photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

The city and county will soon have to craft a new agreement for Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical, and Lawrence city commissioners will give some initial input on what they’d like to see at their meeting on Tuesday.

LDCFM, which provides fire services in Lawrence and EMS services throughout Douglas County, operates on an inter-government agreement between the city and county. That agreement was originally set to expire in 2024, but was extended for a year to allow the City Commission and County Commission more time to reach a new agreement.

This week, both the city and county commissions will start that work. McKenzie Ezell, interim chief of staff for LDCFM, said both governing bodies would hear a presentation from the department about the issues involved in a new agreement. These include whether LDCFM should continue under its current model; what the acceptable service levels for the department should be; and how long the agreement should last.

LDCFM was created in December 1996, when the city and county voted to combine the Lawrence Fire Department and Douglas County Ambulance Service. Ezell said “there are no indications” that either governing body does not support the current joint agency model.

But the finer details about service levels and potential costs could be important, especially as the city is projecting a $6.5 million budget deficit in 2026. As the Journal-World reported, when the city was crafting its 2025 budget last summer, one proposal on the table would have decreased minimum staffing levels on the department’s trucks, from four firefighters required on a truck to just three. This proposal drew criticism from firefighters and members of the public at City Commission meetings, and the city’s final 2025 budget maintained the staffing at four-person crews.

As commissioners discuss what level of service the department should provide, Ezell said they will be able to see how the departments rate their own service levels on the city’s interactive public feedback tool, called “A Balancing Act.”

Using the software, departments log their spending and provide explanations of what work the department does, how much it costs and why it does those specific tasks, as the Journal-World described last year. The departments rank their levels of service on each task on a 1-to-5 scale, with 1 being very minimal service and 5 being “world class,” to give the public an idea of what the city is currently doing.

According to the presentation prepared for Tuesday’s meeting, the department rates its EMS and fire suppression services at level 3 and level 4, respectively. It also provides examples of response times, certification and accreditation levels, and even staffing levels that correspond to each level on the rubric. For instance, the fire suppression rubric for level three and higher calls for staffing of four firefighters per truck, while at levels 2 and 1 a truck might have fewer than three firefighters on it.

If the city and county were to change any service levels, it could also change the department’s evaluation from the Insurance Services Office, an organization that evaluates and rates fire departments and communities on their fire protection capabilities. The city of Lawrence currently has a Class 1 rating from ISO — the highest possible rating, according to the city’s website. Components that ISO evaluates to determine its ratings are included as part of the service level rubrics in A Balancing Act, Ezell said.

The City Commission will convene at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St. A live stream of the meeting can be viewed via Zoom or the city’s YouTube channel.