North Walton Fire Public Hearing

[Danny Glidewell]

Public Hearing - Walton County Sheriff’s Office Update on Fire Assessment
You are hereby notified that the Walton County Board of County Commissioners will hold a Public Hearing on Tuesday, April 25, 2017 immediately following the Regular Scheduled Board meeting at 9:00 a.m. or soon thereafter. The meeting will take place at the Walton County Courthouse located at 571 US Highway 90, DeFuniak Springs, FL.

The purpose of this meeting is to hear an update from the Walton County Sheriff’s Office and discuss the fire assessment.

 

[Bob Wells]

Public Hearing - Walton County Sheriff’s Office Update on Fire Assessment
You are hereby notified that the Walton County Board of County Commissioners will hold a Public Hearing on Tuesday, April 25, 2017 immediately following the Regular Scheduled Board meeting at 9:00 a.m. or soon thereafter. The meeting will take place at the Walton County Courthouse located at 571 US Highway 90, DeFuniak Springs, FL.

The purpose of this meeting is to hear an update from the Walton County Sheriff’s Office and discuss the fire assessment.

Danny, any idea what the discussion will be about the fire assessment?

 

[Bob Hudson]

Raising the assessment by about 500%

 

[Bob Wells]

Raising the assessment by about 500%

OK, seems I asked about that at one Commission meeting and it was explained then, because there were people who could not pay it. Is this the Sheriff's ask? Also that would max the allowable rate to $375, correct?

 

[Danny Glidewell]

There are several issues Bob Wells that could be discussed. Here is a letter to the editor I sent to the Herald that is an overview:

One of the most critical issues currently impacting North Walton citizens is our fire and EMS service: what level of service do we need, how will we pay for it and who will manage it. North Walton citizens need to plan to attend the BCC meeting April 25th at 9am in the courthouse at DeFuniak Springs to make the commissioners aware of their desires and needs.

The level of service needed is the first and most important question to be decided. While everyone would like a fire and EMS station next door, the truth is that fire and EMS services are very expensive. Large areas of the North end are several miles away from the nearest fire station and most homes are not close to a fire hydrant. So, the truth is that for many North end residents the fire department can only put the remains out and have almost no chance of saving a structure. To increase this level of service would require building more stations and hiring more employees. One estimate is that an additional 55 employees would be needed to cover every area and those new employees would require a doubling of the current budget of 5 million dollars.

North Walton homeowners currently pay an MSBTU tax of $75 dollars per residence to fund the fire service. This tax provides approximately $970,000 of the current 5-million-dollar budget. The estimate is that the MSBTU tax would have to be increased 5 times on each residence to fully fund the current budget, not counting the proposed increases needed to provide better coverage. Other proposals are to enact a ½ cent sales tax to fund the fire service or to form an independent fire district such as South Walton, Argyle and Liberty with the ability to levy its own taxes.

Finally, who manages the fire service is being discussed. Currently the department is operated by the BCC with a Fire Chief subordinate to the County Administrator. There is a proposal to turn management over to the Sheriff’s Office. The stated purpose of this change is to improve management and services; however, no clear statement has been provided outlining how the Sheriff can accomplish these goals nor how he will pay for any improvements. The funds must still come from the taxpayers through the BCC and the public would have limited input into the issues that arise. Another reason for pause is that the cost of transferring management from the BCC to the Sheriff has not been provided but would undoubtedly be in the hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars. And a new sheriff sometime in the future would not be required to continue managing this operation which would necessitate another huge expenditure to transfer operational control back to the BCC.

Many North Walton residents are senior citizens or have low to moderate income and cannot afford a 500% increase in their taxes. It would especially onerous to raise taxes whatsoever if the level of service does not rise to give the property owner a reasonable chance of having their property saved in case of a fire. Further, North Walton is predominately rural and the population densities do not produce large numbers of calls for service. The entire North end produces less than one call per hour. These numbers do not justify huge tax increases that will be a horrible burden on those in our community who can least afford to bear it.

In response to this complex and vital issue the Walton County Taxpayers Association has went on record requesting a professional, independent study to provide commissioners with all the information necessary to make an informed decision that is in the best interests of the citizens of North Walton County.

 

[Bob Wells]

Thank you Danny for your thoughts. I have a few questions that maybe you could answer.
1. Are you saying the total budget for fire/ ems is only 5 million dollars or is that just for the fire service portion?
2. How much is ems collecting for their service and where is that money going? Is it going into the general fund or back into the ems budget or is it used to offset the cost to the general fund?
3. How much if #1 above is just fire is the ems budget?
4. Is this the Sheriff's ask?
As a side note, I do like the idea of a 1/2 cent sales tax but I am not sure that would come near to offsetting the ad valorem portion if only North Walton was the only collection site?

 

[Bob Hudson]

1. The number Danny quoted is only the Salaries & Overtime budget lines. Does not include benefits or retirement. The total budget for 2016 - 2017 is about 11.2 million.

2. EMS collected about 1.4 million in fees and is revenue to the Fire District fund.

3. They do not split Fire & EMS into separate budgets.

4. It was discussed in the SWOT study (I was a member of the committee) that they needed 55 additional staff (including some administrative positions) plus equipment needs totaling about 4.5 to 5 million per year.

5. You cannot set a millage rate for a portion of a county. They could create a Independent Fire district in the North but it would need to generate about 16 million dollars with a taxable property value of about 1.6 billion dollars. That would translate to a millage rate of about 10 mills. That's about 3.3 times the current county wide millage rate and only be paid by those in the NWFD boundaries

 

[Bob Wells]

1. The number Danny quoted is only the Salaries & Overtime budget lines. Does not include benefits or retirement. The total budget for 2016 - 2017 is about 11.2 million.

2. EMS collected about 1.4 million in fees and is revenue to the Fire District fund.

3. They do not split Fire & EMS into separate budgets.

4. It was discussed in the SWOT study (I was a member of the committee) that they needed 55 additional staff (including some administrative positions) plus equipment needs totaling about 4.5 to 5 million per year.

5. You cannot set a millage rate for a portion of a county. They could create a Independent Fire district in the North but it would need to generate about 16 million dollars with a taxable property value of about 1.6 billion dollars. That would translate to a millage rate of about 10 mills. That's about 3.3 times the current county wide millage rate and only be paid by those in the NWFD boundaries

Thank you Bob. That helps a lot. Was this a Sheriff's ask with regards to a look at the assessment?

 

[Bob Hudson]

Yes

 

[Danny Glidewell]

Thank you Bob for answering Bob's questions. There does not seem to be a realistic, feasible funding stream that will satisfy the millions needed.