The DeFuniak Springs City Council recently voted 3-2 to implement a fire assessment for all citizens (homeowners) and businesses.
With consistent efforts to manage a tight budget and stretch every tax dollar, the City Council faced a difficult decision: Will a fire assessment fee be imposed?
A legion of citizens came to the council’s meeting to voice concerns about the city’s fire service. Funding to continue a “city-run” fire department has been a consistent topic of discussion from the dais over the past year.
Some Want to Save Money
At the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Bob Campbell spoke directly about his concerns and suggested special consideration of a possible solution that had not been fully reviewed.
The potential solution was for the Walton County Sheriff to take control of and manage the city’s fire service. The estimated current expense for an “in-house” fire service operated by the city is $1.9 million.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, the proposed expense for transferring the fire department to the county would be $1 million, representing an automatic savings of $900,000 based on the city’s current budget.
“It’s simple math,” resident Bruce Naylor said. Opting into fire service with the Sheriff’s Office Administration would give residents of the city fire protection with a good ISO (fire safety rating for insurance purposes) and move firefighters from the city’s books to the county’s.
Others Want to Keep an Independent Department
For some residents, giving up control of the city’s fire department did not seem like a favorable solution. Some believed that once the decision was made to transfer control, many unknowns would remain. It was implied that transferring the fire department to the Sheriff would take control away from the city.
Residents in the county typically pay a $75 fire assessment fee each year for fire service. There was speculation that this number might go up next year, but members of the City Council were told the county fire assessment would remain at $75 for the next fiscal year.
City Councilman Glen Harrison spoke more than any other council member at the meeting, reiterating a strong plea he has made over the last few months: “We need to get together and roll up our sleeves and find a way to fund our fire department.” He added, “Why give up something that we haven’t worked to keep?”
Harrison spoke as a proponent of the fire assessment. He said that regardless of the plan selected for financing the fire department, an assessment, according to Harrison, was a given — with or without the county involved.
Place an Assessment on DeFuniak Residents? How Much?
Several decisions had to be made. Still, the first was whether to place an additional fee, or assessment, on every taxpayer who lives in DeFuniak Springs or has a business in the city.
There was discussion about the amount of the fee and what might be an “appropriate” or acceptable amount. Still, many were concerned about the financial impact on the elderly and those living on a fixed income.
One of the biggest concerns raised by public speakers was the number of unanswered questions.
Michelle Kitch, a resident, expressed frustration as she sought clarity on what the City Council was trying to accomplish with the motion by City Councilman Danny Cosson to impose a $100 annual fire assessment.
Kitch questioned the mayor about the intended use or application of the assessment. The Mayor could not answer.
Kitch said to the mayor, “You’re not sure?” He replied, “No, we got [sic] a lot of things to work out.”
Kitch followed up by saying, “Then I’m going to ask that y’all table this [vote]. She went on to say, Y’all get this worked out. You notify everybody about the exemptions and everything else because right now I’m standing here as [a] citizen. I don’t know who I’m paying, where I’m paying, how I’m paying, and what I’m paying.”
Roadblocks
One of the most interesting pieces of information shared was the lack of progress made during initial one-on-one meetings with the Sheriff’s Office regarding the potential transfer of the city’s fire department to the Sheriff.
There are five voting Council members, and three of the five expressed no further interest in continued discussions.
Councilman Todd Bierbaum reflected on his meeting with the Sheriff’s Office and said he was the last to meet with the designees.
He said, “In my meeting with the Sheriff’s Office that was sanctioned by this council, they [the Sheriff’s Office] looked at me and said, ‘We’ve already had enough meetings to know that there’s no point in pursuing this any further. It has been well communicated to us – which meant I was probably one of the last meetings they had because two council members flat-out refused to meet with us [the Sheriff’s Office]. And based on the third conversation, this meeting with you today is purely informational. So I find it incredibly ironic to sit up here and say, “Well, the Sheriff didn’t give us any information. Well, the Sheriff can count. And when he counts to three, and nobody wants to have a conversation with him and have a serious negotiation with him – he is completely justified in saying, “I’m done.”
