In 2005 the Washington state legislature adopted House Bill 1756 in which a predominantly career fire department would be required to provide an annual written report on response times.  The bill was later codified as Chapter 52.33 of the Revised Code of Washington.
 
This report is provided to meet the requirements of that legislation.  Prepared in 2007 this report provides the data required for 2006 reporting period.   While the District has established the time standards, the capturing of the actual times has proven difficult.  The current time stamp system offered by the computer aided dispatch system is not accurate nor recorded to the second.  This in fact can have a time difference of 1 minute 58 seconds should a time mark be initiated at the beginning of the minute and the second time stamp at the end of the minute.  Further it has been shown that a radio call to the dispatcher and subsequent entry into the computer varies significantly.   Radio transmissions can be delayed due to other radio traffic on the frequency.  When the dispatcher receives the radio transmission and actually enters the unit status in the CAD system also varies.  While we believe this to normally be between 15-18 seconds it can delayed by minutes if the dispatcher is busy providing other urgent dispatching functions such as providing CPR instructions to the caller.   

This report uses sample independent time tests, dispatch time records and percentage of average to indicate the best information we have as to our true times for each time measurement.  The District has applied for and received a grant that will significantly reduce the time inaccuracies by using Mobile Data Computers on apparatus.  This method does not require dispatcher involvement in the time stamps and is delivered via a data channel that normally has a response time of less than 5 seconds.  It is anticipated that the Mobile Data Computer system will be full operational in 2008.
 
Mission Statement: 
DEDICATED TO MAINTAINING A STATE OF READINESS, TO PROTECT OUR COMMUNITY THROUGH RAPID EMERGENCY INTERVENTION 

Vision: 
TO PROVIDE A PROFESSIONAL SERVICE DELIVERY SYSTEM THAT EXCEEDS OUR CUSTOMER'S EXPECTATIONS AND TO HAVE A REWARDING AND EQUITABLE WORKPLACE THAT RECOGNIZES EACH MEMBER'S ABILITY TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE MISSION OF THE ORGANIZATION    

Value Statement: 
COMMITTED TO CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT WITH INTEGRITY WHILE WORKING TOGETHER AS A TEAM. 

OUR HISTORY:
In 1941 the Washington State legislature enacted the laws that allowed areas outside the boundaries of an incorporated city to form State Political Subdivisions for the purpose of establishing fire protection. In 1946 the residents of the community of Clearview, Bear Creek and Fernwood petitioned Snohomish County for creation of a fire district.  A public vote was held and voters approved the creation of the fire District being the 7th Fire District to form in Snohomish County the new fire District would be named “Snohomish County Fire District # 7”.  Several dedicated citizens set out to purchase fire fighting equipment, form a cadre of volunteer firefighters and build a fire station.  Times were difficult in the years following World War II.  But individuals such as Tom Fawcett, would work diligently to create this new fire protection district.  
 
On December 16th 1957 Fire District 7 purchased its second fire station site at 3208 180th St. S.E.  The purchase price $300.  Today the fire District has seven fire stations serving the fire district. 
 
 In 1971 a television show named Emergency brought a new era for the fire service.  It showed LA county paramedics providing medical care to the sick and injured within minutes of a call for help.  Trauma injuries were killing people at an alarming rate.  Roads and highways were claiming lives like had never been seen in the past.  Autopsies found that many of the people that died in trauma related injuries could have been saved if they were cared for properly at the scene of the emergency and rapidly transported to a hospital for care.  Ambulances that often responded from funeral homes were overwhelmed and utilized un-trained personnel.  The public saw the LA Fire Department provide advanced EMS care and wanted their fire department to do the same.  Every time an individual was injured and had to often wait over an hour for an ambulance to respond, people asked why?   In 1972 Fire District 7 joined the ranks of fire districts that would provide rapid EMS care by trained Emergency Medical Technicians. 

TODAY’S ORGANIZATION:

 What began as an all volunteer department protecting a few farms and homes in 1946 has now developed to a suburban area made up on thousands of homes, commercial businesses and industrial complexes.  The Fire District estimates that is protects over 65,000 residents in the County area and the City of Mill Creek.  The District now has 95 full time employee’s and 36 volunteer’s that provide the most advanced fire suppression, Emergency Medical Service, Hazardous Material Response and Technical Rescue capability available today.  Snohomish County Fire District 7 is well known for its innovative and systematic approach to being prepared for emergency response.   

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS:

 The governance of the District is entrusted to five publically elected Fire Commissioners.  The Commissioners are elected by popular vote and serve a six year term on the Fire Districts board of Commissioners.  A glamorous job it is not and while a commissioner receives $70 per meeting, they are the citizen’s representatives that make it all work.  The current Commissioners are:  Commissioner Roy Waugh Commissioner Gunther Hausmann Commissioner Greg Knapp Commissioner Don Andrew Commissioner  Neil Doherty

FINANCIAL REPORT:
 Notes to Financial Statements January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2006 
 
1. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES:

 The Snohomish County Fire Protection District No. 7 is a special purpose government that provides fire protection services, fire suppression services, emergency medical and protection of life and property to Southeast Snohomish County and is supported primarily through property taxes.  The District was incorporated in 1948 and operates under Chapter 52 RCW and other laws of the state of Washington applicable to fire districts. 

A. Fund Accounting:
 The accounts of the District are organized on the basis of funds, each of which is considered a separate accounting entity.  Each fund is accounted for with a separate set of single-entry accounts that comprises its cash, investments, revenues, and expenditures, as appropriate.  The District’s resources are allocated to and accounted for in individual funds depending on their intended purpose.  The following are the fund types used by the district: 

GOVERNMENTAL FUND TYPES: 

Current Expense Fund: 
This fund is the primary operating fund of the District.  It accounts for all financial resources except those required or elected to be accounted for in another fund. 

Special Revenue Funds: 
These funds account for the proceeds of specific revenue sources (other than for major capital projects) that are legally restricted to expenditures for specific purposes. 

Debt Service Funds:
These funds account for the accumulation of resources to pay principal, interest, and related costs on general long-term debt.  

Capital Project Funds:
These funds account for financial resources that are designated for the acquisition or construction of general government capital projects. 

B. Basis of Accounting: 
The accounting records for the district are maintained in accordance with methods prescribed by the State Auditor under the authority of the Washington State law, Chapter 43.09 RCW.  The District uses the Budgeting, Accounting and Reporting System for Fire District in the State of Washington. 
Basis of accounting refers to when revenues and expenditures are recognized in the accounts and reported in the financial statements.  Revenues are recognized only when cash is received and expenditures are recognized when paid.
Purchases of capital assets are expensed during the year of acquisition.  There is no capitalization of capital assets, nor allocation of depreciation expense.  Inventory is expensed when purchased. 

C. Cash:  
It is the District’s policy to invest all temporary cash surpluses.  The amount is included on the statement of resources and uses arising from cash transactions as net cash and investments. 

D.  Deposits: 
The District’s deposits are covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Washington Public Deposit Protection Commission. 

E. Capital Assets: 
Capital assets are long-lived assets of the District and are recorded as capital expenditures when purchased. 

F.  Compensated Absences: 
Vacation is not accumulated from year to year. Sick leave may accumulate indefinitely.  Upon separation or retirement employees do receive payment for unused sick leave. 
  
Note 2 – Compliance and Accountability:  
There have been no material violations of finance-related legal or contractual provisions. 

Note 3- Property Taxes: 
The County Treasurer acts as an agent to collect property taxes levied in the county for all taxing authorities.  Collections are distributed at the end of each month.   
Property tax revenues are recognized when cash is recorded as received by the County.  Delinquent taxes are considered fully collectible because a lien affixes to the property after taxes are levied. 
 
The District’s regular property tax levy for the year 2006 was $1.50 per $1,000.00 of assessed valuation, for a total of:   
2006  AV:  $5,574,686,065 Regular Levy:  $8,362,029.10
  
The District’s emergency medical levy for the year 2006 was $ .23 per $1,000.00 of assessed valuation, for a total of:     
EMS Levy:    $1,282,298.10  
2006 Total Taxes: $9,644,327.20

Note 4 – Investments:
The District’s investments are held by the Snohomish County Treasurer as its agent in the District’s name.  Investments held by the Treasurer in the state pool for the year end 2006 were as follows:     

Note 5 - Long Term Debt: 
The accompanying Schedules of Long Term Debt provides a listing of the outstanding debt of the district and summarizes the District’s debt transactions for 2006. The debt service requirements, including interest are as follows:

Note 6 - Pension Plans: 
Substantially all District full time and qualifying part-time employees participate in LEOFF II or PERS II administered by the Department of Retirement Systems, under cost-sharing multiple-employer public employee retirement systems.  Actuarial information is on a system-wide basis and is not considered pertinent to the District’s financial statements.  Contributions to the systems by both employee and employer are based upon gross wages covered by the plan. Historical trend information showing the system’s progress in accumulating sufficient assets to pay benefits when due is presented in the State of Washington’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.  Please refer to said report for detailed trend information.     
Department of Retirement Systems     
Communication Unit      
PO Box 48380     
Olympia, WA 94504-8380 
Note 7 – East Snohomish County Office of Billing and Accounts Receivable (ESCOBAR) 

Note 8 – Subsequent Events:
 In 2006, the district signed an agreement to purchase 4 new medic units. In 2007, the district took delivery of the medic units, which are being purchased through a capital lease. The total principal payments on the lease amount to $470,199. 

The Fire District utilizes a combination of taxes, fees for ambulance transport services, Contracted services, and grants to provide the financial resources needed to provide the services.  Below is an overview of the revenue and expenditures of the District.  If you have a further interest in how your fire district receives and spends your money, you can contact the fire District for a more information.

REVENUE: (Where does the Fire District get its money):

EXPENDITURES:

As you can see the largest source of revenue comes directly from your property taxes.  If you are in the fire district you will see on your property tax statement how much of this total tax revenue you contributed to the fire district.  You will also see that the biggest expense of the fire district is paying its employee’s that provide 24 hour coverage.   The fire district is audited annually by the Washington state auditors office.  The fire district has received recognition for multiple years of audits that have found no infractions of state laws.  2006 was no different with the exit audit reporting no issues to the Fire Chief and Board of Commissioners.

ALARM REPORT:

The following represents alarm totals for the District.   You will notice that some of the years had substantial increases while one year saw a slight decrease.  When averaged over the years the district has seen a 6.8% increase in alarm activity each year as shown in this ten year trend.

SERVICE CRITERIA: 

Turnout time:  (The time from receipt of alarm to the time the fire apparatus leaves the fire Station) Each fire stations goal turnout time is 90 seconds or less for each call but criteria has been established that acknowledges time needs for dependent on the type of incident responding to.
 
This criteria cannot be obtained on an accurate basis due to the limitations of the current communications system used by the fire district.  While we can obtain the alarm time and show the time the dispatcher acknowledges the response of the apparatus we find that this information is not an accurate depiction of the true turnout time.  Therefore the District chose to do random timed tests of the various companies for this category of time increment.  

First Arrival Response Time:  (The time measured from the first movement of the apparatus until arrival at the given incident location). The average first arrival response time goal being 300 seconds (5.0 minutes).  The incident type is taken into consideration as to the expected response time.  Larger fire apparatus will normally take longer than EMS type apparatus. 

This criteria is based on the entry into the computer aided dispatch system by the dispatcher. The time criteria is not posted in seconds and times represent the full minute time as captured in the computer aided dispatch system.  While the data has some inaccuracy it is the best indicator available to the district at this time.  The times are most likely slightly less than what is shown because the dispatcher is unable to make an immediate entry into CAD upon radio voice acknowledgment of unit status.   

Full Assignment Response Time:  (The time measured from the first movement of a responding apparatus until the last assigned unit arrives at the scene).  The fire district has established this time period shall be 690 seconds (11 minutes and 30 seconds) 90% of the time.  The average full response time goal being 600 seconds (10.0 minutes.)  A full response shall include the arrival of a minimum of 13 firefighting personnel. 

This criteria just like the first is based on the entry into the computer aided dispatch system by the dispatcher.  While the data has some inaccuracy it is the best indicator available to the district at this time.  The actual times are most likely slightly less than what is shown because the dispatcher is unable to make an immediate entry into CAD upon radio voice acknowledgment of unit status.  
 
The following charts show the times as they are available to this agency and indicate our best attempt at accuracy. It should also be noted that the only alarms analyzed and shown were the alarms within Fire District 7 and alarms that were categorized emergency response.  No mutual aid calls or non emergency response calls were included in the following time charts.

STRUCTURE FIRE:

DEFICIENCIES:

The following areas are deficient in the response times as established by the fire district.   

Each of the deficiencies have been noted and the district is seeking improvements to alleviate deficiencies. While minor changes can alleviate the turn out time deficiencies the primary response deficiencies identified require the hiring of personnel and staffing of fire stations.  The district plans to rebuild two fire stations  for 24 hours staffing and staff these stations in early 2008.  While staffing will improve the deficiencies other factors such as road network and traffic congestion are factors that considerably impact our ability to respond within the standards established.  

CLOSING: 

This is the first Annual report is in response to Washington State SHB 1756 which requires a reporting made available to the public.  This report is the best representation of the required reporting contents.  Future reports hope to include non required but interesting information about the your fire district.  We are taking steps to more accurately improve the accuracy of the time reporting intent of the legislation. We anticipate a more accurate system to be in place for 2008. 

Any questions of the contents of this report should be directed to Fire Chief Richard Eastman or one of the Fire District’s Assistant Fire Chiefs.