Fire station’s closure could be short

? Previously: The city of -Vancouver has been struggling to slash $10 million from its general fund.

? What’s new: The city manager’s proposed 2011-12 budget includes the elimination of 107.4 jobs, a 9 percent sewer rate increase in 2011, and possible public safety levies and bonds.

? What’s next: A first reading of the budget and sewer rate increase will be Oct. 25 at City Hall. Final approval will be Nov. 1.

Come Jan. 1, Vancouver Fire Station 6 will stand vacant — part of the cuts in the city manager’s proposed 2011-2012 budget unveiled Monday — but a federal grant could reopen it by June at the latest.

City Manager Pat McDonnell also recommended the city council put a public safety levy on the ballot in the spring to protect police and fire services from cuts in the future.

This month, the city applied for a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, or SAFER, grant through the Department of Homeland Security that would pay for 13 firefighters for two years, top administrators told the city council during a two-hour meeting that outlined a multitude of cuts. It’s not guaranteed that Vancouver will get the grant, but if it does, it would mean that no firefighters would be laid off in 2011.

Also helping to ebb losses is an agreement with Fire District 5 to pay for five firefighter positions at Fire Station 7, which lies in the Vancouver and Fire District 5 consolidated service area. The district will pay for the positions as long as it can afford to do so, Fire Chief Don Bivins said. The station is at Northeast 72nd Avenue and 126th Street.

The department would still have 10 fewer people than at the start of this year; but retirements and attrition would account for the losses, not layoffs, Bivins said. After the city accepted a federal grant to save 10 police officer jobs this summer, no uniformed police officers will be laid off, with staffing cuts there also being achieved through retirements and attrition.

Homeland Security will announce SAFER recipients in January, and it could take several months to recruit and train new firefighters, so Fire Station 6, at 3216 N.E. 112th Ave., could be closed until mid-2011, he said. If the grant is awarded, the city would look to hire other laid-off workers from within the state to reduce that training time, Bivins said.

Proposed safety levy

McDonnell pushed the council to put a public safety levy before the voters early next year, so that the city could afford to keep those positions after the federal money runs out. He also recommended a $27 million to $30 million bond measure to replace and renovate the city’s severely deteriorating and seismically unstable fire stations.

“Grant dollars are really just a short-term hold,” McDonnell said. “You’re not going to be able to hire into positions that … have no future.”

McDonnell said that it is critical for a core service like police and fire to be “sustainable and funded,” and if a levy isn’t passed, more cuts will happen in public safety every year.

The cost to provide public safety, which makes up nearly 60 percent of the city’s $181.5 million general fund, are “driving much higher than any revenue we have,” he said. “Some enhancement in our revenue generation is going to be absolutely necessary.”

The city council will make the ultimate decision about if and when to bring any bonds or levies to the voters, and a discussion of both the budget and potential property tax measures are set for Oct. 25.

Mayor Tim Leavitt agreed with McDonnell’s recommendations and said “it’s high time we did engage our voters in additional resources,” and said the community has a history of supporting public safety.

But Councilor Bart Hansen said that if public safety is so important to the city, it should be paid for out of the general fund, not by “gambling on levies and bonds.”

Councilor Larry Smith had pointed words for the city’s unions, including public safety, saying that if they don’t step forward with more sacrifices — including giving up their cost-of-living raises — it will be hard to ask residents for more money. Vancouver’s Police Guild has agreed to give up their cost-of-living raises next year; the city is negotiating with its seven other unions.

“It is a hard sell at a time where there’s no inflation,” Councilor Jeanne Stewart said. “A COLA (cost of living adjustment) is a hard sell to the public.”

She also stressed negotiating higher insurance co-pays and other measures to bring down health care costs. The city has been trying to negotiate savings with its unions. Top administrators reported Monday that so far they have not been successful in that bargaining.

Andrea Damewood: 360-735-4542 or andrea.damewood@columbian.com.