The Wauwatosa Common Council voted overwhelmingly Sept. 30 to take a significant step toward merging the city's fire department with that of West Allis, and a final vote could come in the next few months.
The 13-1 vote this week, with only Andrew Meindl of District 1 opposed, does not yet commit Wauwatosa to forming a joint fire department with West Allis. Instead, it authorizes city staff to begin negotiating the terms of a possible agreement while seeking answers to some of the remaining questions about how such a merger would work and how a joint department would be managed and governed.
The council also voted Sept. 30 in favor of a separate but related resolution that would authorize the city to apply for statewide funding from an "innovation" grant program that rewards municipal collaboration initiatives. Such grants could make a joint fire department even more financially advantageous for both municipalities, though the two cities can only apply for those grants after finalizing a merger.
Even without the innovation grants, the two cities would save $7 million in the first five years of a consolidated department, according to a consultant hired by the cities to study the proposal. Those savings would be realized largely by sharing top leadership positions and reducing administrative staff through attrition, or leaving vacancies unfilled. A joint department also would give the cities greater flexibility to raise property taxes as needed to avoid fire service reductions, through an exception to state levy limits.
"Tonight, we're going to vote not just on the future of the fire department, but on the future of city government and services in the city of Wauwatosa," Mayor Dennis McBride said. He argued a merger would be one way for the city to maintain a high level of services despite continued pressure for budget cuts. "Let's vote for the merger."
At the beginning of the comment period before the vote, Meindl read a lengthy statement explaining his various reasons for voting no, including skepticism about the timing, distrust of city officials' deliberative process, the potential impact on the firefighters union, uncertainty about the state innovation grants and the lack of hard figures on the cost to taxpayers of a merged department.
"Let's ground our decision in facts, facts that some have dismissed in committee as 'whoppers' but which paint a clear picture of the imbalance and haste of this proposal," Meindl said, before citing disparities in regional shared-service calls. "We're looking at being asked to commit without a solid governance structure, without a concrete dispatch plan, without a true financial risk assessment and with a casual 'we'll figure it out' if the proposed state grant falls through."
Meindl also accused McBride and other city leaders of circulating a draft of the consultant's report in June while saying publicly that no details were known and no such draft had been finalized — which Meindl described as "outright likely deception" and a "breach of trust."
"In the end, we're being asked to rush into engagement after barely four weeks of consideration," Meindl said. "We all know where this path is likely to lead: more bureaucracy, potential back-door union busting and inevitably higher taxes on our residents."
After Meindl's comments, McBride responded to him directly and sharply.
"Shame on you. Shame on you, for your unfounded accusations," McBride said, countering that no draft consultant's report was circulated until August, shortly before it was released to the public. "Your 'facts' are completely bogus."
McBride also took issue with Meindl's characterization of the impact of a merger. "This is about having the money to pay for the services that you claim that you want," he said. "We do not have a plan B. ... By doing this we can assure ourselves that we will have a fire department in the future that we've always counted on in Wauwatosa."
Other council members also spoke in favor of taking the next step toward a potential merger while emphasizing that any final approval won't happen before city leaders get more answers to some of the council's questions about the plan.
"While this is a big step toward a merger, this is not voting on the merger itself," Ernst Franzen of District 4 said. "The questions that were raised by many of my colleagues — and good questions — can only be answered by putting this term sheet together, by setting out the parameters of the deal."
Margaret Arney of District 2 said the "timing of this is crucial" because of the city's potentially eligibility for up to $21 million in innovation grants. The state's application deadline for the first round of grants is March 31, and "we don't know how long and what impact changes at the federal level are going to have on the state's ability to fund what we need to fund," Arney said in advocating development of terms of a potential merger.
Mike Morgan of District 7 said he still had questions and concerns but supported taking the next step.
"I've definitely heard questions from residents in the community on this, and I definitely have not made up my mind at this point on the overall proposal," Morgan said. "But I think we are in a position tonight where we need to move forward with [obtaining] further explanation of it."
The West Allis Common Council passed a similar resolution earlier last month. Both cities now have given administrators and staff 30 to 90 days to work out the details and return to the governing bodies to consider a more formal agreement.
Wauwatosa Fire Chief Jim Case, when reached Oct. 1 by Tosa Forward News, said he and a small group of other city leaders had met earlier in the day in an online meeting with their counterparts from West Allis to begin the process of outlining a formal agreement.
- David Paulsen, a Tosa East Towne resident and editor of Tosa Forward News, has more than 25 years of experience as a professional journalist. He can be reached at editor@tosanews.com.
