Black Diamond chooses to work with Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority

Published 1:30 pm Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Correction: In the article, “Black Diamond continues emergency services discussion,” published Aug. 27, it was misreported that the council would discuss choosing an emergency service provider on Aug. 28. This was incorrect; the council voted to work with the Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority on Aug. 21. The Courier-Herald regrets the error and for any confusion the previous article caused.

The emergency services saga in Black Diamond is over — well, mostly.

During the city council’s Aug. 21 meeting, council members voted 4 – 3 to work with the Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority toward the city being annexed into the fire district.

Council member Leih Mulvihill, Tamie Deady, Nathan Jones and Darcey Peterson voted to choose the Regional Fire Authority, and Council members Debbie Page, Jessie Young, and Sara Nielsen voted to continue working with Mountain View Fire and Rescue.

Now the issue is going to the voters, and an annexation measure will appear on city residents’ August, 2026 primary election ballots.

Being annexed into the Regional Fire Authority will affect taxpayers and increase property taxes.

First, there will be a new property tax set at $1 per $1,000 in assessed property value.

For someone who owns a $600,000 home, that comes out to an additional $600 in property taxes a year.

But there’s also a fire benefit charge, which is not a tax voted on by residents but is set by the Regional Fire Authority.

The department described the fire benefit charge as a “shock absorber,” as it is not affected by rising or falling levy rates or assessed property value levels.

The fire benefit charge is calculated based on building size, risk, and resources necessary to respond to a fire at a particular location. This means that two similarly-sized homes, even if their APVs are vastly different, would have a similar fire benefit charge.

While it can be difficult to estimate how a fire benefit charge may affect specific homeowners, the Regional Fire Authority provided some examples from this year.

Two examples were of a 2,790 square foot house with an APV of $754,000 and a 2,900 square foot house with an APV of $894,000. The fire benefit charge for these homes was $330 and $336 respectively.

After factoring in the property tax, the owner of the first home would be paying what would be roughly equal to $1.44 per $1,000 in APV — about $1,084 a year.

The second would pay what would be about $1.38 per $1,000 in APV — about $1,230 a year.

Bigger buildings, like warehouses and commercial businesses, are expected to pay more in the fire benefit charge.

An example the Regional Fire Authority gave was a 3.372 square foot business, which paid a $596 fire benefit charge.

But a 7,560 square-foot building paid $1,250 for the charge.

The fire benefit charge calculations cannot exceed 60% of the Regional Fire Authority’s budget, so there is a cap on how high the fee can get.

For an example for the latter, if the voters approve a levy lid lift to raise the property tax up to its $1 max rate, the fire benefit charge would decrease.

There are discounts for buildings with certain modern alarms or sprinklers, among other items and qualifications.

REGIONAL FIRE AUTHORITY VS. MVFR — THE HOT TOPICS

The big talking points during this debate involved the taxpayers, simplicity/complexity of taxes and fees, levels of service, and potential business.

Those who supported the Regional Fire Authority believe that as a much larger department, it could offer services MVFR could not, and the fact that the RFA could put three firefighters into the new Station 99 (Mountain View proposed two to start) was likely also a factor.

But there was also the taxpayer factor — would residents pay more with the RFA’s $1 levy rate and fire benefit charge, or with Mountain View’s flat $1.50 tax rate?

The difference for residents were sometimes negligible, as Regional Fire Authority showed, but taxpayers often saved more money under its fee structure than MVFR.

However, supporters of MVFR were wary that higher fees for large commercial businesses, something that Black Diamond wants to attract, could be a deterrent. They were also concerned that attempting to explain a fire benefit charge to voters, as opposed to a simple flat property tax levy, will be difficult and may turn voters away.

The fact that the Regional Fire Authority is also an internationally accredited department was another large factor in the vote, though MVFR Chief Dawn Judkins pointed out that the vast majority of fire departments around the country are not accredited, and that being accredited only means you set lofty goals and present data on how you’re trying to meet them — not necessarily that those goals are met.

A WORD OF WARNING

Just about toward the end of the debate on Aug. 21, Judkins gave a word of warning about the 2026 primary election and her feelings on how this process has been for her and her department.

“We are still your service providers for two and a half more years. What’s been the most damaging to me and to our firefighters, and I know it’s 100% not about feelings, but it is when there are disparaging remarks about our district and about our character; that [has] been made about our sustainability after we lose Black Diamond,” she said. “It’s been really hard to go through and to explain to our firefighters that we’re not going away. We’re not at risk of being absorbed by anyone… I’ve heard the gamut of all the rumors.

“… I think everyone is making the assumption that annexation will pass. I would like to remind you all that it’s still just a vote, and this is your Plan A,” Judkins continued. “I haven’t heard much about what Plan B and Plan C are, and I have a feeling that Plan B and Plan C may still be us in the future. I would really hope that you could all avoid making comments negatively to our department because our folks are providing this service to you for the next two and a half years.”