2018 Fall issue of Horizons

INDUSTRY UPDATE PUBLIC SECTOR

Consolidation: It’s Happening in Governments Too by Ted Williamson, CPA

I f your house catches on fire, and you live in the Denver metropolitan area, there is a good chance that the firefighters dispatched to quench the blaze will not be the same firefighters that would have been dispatched just a few years ago. The last half decade has seen the region’s fire districts and municipalities engage in a series of mergers to consolidate. According to the Denver Post , in 2015 the Englewood Fire Department merged with the Denver Fire Department. This was followed by the unification of the Wheat Ridge Fire Protection District with West Metro Fire Rescue in 2016 and the merger of the Cunningham Fire Protection District with

South Metro Fire Rescue effective January 1, 2018.

Finally, in May 2018, voters within the Littleton Fire Protection District and the Highlands Ranch Metro District approved the absorption of these districts into the South Metro Fire District via mergers that will become effective on January 1, 2019. A December 30, 2017 article in the Denver Post identified some of the potential benefits of the consolidation: larger fire districts have greater economies of scale and “less redundancy of manpower, stations and equipment.”

These more efficient districts are expected to respond more quickly to emergencies,

Consolidation: It’s Happening in Governments Too

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