05-13-2024 CC Agenda Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY OF LONG LAKE | 450 Virginia Avenue, PO Box 606, Long Lake, MN 55356 | Phone / 952-473-6961 | May 8, 2024 City of Orono Attention: Orono City Council 2750 Kelley Parkway Long Lake, MN 55356 [VIA EMAIL: aedwards@oronomn.gov] As it has been some time since our last offer letter to you on January 27, 2023, and many things have changed since then, we felt it was appropriate to re-state and clarify our latest offer to your city regarding fire service. We continue to hope Orono will be willing to accept the collaborative model we outlined in Option A in that letter to you. Here are updated details regarding Option A. Option A As you know, in April 2021, your city decided to terminate the 2002 Agreement and Contract for Fire Protection by serving a Notice of Termination to our city and the City of Medina. While Orono’s termination of the contract is an unfortunate departure from our generations-old partnership, we are hopeful our two cities can continue to partner for fire service under a different structure. Instead of having the fire department report directly to the City of Long Lake as it has done since 1915, Long Lake has been willing to meet halfway and have the fire department and its chief report to a board comprised of city council members from the involved cities. This would be done through a shared services agreement similar to the Joint Powers Agreement that guides the highly successful Excelsior Fire District (EFD). The current EFD model was created in 2002 under similar circumstances when five cities came together to serve their over 17,000 residents, with 48 firefighters who responded to 1,160 calls last year. One of the participating cities is Shorewood, which has a population comparable to Orono and is also a lakeshore city consisting primarily of residential properties. The funding model for our partnership-model fire department could be based on the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) model policy for fire service, which is based on: • The number of fire service calls to each city averaged over the last three years • The market value of all taxable and non-taxable structures in each city • The population of each city This formula would be more financially beneficial to Orono than the current contract. Chief Van Eyll analyzed the numbers in 2022, and if the four current cities participated, Orono’s share of the budget would drop to 75%, which closely matches Orono’s annual call percentage. If we were fortunate enough to have the City of Wayzata and its fire department partner with us, Orono’s share of the budget could drop to 49%. 223