Q: What does annexation of the City by the Fire District mean?
A:  Fire & Emergency Medical Services would no longer be provided by the City of Bend, instead these same services would be provided by the Fire District.  The personnel, equipment and facilities would not change.

Q: Who is the Fire district?
A: The Deschutes County Rural Fire Protection District #2 (DCRFPD#2) is a 132 square mile special district that surrounds the City of Bend.  The DCRFPD#2 is governed by an elected board.

Q: Does the annexation of the city by the Fire district require a vote of the people?
A: Yes, since the fire district does not completely circle the city it would require a vote in both jurisdictions.  If the district did completely surround the city then it would still require the vote of the city residents.

Q: Will my taxes go up?
A: The current proposal would mean an increase of approximately 14 cents p/$1000 of taxable assessed valuation for properties within the city limits.  This is $28 a year for a home with a taxable assessed valuation of $200,000.  Property owners outside the current city limits and within the Deschutes County Rural Fire Protection District #2 would not see an increase because they are currently paying the maximum permanent rate of $1.4366 P/$1000 of assessed valuation.

Q: Wouldn't the annexation mean that there is another layer of government being created?
A: No, the fire district and district board already exists and we work closely with the board to provide service.  The annexation would align the taxing district with the current service district.

Q: What is the advantage to the taxpayer of this annexation?
A: The annexation of the city by the fire district would mean that all property taxes paid to the fire district would go directly to funding fire and rescue services.  It means that the fire service would not be competing with other departments for general fund dollars.

Q: Don't the stations belong to the city? Would the district have to buy the stations and other equipment from the city?
A: The fire stations were built by the fire district and the department pays rent to the district for their use.  The taxpayers that are served by the district and the city have paid for all of the equipment and facilities.  Since the district would serve the same taxpayers we would not anticipate any issues in transferring assets to the district.  This and many other details would need to be worked out.

Q: If the city was annexed by the fire district would response times improve?
A: The approval of annexation in itself would not improve response times.  However, the annexation of the city by the fire district may offer some opportunities for efficiencies that could lead to improved response times.

Q: If the city is annexed by the district would burning by opened inside the city limits?
A: No, the burning ban is a City of Bend ordinance.

Q: What would the department be called if this annexation took place?
A: This is another detail that is yet to be determined.  We would want to be sensitive to the history of the department, but yet possibly use this as an opportunity to clean up some confusion with current terminology.  Officially we are the City of Bend Fire Department because we are one of several departments that make up the city government, but the Bend Fire & Rescue describes better who we are and what we do.  Possibly this would be an opportunity to adopt BF&R as our official name.