County officials say funding isn’t there to meet grand jury’s recommendations
Want to end the problem of
one-person county fire stations in Stratford, Hardwick, the Island District and
Burris Park?
It’s not going to happen
without more money, according to Deb West, Kings County deputy administrative
officer.
“There simply isn’t enough
revenue coming in to provide the level of staffing that all of us want to
have,” West said.
The discussion, while already
underway, was given new impetus by a Kings County Grand Jury report released in
June that called for at least two firefighters to work each of the four rural
stations mentioned above.
The grand jury concluded that
“understaffed stations could result in time lost in fighting a fire which could
lead to preventable injuries as well as loss of life and property.”
That concern was echoed by
Kings County Fire Chief Bill Lynch in an official response to the report. Lynch
said that one-person staffing limits the ability to respond to emergencies and
also prevents the firefighter from performing routine maintenance that requires
at least two people.
Lynch asked for six new
firefighter positions in the 2015-16 county budget, which would have been
roughly enough to staff Stratford and Hardwick with two people.
He said in an interview that
12-14 people would have to be hired to eliminate the one-person station problem
permanently. The extra staff would be needed to cover absences created by
vacation, sick time, medical leave or floating assignments to meet needs at
other stations.
He’s getting three new
positions in the 2015-16 budget. The cost? Approximately $300,000 a year,
according to West.
She said the three will be
floaters hired to put a dent in the fire department’s growing overtime costs.
She said hiring the three won’t end the one-person station problem.
West said she’s concerned that
even the three won’t be financially sustainable over time. That’s because the
fire department is considered a special district with a separate fund that
relies on property tax revenues.
Because of Proposition 13,
property taxes can’t increase more than 2 percent a year. Fire department costs
are going up faster than that.
West said the three new people
will be funded with a leftover fire department balance. She said there was no
new revenue available to pay their salaries.
According to her, there are
basically two ways to get fire department staffing up to the level recommended
by the grand jury: either dip into general fund money or put a countywide
public safety sales tax increase before voters.
She said the general fund money
is fully allocated for other needs, such as expanding the county jail and hiring
more probation staff to deal with the state’s realignment policy that directs
more offenders away from state prisons and into county custody.
“It’s a balloon,” she said.
“You squeeze one side, and it pops out somewhere else. Everything is a
prioritization.”
What about volunteer
firefighters plugging the holes at the undermanned stations?
Lynch said that there aren’t
enough qualified volunteers to do it. He said the requirements of a volunteer
and a professional firefighter are virtually the same — a high-standard
that makes it the equivalent of a full-time job.
So what about the option of a
countywide sales tax increase for public safety to hire more professionals?
Would Hanford and Lemoore residents pay a little more to subsidize fire
services in poorer parts of the county like Stratford and Hardwick?
“My belief is that if it was a
countywide public safety tax set aside just for public safety, I think a voter
would support that,” Lynch said. “Public safety is at the heart of every
community. It’s a vital function.”
West said that if county
residents want a higher level of service across the board in all communities,
they might need to consider raising additional revenue.
“If the fire fund isn’t able to
afford increased levels of service, then that’s something the constituents need
to discuss,” she said.
August 18, 2015
Hanford
Sentinel
By Seth
Nidever
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