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AGENDA ITEM — 3A <br />,-ARZEN HILLS <br />MEMORANDUM <br />DATE: October 9, 2023 <br />TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers <br />FROM: Dave Perrault, City Administrator <br />SUBJECT: LJFD Fire District Discussion <br />Budgeted Amount: Actual Amount: Funding Source: <br />N/A N/A N/A <br />For Council Consideration <br />Council should consider providing direction on their interest in a potential fire district. <br />Background <br />The City Council is being asked by the Lake Johann Fire Department (LJFD) Board of Directors <br />on their opinion if a fire district is the right model for the LJFD. The City Council received a <br />presentation in July on this concept and the memo for that meeting is attached under Attachment A. <br />At that meeting, Council did not come to a definitive conclusion either way on whether or not they <br />would support a fire district, but rather supported the three City Councils getting together and <br />discussing a fire district. The fire department held a public meeting and invited all three City <br />Councils to attend on September 19th. While no full City Council was in attendance, members of <br />each Council (Arden Hills, Shoreview, and North Oaks) all had representatives present. The memo <br />from that meeting is provided under Attachment B. Following the three Cities meeting, the fire <br />board met and discussed the previous meeting. The fire board's direction was to bring back the <br />discussion of a fire district to each City and see if they are comfortable making a recommendation <br />for or against. <br />Common questions that were apparent in the discussions regarding a fire district were: <br />• Taxing structure — market capacity versus a predefined formula <br />• Voting structure — how many votes for each City <br />• Authority of district member — what will the expectation be for each of the fire district <br />board members, and how will information and decisions be made with regards to their <br />respective City Councils <br />• Tax levy control — how will Cities keep fire district levy in check <br />• Governance — if the current governance model is inefficient, can it be changed to be more <br />efficient <br />Page 1 of 2 <br />