The Fairfield City Council Property Committee met on March 25th, 2026, with councilmembers Bob Ferguson, Matthew Rowe, City Administrator Doug Reinert, and Fire Chief Brett Ferrel. They reached a consensus on the location of the Emergency Management Agency’s command center at the new fire station currently under construction.
Bob Ferguson presented an analysis on the feasibility and logistics of co-locating the EMA command center within the new fire station, and general discussion affirmed the practical benefits of the arrangement. Ferguson summarized the reasoning at the full City Council meeting on April 13th.
“Since we have a part-time fire chief and a full-time EMA director, it creates an ideal situation for them in a much more effective EMA platform for delivery of services,” Ferguson told the council.
One key financial consideration raised during the Property Committee meeting was that if the county were charged rent for the space, the EMA services levy would need to be increased to cover the cost—creating an additional financial burden. Ferguson said the dollar amount involved was small enough that charging rent seemed more trouble than it was worth.
“It doesn’t really make any sense to try to parse the thing with someone who works for the city and someone who works for the county,” Ferguson said. “The EMA service is certainly taken advantage of by the city, though it’s a county function. It just seemed very cumbersome and the dollar amount was so small that it seemed wiser just to have a defined rental agreement with no rent.” He added that clearly defining the shared use of the EMA space—in both directions—is still to be determined and will be addressed at a future meeting.
The committee agreed that no rent would be charged to the county for use of the space and that the space allocated to the EMA command center should be clearly defined. No specific rental agreement was reviewed at the Property Committee level, as the discussion remained conceptual.
Councilman Paul Gandy noted that the City already has experience sharing physical space with the county through the Jefferson County Service Agency, which manages the law center jointly with the sheriff’s office and the city police department. He suggested that if the property committee could simplify the arrangement at the fire station, it might serve as a model for other shared spaces going forward.
Ferguson agreed, saying the co-location represents an opportunity for the city and county to work more closely together. “When those services co-locate, coordination is far better, and that benefits the community—the people who need those services,” Ferguson said. “It seemed overall pretty much all benefit with very little downside to actually co-locate and not worry about wrangling over hundreds of dollars here and there.”
Mayor Connie Boyer noted that the matter will also come before the Emergency Management board—which consists of all the mayors and the county sheriff—for further review before an official decision is made.
Photo by Werner Elmker.
