The Valley Regional Fire Authority (VRFA) was established in 2007 under RCW 52.26 as a Fire Authority that serves the cities of Auburn, Algona, and Pacific.  As a Fire Authority VRFA operates as a separate municipal corporation, with independent taxing authority, and within an independent taxing district.

While VRFA is a separate Fire Authority and is organizationally independent from the City of Auburn, VRFA continues to have a role in reviewing development proposals and conducting inspections during the construction process.  Within VRFA it is the Fire Marshal’s Office that performs these functions.

While VRFA has taxing authority within its jurisdictional boundary, tax payers do not fund all services offered by VRFA.  In some instances there are fees charged to customers who are seeking direct service, e.g. a permit to construct a commercial building.  In other words, permit customers pay a substantial portion of the direct service they are seeking, as opposed to the service being subsidized across the taxing district.  Stated in yet another way, a residential tax payer who pays a portion of their property taxes to VRFA is generally not providing a significant level monetary contribution to a commercial real estate proposal or a new residential subdivision.

Since the Fire Authority was established in 2007, VRFA has collected fees for reviewing development plans and conducting construction inspections.  In Auburn, VRFA fees are collected by the City and distributed to VRFA.  This practice was put in place in order to ensure that Auburn could achieve a one-stop permitting shop.  Instead of sending customers to a VRFA office to pay fees and apply for separate fire permits, customers can submit, pay and pick up permits at the City’s Permit Center.  More times than not, the customer never knows that they are interacting with, and paying, separate governmental entities.

2019 VRFA fee schedule is adjusted for the cost of living increase of 3.6% based on the semi-annual Seattle Tacoma Bellevue CPI-W experienced by the region.

While VRFA is a separate agency, with a separate Governance Board that has authority to establish its own service fees, the Auburn City Council has a role in endorsing fees that are collected by the City and distributed to other agencies (similar to Council’s role in reviewing school district fees and taking action to authorize the collection of these external agency fees).  Typically, City Council would provide this endorsement through action of a Resolution which then enables procedural efforts to occur that facilitate collection of the relevant fees and fee types.

The materials attached to this memo have been prepared by VRFA.