Glendale expanded. How it handles 911 calls didn't. These cities are picking up the slack

Ever wonder how it's determined which agency will respond to emergency calls in an area? It's not always the jurisdiction the call is made from.

The Automatic Aid System, an agreement between 30 jurisdictions throughout the Valley, allows the closest engine to respond to an emergency regardless of jurisdictional boundaries — a Tempe emergency vehicle may respond to a call in Scottsdale if that vehicle is closer, for example.

But what happens when a city is accused of not holding up its end of the deal? The concern came up at a Goodyear City Council meeting last month, when it was time for the city to renew its agreement in the system.

Council member Bill Stipp expressed concern over Glendale's recent annexation of land west of Luke Air Force Base. But the city hasn't presented a plan showing how that land will be patrolled by emergency response vehicles, which is required by the Automatic Aid System agreement. The city is relying solely on the Automatic Aid System, said Stipp, leaving the cities of Goodyear and Surprise to service that area.

The system is thrown into disarray when a party goes its own way, said Stipp, who suggested another governing body get involved to help the process. The Automatic Aid System is currently overseen by city fire chiefs.

To give an idea of the scale of calls, Stipp said Goodyear spends $6 million per year on an area of annexed land in Mobile that has only 40 residents.

Goodyear Fire Chief and Interim Deputy City Manager Paul Luizzi said the issue isn't that many calls have come to the annexed land. An area of Litchfield Park patrolled by Goodyear receives about two calls for assistance per day, while the area of land annexed by Glendale has only about one call per week.

Right now, the land has industrial buildings on it. But in the future, the city could add housing developments, which would significantly increase the number of calls to that area.

Overall, Luizzi said it's hard to tell how much money the city is spending responding to calls on that area of land. The amount that a city spends isn't typically measured on a cost-per-call basis, said Luizzi, since it can differ so greatly from city to city.

Luizzi said he would ultimately like to see Glendale submit a plan to the Life Safety Council explaining what the city plans to do with the land and how it will be patrolled.

"If they said to us, 'Hey, we have a plan to put X by 2025,' I think that would take a lot of the concern off of us. Our concern is that they may never address that area," Luizzi said.

Luizzi said because Goodyear is only 12.5% built out, the city is planning construction in a way that ensures services follow housing developments, and sometimes even precede housing developments. Over the past four years, the city has added two fire stations and is working to build one more.

The fire chiefs are also understanding that cities cannot always make and execute a plan right away. Each city's process with its budget is going to differ, and a city may not always have the money needed to build a fire station immediately. Things like recessions or budget emergencies may still cause those plans to be pushed back even further, said Luizzi.

The responsibility to hold one city accountable does not necessarily fall on anyone in particular. During the City Council meeting, Stipp said he would like to see another governing agency monitoring the Automatic Aid System so the responsibility is not solely on the fire chiefs.

Glendale answers second-highest number of calls in Valley

Glendale Deputy City Manager Rick St. John said the annexed area is a part of Glendale's master plan, which has been in place for several years. St. John said the city always knew that the area would be in an "L" shape and would need services like water, sanitation and emergency services. And the plan is still for the city to provide those services, said St. John.

St. John added that Luke Air Force Base is another partner of the Automatic Aid System and answers a significant number of calls in the area.

St. John also said Glendale answers the second-highest number of calls in the Valley after Phoenix, answering about 3,500 calls for help per year.

By contrast, St. John said there were about 72 calls to the annexed area in the previous fiscal year.

And Glendale Fire Chief Ryan Freeburg said the fire chiefs are essentially in constant communication, with the West Valley fire chiefs meeting monthly.

"We are very relationship-driven, professional-driven through that Central Arizona Life Safety Council. So it's continual and collaborative communication," Freeburg said.

Freeburg added that city managers and deputy city managers are often involved with fire service within the metro Phoenix region. The fire chiefs are a connection to governing bodies in each municipality and don't work independently as fire chiefs, said Freeburg.

"There is no fire chief working independently in the Central Arizona Life Safety Council," Freeburg said.

In a statement to The Arizona Republic, Surprise Fire Chief Brendan Espie said the city does not share the same concerns as Goodyear as the number of calls is low.

"Glendale will need Fire Stations in the area in the future, and we understand that Glendale has a plan for growth. If the demand for service starts to impact Surprise, we will devise a plan with the Glendale Fire Department to reduce the impact," said Espie.

Luizzi said the departments decided Glendale would present a full version of a plan to service the area in March.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Glendale expanded. How it handles 911 calls didn't. That's a problem