If Scott Henden has his way, the race for North Kitsap Fire and Rescue Commission Position 4 will come down to money.
Henden, who is challenging 14-year commissioner Gillian Gregory, believes the department’s budget has outpaced demand and said he’s ready to make cuts if needed.
Gregory said she has a record of balancing the realities of the budget with the needs of the district.
North Kitsap Fire and Rescue is bracing for a dip in revenue for 2010.
According to Chief Dan Smith, assessed home values in the district will drop by 8.8 percent. The department expects to lose a combined $46,464 from its EMS and fire levies. Property taxes account for about 85 percent of the department’s budget. In response, the department has cut back on optional spending and has hired two firefighters to reduce overtime hours.
The cuts come after years of growth for the department, which passed a levy lid lift in 2005 and renewed its EMS levy in 2007.
Henden, owner of Henden Electric, said his opposition to the 2005 lid lift brought him into politics.
The department’s budget increases have outpaced inflation and growth, Henden said, pointing to the 15 percent drop in calls the department has received over the last two years. If elected, Henden’s mantra will be “tell me again why we’re doing this?”
“What it comes down to is, what’s the reality of the situation?” Henden said.
Henden also wants to the Suquamish tribe to pay more into the department. He said the tribe currently pays $7,500 each year, but should be paying up to 10 times more based on how much it uses the department’s services.
Gregory said it’s too early to consider the drop in calls a trend. Call volumes had been rising for the previous decade. She also said Henden isn’t taking into account other contributions from the tribe, including a recent $26,000 grant to replace the district’s defibrillation equipment.
Gregory, who serves as infection control director for Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, said she wants to maintain the department’s focus on maintaining service levels through the economic downturn.
“We’ve done a superior job, I think, to make sure we’re getting to each house with the response times we need to be hitting,” she said.
