Sparks City Council members are moving forward with an interlocal agreement to share Reno's Fire Chief.
If the City of Reno also agrees to move forward, the current fire chief, David Cochran, would also provide leadership to the Sparks Fire Department.
The City of Sparks would then reimburse the City of Reno an amount that would match up to 25% of Chief Cochran's salary.
Charlene Bybee, Council Member for Ward 4, said, "Cost savings and saving taxpayer dollars is always top priority for me, but even more important is going to be efficiencies and really service delivery. So are we providing top service delivery of fire, of EMS to our residents in the most efficient way."
City staff said this agreement doesn't mean both fire departments will be combined into only one, and will still work individually.
The stations would simply share leadership while working together to improve regional coordination, resource deployment and operational efficiencies.
Derek Keller, the Division Chief of Operations of the Sparks Fire Department, said, "This agreement does not merge the fire departments. Each city retains its own budget, personnel, labor agreement, stations and governance. The city managers and the city councils continue to have authority over their respective organizations."
Something that was questioned by council members was what the chief’s shared time would look like on a daily basis.
It was then stated that although there would be designated time at each station, they would maintain flexibility depending on priorities and what might be going on at that time that requires more attention.
Dion Louthan, the City of Sparks Manager, said, "There is no set Monday he's here; on Tuesdays he's somewhere else. It would be dynamic, in that what's happening? Where are things occurring that require his attention? And he would be between the two as appropriate."
The next step will be to have council members with the City of Reno gather to discuss further action.
They're scheduled to have a meeting later this week.
