Spokane Regional Emergency Communication addresses city's concerns at recent board meeting

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Spokane Regional Emergency Communication held a board meeting Thursday to address the list of recommendations and concerns brought up from the City of Spokane.

In a letter, Mayor Lisa Brown said the city will only move forward with its partnership with SREC if it does so.

SREC runs emergency communication for most of the county, including the Spokane Fire Department, Spokane Police has its own dispatch system ran through the city.

One of the recommendations the board discussed and agreed with was that the city should have additional seats, or additional voting weight on the board since it contributes the most money and is responsible for the most calls.

"The Board recommends adding one additional seat for the City of Spokane Police Department as originally designed under a fully regionalized model," said board member Cody Rohrbach. "With SPD joining the city, the City of Spokane will gain one additional board seat for a total of three Board seats."

An official with the city wasn't all in on the plan and wanted further discussion.

"There's a weighted voting model," deputy city administrator Maggie Yates said. "You can use various metrics like population, call volume, tax revenue generated but ultimately the decision comes down to the Board of County Commissioners, which is why I recommend to the board that we push this to the Board of County Commissioners to engage with city leadership and address the issue of governance."

The Board agreed with recommendations regarding enhanced transparency and collaboration.

One thing not agreed upon by the board: the request to eliminate user fees.

"We would potentially incur debt to fund some of those future needs at the overall expense of our taxpayer, costing them more to achieve the desired service levels," Rohrbach said. "Right now, the only way to achieve it would be to reduce service levels."

City officials say there are solutions to this.

"Based on our analysis and based on the analysis of the expert report, the expenditures could be covered by tax revenue alone," said Yates. "It's our perspective that we need to critically evaluate those user fees and make sure that we're properly stewarding limited taxpayer dollars."

The Board agreed to create a transition committee for further discussions with the city. It also requested county commissioners provide two representatives to that group.

SREC expects to send a formal response to the city's suggestions some time next week.

The city said it's hopeful to move forward with SREC but will have a blueprint planned out in case it needs to go about emergency operations on its own.

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