Candidates campaign for Maple Valley fire board seat

Published 9:22 am Thursday, October 27, 2011

King County Fire District No. 43 Commissioner Jennifer Rydberg is squaring off against challenger Gabe DeBay for Position No. 4.

The commissioners oversee Maple Valley Fire and Life Safety.

During the election, Rydberg has highlighted her experience as an attorney, while DeBay has pointed out his work as a firefighter

Rydberg, who currently holds  Position No. 4, has 33 years of experience in law and has a private law practice in Kent. She originally ran for the position in 2010 because she thought her legal expertise would help the board.

“I knew the fire district would benefit from having the skills that I have in leadership, in planning and law,” said Rydberg. “I I knew that I could help with that process and contribute to make it a good process for the community. My whole life is about helping other people.”

DeBay has been a firefighter in King County for nine years. He currently works for the Shoreline Fire Department as a firefighter and emergency medical technician.

“I wanted to be able to give something back to the community,” DeBay said. “A public office would be able to give me that opportunity.  I have first-hand knowledge of how it works on the street, which was a big deciding factor for me.”

Both candidates have been active in other areas of the community, as well.

Rydberg was the former president of the Tahoma School District Board of Directors and has been active in Boy Scouts for 25 years. Now a grandmother, she said she is in a position where she can devote time to the position.

DeBay lives with his wife and son near Four Corners. He teaches new emergency medical technicians for King County Emergency Medical Services and owns a CPR/first aid instruction company.

While much has changed since she first became fire commissioner, Rydberg feels the board is now going in the right direction.

“We have an organization that at this time has a very positive leadership profile,” she said. “So, we’ve got that piece in place. We’ve had excellent financial leadership. We aren’t in any unforeseen financial crisis. We’ve been hit with a budget cut, and we’re going to be hit next year and the year after that, but we don’t have financial issues that need to be addressed.”

Budget cuts were among the other reasons DeBay is running because he feels the fire district need to find alternative funding sources. One idea he proposed was a benefit service charge, which would change the manner in which the population is taxed and, he believes, make it more fair. Residential structures which are newer and have less of a burden on the fire district, for example, would be taxed less than a nursing care facility that may uses more resources.

The age and design of a structure as well as the type of business in a building would also change its tax rate.

“We can take these factors into account in how a person is taxed,” DeBay said. “There are also certain entities that are exempt from taxes …. Basically the fire department provides the service right now, but they aren’t getting reimbursed. There can always be contracts discussed with those entities.”

As an attorney Rydberg said her knowledge about contracts and law make her well equipped to handle administrative aspects of the position.

“(I have) the ability to look at a contract and see what’s missing,” she said.

An example she gave concerned a property tax revenue swap the fire district made with King County Flood Control District, which was facing a $30 million loss. In order to offset the loss, 10 fire districts and three parks departments had to contribute money to the Flood District, $900,000 of which came from Maple Valley Fire and Life Safety’s $8 million annual budget.

During the negotiations, Rydberg stated she found the contract had several important clauses missing. After she pointed these discrepancies out, the clauses were inserted into the final contract.

Rydberg said that before she had seen it, the contract had been looked at and approved by all the other district and department boards.

“There was nobody else who recognized the problems of that contract and fixed them,” she said.

This incident, Rydberg believes, is why being a firefighter doesn’t necessarily make someone a good fire commissioner.

“If your profession was to be a firefighter, you wouldn’t have a clue (about contract clauses),” she said. “Really, the function of a fire commissioner board is administrative. It’s supporting an organization that has an $8 million (annual) budget, so that everything is well managed and supported.”

DeBay, however, argued Rydberg’s law experience doesn’t make her knowledgable about fire services.

“The problem with my opponent is she doesn’t understand from the street level what cuts to make,” he said. “Without having firsthand knowledge of EMTs and fire services, it’s very difficult to know what will truly affect people.”

While DeBay doesn’t see his firefighting skills as necessarily related to the position, he believes his leadership roles do. He said decreasing revenue is the biggest problem facing Maple Valley Fire. As a firefighter, he has seen how budget cuts can affect the level of service and knows what will impact service the most.

“If budget cuts need to be made, understanding where cuts can be made from my perspective will help me a lot,” he said. “I understand from being at a street level with how it affects the family and service members of Maple Valley.”