Some Wisconsin communities turning to fire department mergers, outsourcing police services

More Wisconsin communities are changing the way they provide police and fire services to residents in an attempt to save money.

The Sturtevant Village Board recently disbanded its local police department and outsourced law enforcement services to the Racine County Sheriff’s Office. Meanwhile, Wauwatosa and West Allis are the latest communities to consider merging fire departments, a move that could save millions of dollars for the cities.

Counties and municipalities rely heavily on the property tax to provide services for residents. But state law limits how much local governments can raise their property tax levies without voter approval. Many local governments are still facing budget shortfalls even after the passage of the shared revenue law.

Jerry Deschane, the executive director of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, said he expects more communities to turn to fire department mergers or outsourcing law enforcement services in the coming years.

“Part of it is a good thing, it’s a healthy thing to be looking at new and more efficient ways of doing things,” Deschane said. “But again, the big driver is levy limits, and I don’t see dramatic changes in that coming from the (state) legislature.”

Sturtevant moves forward with disbanding police department

The Sturtevant Police Department officially disbanded on Nov. 16 after months of discussion from village officials about outsourcing law enforcement services. Village trustees have said contracting with the county could save the village an estimated $3.5 million over the next five years. 

“Overall, it was just a huge cost savings for us,” Trustee Jason Ingle said about the decision.

Ingle said the Racine County Sheriff’s Office will have two officers working every shift to cover the village of around 7,000 residents. Those officers will still be working out of the former Sturtevant Police Department office.

“I don’t think the residents should worry,” Ingle said, adding that response times should not be impacted. “Everything should remain the same.” 

West Allis and Wauwatosa considering fire department merger

Earlier this year, the Saukville Fire Department and Grafton Fire Department consolidated to create the Ozaukee Central Fire Department. Now, Wauwatosa and West Allis officials are considering doing the same and evenly splitting the costs of the merged fire department over 10 years, according to a draft of a term sheet.

The cities are in Milwaukee County and have a similar population. 

“Both of our (fire) departments and cities in general have faced budget restraints, and the fire departments have both felt the effect of that … for about the last 15 years or so,” Wauwatosa Assistant Fire Chief Barbara Kadrich said. 

A study from McMahon Associates found that the merger could save both communities an estimated $7 million over five years. West Allis City Attorney Kail Decker said the merged department could share equipment and that duplicate positions would be eliminated. 

“The idea would be, the services would be either improved or at least maintained by doing a merger,” Decker said. “There would not be any cuts to frontline firefighters or EMS services.” 

Some of the savings would likely be “reinvested” back into the merged fire department, according to Kadrich. 

“We’ve had a lot of deferred maintenance that we’ve kind of pushed down the road,” Kadrich said.

The merger would mean there could be a shared dispatch center and one fire chief instead of the two serving the communities now.

“So when you look for the success in this initiative, it’s not going to be in how much we saved,” John Ruggini, Wauwatosa’s finance director, said during a recent city meeting. “I think it’s going to be what additional services can we provide, and how much more efficiently can we provide a fire and EMS service.” 

The term sheet still needs to be approved by the West Allis Common Council and the Wauwatosa Common Council.

“Without a merger, Wauwatosa would be looking at cuts to staff and service in the coming years,” the city website said.

West Allis and Wauwatosa are not the first municipalities to consider merging fire departments. North Shore Fire Rescue covers Glendale, Bayside, Brown Deer, Fox Point, River Hills, Shorewood and Whitefish Bay. That merger went through in 1995. The village of Mount Pleasant and village of Sturtevant fire departments also merged to form the South Shore Fire Department in 2009. 

Ashley Fisher, a senior research associate for Wisconsin Policy Forum, is the author of a recent report that looked at fire and EMS service in Walworth County. The report found there are 15 fire departments serving the county of around 100,000 people. Fisher said some of those communities have been considering sharing or consolidating services.

“All of those things can make a difference and it’s something we are seeing statewide … everyone’s experiencing these challenges (budget issues) and needing to look to the future,” Fisher said.