V2N36: Ketchum Fire District is Built on Lies

Please ask the Ketchum City Council to Vote NO on the MOU between the City and the Fire District.

Jul 08, 2025

Please note the amount listed on this postcard in the bottom green box, where it says “Total Ketchum property taxes (Fire District + City) would likely increase slightly by about $21.52 per $100,000 of taxable property value.”1

$21.52. It does not say $36. It does not say $38. It says $21.52. Please keep $21.52 in your head as you read the rest of this. Got it? $21.52.

Additionally, I have a request at the end of the article. I believe there is a technical solution to this debacle, but it depends on our Council doing the right thing.

I Lost It

I lost my temper at the Ketchum Fire District (KFire) budget meeting on Thursday. Between the self-serving public comments by Ms. Breen and the union chief, and the blank stares of the fire commissioners, I couldn’t believe the farcical lack of fiduciary responsibility that would spend $6 million a year of our money. When Ms. Breen stated that she was proud the fire tax increase of $38 would be close to the $36 the City had promised, I called her a liar and walked out in a huff.

You can read all about it here.2

Remember the $21.52? However, she said the promise was $36, and the actual cost was $38. Where was the $21.52 at the budget meeting? Not mentioned.

Not my finest moment.

I realized that nothing I said, or that anyone said, was going to matter. The meeting was held only because it was a legal requirement, not to get the public’s input. All that mattered was the narrative that our firefighters provide the best level of service, that the taxpayers owe it to them, the public, and our visitors to approve the budget they tell us we need, without question or analysis or anyone representing the interests of the taxpayers.

So, I left.

The Fire Budget Has Been Hijacked

The KFire commissioners adopted a $6mm budget. That’s what we will be taxed to pay for. Now that the budget has been set at this level, raise your hand if you think it will ever go down.

Prior to the referendum, our fire tax was $26.38 per $100,000 of taxable property value. According to the Mountain Express article, the budget adopted has resulted in a fire tax of $49.96 per $100,000. I think it is actually higher; however, there is no way for anyone to do an analysis, as no information is available to the public other than a single piece of paper and a newspaper article.

Here is one incredibly slimy tactic they employed to circumvent the state statute that limits property tax increases to 3% per year. 24% of the total budget is a slush fund that can be allocated at the fire chief’s discretion—it is not clear whether the commissioners will have a say in how it is allocated. They call it a “rollover account,” a term with a meaningless definition. It’s $1.15mm. Every year, they will tax us to raise that $1.15mm. If they don’t have a use for it in that taxable year, it will go into the “rollover” account.

I scratch my head at how this can be legal. In Idaho, every tax has to have a specific purpose, and a “rollover account” does not meet that definition.

Tourists Are Exempt

No tourist will pay $1 for this via the LOT tax. The LOT was a major source of funding for the old Ketchum Fire Department. However, it is not legal for a fire district to use a LOT tax.

While a significant portion of the fire department calls are to support the needs of tourists, tourists have been exempted from reimbursing Ketchum taxpayers for this service. Indeed, one fire commissioner said we need to provide the highest level of service to visitors. Who does he work for? Visit Sun Valley?

I guess that “we” includes you and me.

The Governance Process Has Been Hijacked

To write this, I wanted to access the source materials presented by the fire chief during the budget meeting. That is not possible. It is not possible to access anything related to the budget other than a single piece of paper:

Did you get anything in your mailbox? An email? No. When they wanted you to vote for this travesty of public governance, they charged you to put a postcard in your box with misleading information. Now that it is a reality, they share no information with you.

Yet, a detailed budget was presented to the commissioners, along with a PowerPoint presentation explaining it. None of that was ever posted on a publicly available website. The fire district has been in existence for months. No website. No publicly available information about anything. This has to be intentional.

Do you even know who your fire commissioners are? How would you? The only source for this information is an article in the Mountain Express.

“Architect and Ketchum Urban Renewal Agency Commissioner Susan Scovell, Altitude Insulation owner and volunteer firefighter Pete Schwartz, and Sun Valley Resort Lift Operations Supervisor Rachel Williams were sworn-in as Fire District commissioners by Ketchum Fire Chief Seth Martin during the first Fire District meeting, held at the Ketchum Fire Station on Wednesday, Jan. 29.”3

Consider the conflict of interest: the person who supposedly works for the fire commissioners is the person who swore them in. Does that happen in any other governmental process? None that I can find. It begs the question: who works for whom?

In the budget meeting, the speakers’ list was packed with people who personally benefited from the budget increase. That includes the union head and multiple firefighters. It even included a firefighter from Hailey.

The biggest conflict of interest lies with the president of the district, Commissioner Pete Schwartz, who is also a volunteer firefighter. We call them volunteers, but they are paid by the hour when they fight a fire. Mr. Schwartz voted to double his pay.

This is what passes for transparency in the City of Ketchum. Shame on them. Shame on Chief Martin. Shame on Ms. Breen. Shame on Commissioner Schwartz. Shame on anyone involved who thinks this is a legitimate way to run a public entity.

Consolidation Was a LIE To Get The Referendum Passed

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City of Ketchum and the Ketchum Fire District states that the City is entering into this arrangement with the intent that the fire district is a step toward countywide consolidation.

This is a big fat lie. And everyone involved knows it.

Yet, the City of Ketchum put this to a public vote, stating that the new district would work toward consolidating the WRV fire departments.

This was the ballot language:

“Should a fire district be formed to be called the Ketchum Fire District, comprised of the current city limits of Ketchum, with the intent to consolidate the fire departments of the Wood River Valley?”

Doesn’t that mean the intent is to consolidate the fire departments that include Bellevue, Hailey, and Sun Valley? None of those departments plans to join the new district.

Which districts are consolidating? Ketchum. Wood River (the area between Hailey and Ketchum. Magic Reservoir.

Read the language again: “intent to consolidate the fire departments of the Wood River Valley.” Magic is not in the Wood River Valley. No other district in the Wood River Valley is consolidating into the new district. Smiley Creek, also not in the WRV, is the only other district likely to join. Why would they not? Subsidized fire service courtesy of the Ketchum taxpayer sounds good in a community that is constantly threatened by fire.

Big. Fat. Lie.

What’s more, there is no plan for the consolidation of the Wood River Valley. A consolidation plan literally does not exist. The new fire district has never had consolidation on its meeting agendas. Does that feel like an “intent to consolidate?”

The Ketchum Fire District Budget REDUCES The Prospect of County-wide Consolidation

If you ran the City of Hailey, Sun Valley, Bellevue, or any other fire department in Blaine County, you knew that everyone showed up to everyone else’s fires, your department is nonunion, and you see that the Ketchum fire district taxes its residents over twice what you pay for your fire services, would you join that district?

You would have to be insane.

What’s the Motivation?

The outsourcing of fire services to a new district was initiated by the Mayor. He has been advocating for some form of fire consolidation since before his election in 2017. He has been joined in this by most of the firefighters in Ketchum and Wood River.

Who benefits?

The firefighters benefit from a substantial increase in compensation. They may well deserve it, but doing it this way is slimy.
The fire union benefits. They get more members with the prospect of even more if the entire county is consolidated.
The residents in the service areas of the former Wood River and Magic fire departments benefit. As council member Cordovano noted when he voted to proceed with the referendum, this is a direct subsidy from Ketchum taxpayers to the consolidated districts.
Ketchum tourists benefit. They get all the fire services without paying anything for them.
All residents of Blaine County benefit. KFire, paid for by Ketchum residents at almost double the tax paid by any other jurisdiction, will respond to every fire that needs them. That means a fire in Sun Valley or Hailey, where residents will receive the same fire service. For half the fire tax.

Who Pays? In the entirety of Blaine County, only the Ketchum taxpayer will pay more in fire tax, and will receive no change in service.

With Public Safety Outsourced, What Does the City of Ketchum Still Do?

But there is more. With this move, the City of Ketchum has outsourced almost every public service function. Police? That went to the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO). Parks and Rec? That was minimized when the Y came in, but they do provide us with some pickleball courts. Schools? Done at the county level. What’s left?

Roads. They are crushing it on road construction, aren’t they?
Low-income housing. Ketchum residents pay not only for the Ketchum Housing Department, but also the Blaine County Housing Authority (BCHA). The City of Ketchum is the only city in the county that funds BCHA. The others work with ARCH and WRCHT to build workforce housing.
Planning and Development. You're aware of my thoughts on the Comp Plan and its FLUM. In my opinion, nothing the Council has done will be as bad for us as when they adopt the FLUM that upzones tourism condos and second homes near the Baldy bases. As for development, how do you like what the Council has done to Ketchum during the Bradshaw administration?

In my analysis, KFire is part of an overall strategy to close the price per square foot of Ketchum real estate with that of Aspen, Jackson, Vail, etc. The City Council is transforming Ketchum into a large hotel, displacing low-revenue locals in favor of high-revenue tourists and second homeowners, while taxing everything they can to build low-income housing to keep wages depressed for a tourism industry that is increasingly non-local.

What Can We Do Right Now?

It might be possible for the Ketchum City Council to mitigate the worst aspects of the Ketchum Fire District.

In order for KFire to function, it needs the City of Ketchum to transfer our fire department assets and cash. The deal is codified in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City and KFire. The Council has not yet voted to approve the MOU. You can read the MOU here.4 As I noted in previous posts, the MOU transfers all of Ketchum taxpayers’ fire assets, plus hundreds of thousands of Ketchum taxpayers’ cash, to KFire, but requires Ketchum taxpayers to pay off the fire bond before transferring the fire station to KFire, free and clear.

The MOU could be our out.

The Council holds all “the cards” right now. If it agrees that the KFire budget is egregious (remember: a slush fund accounts for 24% of that budget), it could refuse to approve the MOU as currently drafted. The Council could do what the KFire commissioners refused to do—provide fiduciary oversight on behalf of Ketchum’s residents.

What I would like to see is a “no” vote out of the Council. That would force KFire to renegotiate the deal with Ketchum. Ketchum could force KFire to adopt a new budget in an open and transparent process. '

If you agree, please contact the Council via participate@ketchumidaho.org and share your thoughts.

Realistically, this is a low percentage probability. These are the individuals who initiated this entire debacle. Expecting them to do the right thing after they have done the wrong thing is like expecting pigs to fly.

Given the unlikelihood of flying pigs, we will need to play the long game…

What Can We Do If The Council Approves The MOU?

The first thing we can do is recruit individuals who are knowledgeable in addition and subtraction to run for the fire commissioners in the next election. This trio (yes, another troika) was carefully selected to get to this outcome. Ms. Scovell failed at raising your taxes to pay for a housing project at the Washington Lot, but she got you good on this one! They did not represent the interests of the people whose interests they were supposed to represent—you. THEY NEED TO GO.

In November, vote out every person you can who was involved in this debacle. That includes council members Breen and Hamilton. They willfully violated their fiduciary responsibility to Ketchum taxpayers. Vote for people who can do math and realize we have been fleeced. This also includes the Blaine County Commissioners. They are complicit in this by appointing the KFire commissioners.

The new Council should put fire de-consolidation at the top of its agenda. There could be legal grounds to show that the referendum was intentionally fraudulent.

The language was clearly misleading.
There is no plan for fire consolidation.
The commissioners may not have been legitimately selected and legally sworn in.
The lead commissioner approved the budget with a personal conflict of interest.
The slush fund might not be legal.

Then, the Council should fire everyone in the fire department who perpetrated this con on us.

Build Back Better

At the same time we dismantle the Ketchum Fire District, we should be thoughtful about rebuilding the Ketchum Fire Department. We should create a citizens’ blue ribbon commission to write a strategic plan for the department. Then, we should do a national search for a new fire chief to lead the implementation of that plan. We should also collaborate with ARCH and WRCHT to develop workforce housing for City of Ketchum employees, ensuring that our first responders can live in our community.

What do you think? What am I missing?