SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane Valley Fire Department voiced its support for the Spokane Regional Emergency Communications (SREC) system in a statement addressed to the City of Spokane on Saturday.
SREC provides 9-1-1 dispatching for the Spokane Fire Department. Right now, dispatchers for the city police are housed in the same building, but those calls are handled by city employees.
For the last few weeks, the City of Spokane and SREC have gone back and forth trying to decide on the future of their partnership.
Earlier this year, SREC set a deadline of August 24 to decide if it was going to continue to provide 9-1-1 services for the city. It said it would only continue doing so if emergency communication for city law enforcement was included under the SREC.
In August, Mayor Lisa Brown said SREC’s current model doesn’t serve the city well and that Spokane would only move forward with SREC if a number of points from a recent consultation report were addressed.
In the last few weeks, SREC held a board meeting to address the report’s various recommendations.
As of mid-September, discussions are still underway between the city and SREC.
On September 14, SVFD described its support for SREC “unwavering” and called on the city to support the ongoing success of the current 9-1-1 system.
“[The city] was making some claims that weren’t true. We wanted t set the record straight,” said SVFD Board Commissioner John Gaurisco.
Gaurisco and SVFD claimed the City of Spokane is acting with political motivation over public safety to take over SREC control. He disagrees with Mayor Brown’s statements that SREC’s model doesn’t work.
“If it’s running s poorly, you do a better job. We think it’s running absolutely amazing,” he said.
The city said SVFD’s letter of support won’t change anything because they are dealing with SREC’s board, not the SVFD board.
SREC, however, expressed gratitude for SVFD’s support.
“It means the world to our employees who give their all to public safety 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year,” said SREC.
Both SREC and the City of Spokane have continued to reiterate their eagerness to keep working together.
Their next meeting is set for September 19.
You can read SVFD’s full statement attached to this story.
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