I wish to add facts to the debate. Sad to see so many people satisfied with statements made by interested parties without fact checking and validating the claims made by advocates. The public and the press should apply this standard to both sides of any issue.
The claim made in this commentary by JW about comparing Lacey Fire District #3 to the RFA is not fact check as true. Worse, the logic JW uses argues against having an RFA as he makes a (incorrect) point that Lacey provides service for as many calls as the Oly + Tum RFA area but at TWICE the cost! Thankfully for the RFA supporters and Lacey FD #3 taxpayers, JW is not correct. On to the other claims.
JW wrote: "What sealed the deal for me, though, was the fact that Lacey runs as many calls as Olympia and has nearly double the budget." Please provide the citations of your sources because my analysis shows that is not true.
The Lacey FD #3 has 29% more population than the RFA while its budget is only 20% more than the current Tum + Oly budgets for 2023.
This data shows that Lacey serves 29% more people with 20% higher cost. Put another way, Lacey FD 3 spends $343.30 per person while the RFA area is budgeted to spend $368.68 per person. So Lacey doesn't have "double the budget" and the cities actually spend more per capita on fire than Lacey #3.
Fire Expend Population Source:
Lacey FD3 $36,270,164 105,650 https://laceyfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/LFD3-Strategic-Plan-2023-2027.pdf
Tum $10,199,770 25,844 https://www.biggestuscities.com/city/tumwater-washington
Oly $20,110,834 56,370 city budget*
OLY+Tum 30,310,603.5 82,214 total from above
Lacey / RFA 20% 29%
* https://cms7files.revize.com/olympia/Document_center/Government/Budget%20Financial%20Reports/Budget%20documents/2023-Adopted-Operating-Budget.pdf
Overheard anecdotes from unsourced persons instead of objective data when he writes: "When asked why Lacey wasn't interested I heard the firefighter on the pro side succinctly say "because they have no need to--they're doing great."
Lacey #3 objective stats (not opinion) from Medic One shows Lacey response times not as good as Tumwater and Olympia.
Lacey #3 doesn't use a Fire Benefit Charge, they use the Property tax which is much, much more progressive.
Please explain the inappropriate content below.
