City Council to Discuss Articles of Incorporation for Fire Authority

Saline City Council will discuss the articles of incorporation for a fire board at a work meeting Monday night. The meeting is at 6 p.m.

Fire services are currently governed by the Saline Area Fire Board, which has members from the City of Saline, and Saline, Lodi and York townships. As the Saline Area Fire Department modernizes and expands, the rising costs and other issues have made the current model ineffective.

The city commissioned a study. The city determine a fire authority was the best model. Regional partnership ranked second. The status quo and contracting out services ranked lower.

The Saline Area Fire Board has worked to draft articles of incorporation that have since been reviewed by an attorney for the authority and municipal attorneys.

Key points include:

• Enumerated powers of the authority and board.
• Number of fire authority board members and terms. The board would be similar to the existing fire board, with each municipality appointing one member and one alternate. In addition, there would be an at-large member appointed at the annual meeting. Members will not be compensated.
• Quorum, which alternate members may vote on, and when a supermajority vote is required.
• Number of officers and who is eligible to be an officer. Officers include Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer.
• The passage of a resolution to levy a tax will require a two-thirds vote of representative members, with at least one member from each member community present.
• Oversight of the fire chief.
• Budget adoption process.
• Funding of the authority with or without a millage.
• The need for member communities to adopt supporting ordinances.
• Terms for expanding the authority or withdrawing from the authority.

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