City Council - Committee Of The Whole
City Council - Committee Of The Whole
Mon, August 10, 2026
Agenda items
Vote records
Discussion summary
Transcript
Meeting summaryAI-generated
City Council – Committee of the Whole — August 10, 2026
This was a brief Committee of the Whole session with no formal agenda items beyond old/new business. The meeting quickly transitioned to a closed executive session covering litigation and property acquisition matters.
Regional Fire Authority (RFA) Update
The sole substantive item was an informational update from the Mayor on the status of the Regional Fire Authority planning process. Since May 22nd, an RFA planning committee has been meeting bi-weekly to develop a plan for a new regional fire authority that would provide fire and emergency medical services to the City of Bellingham and the area served by Whatcom County Fire District 8.
The Mayor reported that the planning committee has made significant progress, reaching agreement on several key components of the draft plan:
Boundaries: The geographic scope of the RFA has been defined.
Financial structure: The plan calls for a property tax levy of $1.00 per $1,000 of assessed property value, plus a fire benefit charge calculated based on the relative cost of providing fire protection to individual buildings or structures. A draft formula for the fire benefit charge has been developed.
Governance: Both a transitional governance board structure (covering a three-year period) and a permanent board structure have been identified.
Operations and assets: The RFA's operational structure and which assets would be transferred to the new authority upon formation have been worked out.
Looking ahead, the Mayor outlined the following timeline:
Mid-October 2026: The draft RFA plan will be presented to the full City Council for a detailed update, following additional community engagement. A public meeting and a required public hearing on the fire benefit charge will also be held at that time.
Early November 2026: Staff will seek a resolution from the City Council to formally approve the draft RFA plan.
February 2027 election: The proposal is expected to be placed before voters for approval.
No action was taken; this was an informational update only.
Executive Session
Following the RFA update, the Council moved into executive session to discuss several closed-door matters. Council President Stone indicated the session was expected to last approximately 55 minutes, with a return to open session anticipated around 3:00 p.m. Items included:
Three litigation matters (Oldm v. City of Bellingham, JWT v. City of Bellingham, and Bloomman v. City of Bellingham), each handled with the City's attorney Phillips.
Five potential property acquisition items, three with one attorney (Rosenlat) and two with another (Stamps), one of which was added to the agenda.
No outcomes from the executive session were reported in the transcript.
Key Takeaways
RFA planning is well underway: The joint Bellingham–Whatcom County Fire District 8 planning committee has drafted core elements of a Regional Fire Authority plan, including a proposed $1.00/$1,000 property tax rate and a fire benefit charge formula.
Voter decision expected February 2027: If the City Council approves the draft plan in November, residents could vote on creating the RFA in the February 2027 election.
Community engagement and public hearing coming in October: Residents will have opportunities to learn about and comment on the RFA plan, including a required public hearing on the fire benefit charge, in mid-October 2026.
No binding votes were taken at this session; the meeting was informational and procedural.
AI-generated summary from voice-to-text transcript. Not the official record. Verify important details with the source documents linked above.
What happened at this meeting
Old/New Business
Staff provided an update on the Regional Fire Authority (RFA) planning process, which has been meeting bi-weekly since May 22nd to draft a plan for fire and emergency medical services in Bellingham and Whatcom County Fire District 8. The planning committee has agreed on key components including RFA boundaries, a financial structure with a $1 per thousand property tax and fire benefit charge, governance structures for a 3-year transitional period and permanent board, operational structure, and asset transfers. The draft plan will be brought to city council in mid-October following additional community engagement, with a public meeting and required public hearing on the fire benefit charge also scheduled for mid-October, followed by a resolution request in early November before the February 2027 election.
Agenda items (1)
Procedural (1)
1ProceduralOld/New Business
Time set aside for city council members to bring up any additional topics or business that wasn't included on the formal agenda.
What happened
Staff provided an update on the Regional Fire Authority (RFA) planning process, which has been meeting bi-weekly since May 22nd to draft a plan for fire and emergency medical services in Bellingham and Whatcom County Fire District 8. The planning committee has agreed on key components including RFA boundaries, a financial structure with a $1 per thousand property tax and fire benefit charge, governance structures for a 3-year transitional period and permanent board, operational structure, and asset transfers. The draft plan will be brought to city council in mid-October following additional community engagement, with a public meeting and required public hearing on the fire benefit charge also scheduled for mid-October, followed by a resolution request in early November before the February 2027 election.Verbatim transcript available
10 transcript segments indexed
All right, welcome to committee of the whole. We do not have any agenda items other than old and new. Old new. Okay, seeing none, we will end that committee and move on to executive session. >> Mayor, I have an update for old and new business today and it's about the RFA.
I just wanted to report to council on where we stand in our process and the timeline um as we move forward. And so since May 22nd, the RFA planning committee has met bi-weekly to draft a plan for a regional fire authority that will provide fire and emergency medical services to Bellingham and the area covered by Wakom County Fire District 8.
To date, the committee has agreed on a plan with chapters that currently outline the boundaries of the RFA, the financial structure, including a property tax of $1 per a thousand of assessed property value, and a fire benefit charge based on the relative cost uh to provide fire protection to a building or a structure.
We have a draft formula to calculate the fire benefit charge, a governance board structure for both a transitionary period of 3 years and a permanent board structure. The RFA's operational structure has been identified and the assets to be transferred to the RFA when it is formed have all been part of the planning committee's work to date.
We plan to bring that draft plan forward to the city council in mid-occtober for a more detailed update after we do more community engagement. The RFA planning committee will also hold a public meeting to give an overview of the RFA's plan and conduct a required public hearing on the fire benefit charge in midocctober of this year.
We expect to seek a resolution from council to approve the draft RFA plan in early November before submitting the proposal as a measure for voter approval and consideration in the February 2027 election.
That's the update. >> Thank you, mayor. Okay, we will move on to executive session. Quite a few items. First up, litigation with Oldm versus City of Bellingham uh at all with Phillips for approximately 15 minutes.
Uh second is litigation with JWT or city the litigation is JWT versus City of Bellingham at all with Phillips approximately 10 minutes. Third is litigation Bloomman versus City of Bellingham at all with Phillips approximately 10 minutes.
Then we have three potential property acquisition items with Rosenlat for approximately three minutes each. And then two potential property acquisition items with stamps. One was an added item and those are at about five minutes each.