Gilbert fire panel to hold first public meeting

The combative negotiations between Gilbert officials and county island residents are finally nearing an end, with the island residents possibly coming in with a stronger hand.

The three-member panel tasked with setting a tax rate for residents of the Gilbert County Island Fire District will hold its first public meeting 10 a.m. Thursday at House Hearing Room 3 at the state Capitol in Phoenix.

The panel has until Aug. 8 to reach a decision, but Gilbert Town Manager George Pettit said the realities of the legally prescribed budget calendar may not give them that much time.

“Time is of the essence,” Pettit said.

Pettit will be the town’s negotiator and sit on the board with two Republican members of the state House. The fire district picked Andy Biggs, the Gilbert county island resident who led the drive to pass the law under which the new district was formed, and two-term Peoria representative Rick Murphy was Biggs’ choice to act as the third party on the panel.

“The reason (Biggs chose me), I would think, is I worked closely with Representative Biggs in crafting the bill, because there are some areas in Peoria and Glendale, Peoria in particular, that may find themselves in the same position as the Gilbert county islands,” Murphy said.

“I don’t anticipate the city of Peoria will behave in the same fashion as Gilbert,” he added. “I hope they don’t.”

Murphy was also the choice of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, who got to fill the third slot after Biggs, representing the district, and Pettit weren’t able to agree on who should take that job.

This fits into a long-running pattern of combat between the town and county island residents left without fire protection after private provider Rural/Metro announced it would be pulling out of the area in November 2005.

Gilbert has resisted sending its fire department into unincorporated areas, saying it would put an unfair cost burden on town residents and put firefighters at risk. County islanders said those risks were being overblown, and the policy was putting everyone at risk.

Last year the Legislature passed the bill Biggs helped write, which allows residents of unincorporated areas to form fire districts and, if no alternative provider steps up, demand service from the nearest municipality.

The Gilbert Fire Department has been responding to calls for fire protection service from the county islands without compensation since mid-June, after negotiations between the town and island residents broke down and County Attorney Andrew Thomas ruled the town had to start responding to calls.

With the new panel forming, the venue may be changing, but the core disagreements haven’t budged.

Gilbert wants to assess district homeowners $3.05 per $100 of assessed property value to pay for additional firefighters, hydrants and a pumper truck to serve about 1,500 fire district households. District leaders say those demands are unnecessary in practice and illegal under the law, which says the town must accept the district with the existing infrastructure.

Town Council members have been vocal in their displeasure with the supervisors in selecting Murphy for the board, with Mayor Steve Berman calling for East Valley voters to kick supervisors Don Stapley, who represents most of Gilbert on the board, and Fulton Brock out of office.

Stapley has been at the National Association of Counties convention in Kansas City, Mo., and unavailable for comment. He became the first Arizonan to be elected president of the association on Tuesday.

Marci Sale, chairwoman of the fire district board, said this week she has never met Murphy. “I don’t see Mr. Murphy as being good for Gilbert or good for the district. That’s why he was picked by the Board of Supervisors, as an impartial party,” she said.

Pettit, who submitted four nominees for the negotiating panel, including Chandler-Gilbert Community College president Maria Hesse, said the fire district is asking the town to “fight fires without water” and isn’t looking for an equitable solution.

“We’re looking for a win-win, and they’re saying ‘you lose, we win,” he said.

Regardless of the impasse, the new law requires a settlement of some kind, which Sale said she is looking forward to.

“I just want this to be over, and to pay the town what we need to pay them,” she said.