South County Fire will host an informational open house on a proposal to establish five commissioner election districts on Saturday, Dec. 1, noon-2 p.m., at Lynnwood Fire Station 15, 18800 44th Ave. W.
Establishing commissioner election districts is required under the Regional Fire Authority (RFA) Plan approved by voters last year. Under that plan, Snohomish County Fire District 1 and the Lynnwood Fire Department combined to form South County Fire with an initial governing board of seven commissioners: all five elected Fire District 1 commissioners and two members appointed from the Lynnwood City Council. The RFA Plan calls for transitioning to a directly elected board beginning in 2019 with five commissioner districts. Two at-large commissioners will be directly elected in 2021. The first step in this transition is establishing commissioner election districts.
South County Fire commissioners and staff will be at the open to answer questions and discuss the election district proposal. Large-scale maps of each district will be available for review. There will also be an opportunity to submit public comments.
A second open house is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 4, 4:30-6:30 p.m., at South County Fire Headquarters, 12425 Meridian Ave. S., Everett. That same evening at the same location, there will be a public hearing on the proposal during the South County Fire Board of Commissioners meeting, which begins at 7 p.m.
After the hearing and a review of public comments, the Board of Commissioners will determine how to proceed and set a date to vote on adoption of commissioner election district boundaries.
The public can also review the proposed election district boundaries and submit comments online at www.southsnofire.org/electiondistricts.
The election districts do not include the cities of Brier, Edmonds and Mountlake Terrace, which receive emergency services under contract with South County Fire, but are not part of the regional fire authority. However, they do include unincorporated areas surrounding those cities.
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