclair said. “These haven’t been reviewed for decades or more. Some things have changed over last decade. We looked at our unique geography and thought that these four factors would be most adequate for where we live.”
Councilor Jonathan Schechter asked if the difference with new percentages would “create a meaningful change.” Town Attorney Lea Colasuonno responded that a change in the percentage split would not change the budget amounts for Joint Fire/EMS. Colasuonno emphasized that each entity would still retain the power of their own budget.
Councilor Kevin Regan said that he was comfortable with cost sharing the split with the County.
“We have an unusual context in this community with only one municipality,” Regan said. “One community is like one symbiotic organism.”
Sinclair added that an equal distribution of the funds would help ensure that emergency and fire response is “a better fit for the community.”
