Kingman Fire Chief Jake Rhoades and his leadership team may take on the responsibility of providing management oversight of the Northern Arizona Consolidated Fire District (NACFD). The Kingman City Council voted Tuesday to direct staff to negotiate with the fire district to develop a pilot program intergovernmental agreement to possibly bring NACFD under Rhoades’ administrative umbrella.
“Basically what you’re doing is you’re almost outsourcing the Chief’s professional skill set to them. They’re going to pay for that,” Cooper said. He noted negotiation is a preliminary step and that it might take months to develop an agreement suitable to both parties, one that must be approved by the city council and the NACFD governing board before the management pact could be implemented.
Responding to Council concerns, Cooper said the IGA will be drafted to protect the city from any NACFD debt or liability issues. And there will be clauses allowing either side to opt out of the deal.
Rhoades said bringing the neighboring fire services together will promote cohesion and consistency in training, incident command scenarios and other arenas that will improve safety for the general public as well as firefighters. Rhoades said there is no harm in giving an IGA a trial run.
Mayor Jen Miles said the possible management agreement might result in “synergies’’, mutually beneficial to both organizations. Vice Mayor Travis Lingenfelter said an IGA should improve fire service to Kingman High School and the Kingman Airport and Industrial park, both of which are just outside the city.
Rhoades said there will be “bumps in the road” and he noted the political volatility in the fire district. He said there’s a vocal minority within the district that opposes the management pact and that their concerns must be considered so that the city and NACFD benefit from any agreement.
“Let’s try it,” the Chief said. “It’s all systems go.”
