From Deseret News archives:
Friendly split for Pleasant Grove, Lindon?
Fire, police, ambulance service costs are issue
Pleasant Grove Mayor Mike Daniels said the "parting of the ways" may come because, as both cities have grown, operational costs have increased to the point at which Lindon would like a more detailed accounting and greater control over the services it is paying for. But Pleasant Grove isn't prepared to give Lindon what it wants.
"(Lindon) would like an accountability that we can't give them," Daniels said. "They want to know what they're paying for, and we're not really set up that way to provide the level of detail that they want. We can provide things like how many calls they had and how long those calls took, but if you start getting into the nitty-gritty of the type of call that was answered and was it more important or less important than another call ... you start to get into a level of reporting that we don't track."
Lindon has been linked to Pleasant Grove since 1982, but most recently, the city has been spending slightly more than $1.4 million per year for police, fire, EMS, animal control and dispatch services.
About a year ago, both cities considered forming a special service district to solidify their unity and possibly reconfigure their costs, but Daniels said the union would not have benefited Pleasant Grove as much as maintaining their own department currently does.
Now Lindon officials must decide if they want to branch out on their own, partner with another city or stay with Pleasant Grove for at least another year.
"Our overall philosophy as a city has been we feel that partnering with other entities means ... better service collectively, probably for less cost," said Lindon Mayor Jeff Acerson. "We feel that's a good working principle, but we may ... be big enough now that the viewpoint may change a bit, and we may be wise and prudent to provide that service by ourselves."
Daniels said Pleasant Grove hopes to know within a month or two whether the partnership will continue after July 1, 2008 — the beginning of the cities' next fiscal year. If Lindon decides to establish its own emergency service system, Daniels said Pleasant Grove will help them.
"Just because we're all looking at accountability to our areas, nobody should misunderstand that (our) cities don't have a good working relationship," Daniels said. "We're just trying to figure out how to best address the needs of our cities without creating a total fiasco for those involved."
Still, some Pleasant Grove employees who serve both cities say they're worried that a split could weaken their ability to build specialized emergency services, such as SWAT teams or canine units.
Some are also worried about their job security and the possibility that Pleasant Grove could downsize if they no longer provide police, fire and ambulance services to two cities. Daniels says he will push for the city to absorb the costs and keep whatever personnel Lindon doesn't hire, but some Pleasant Grove employees say their Lindon comrades would be hard to replace, and the feeling is mutual.
"I think we have a really good thing for everybody here," said Andrew Engemann, a Lindon resident who works for the Pleasant Grove fire department. "I hope we can keep making it work. That would be my concern. I'd like to see it go across the board and worked out so everybody is happy."
Contributing: Sara Israelsen
E-mail: achoate@desnews.com
