The County Commissioner’s meeting on February 1, 2011 became contentious at times as the commissioners heard from the task force that had previously been asked to develop strategies to reduce the costs, or increase revenue, to enable Frederick County to provide fire and rescue services.
At least two members of the task force expressed their dissatisfaction with how the Commissioners reorganized the Division of Fire and Rescue. That reorganization eliminated the Fire Marshall as a bureau and consolidated his position into another position. At the end of the meeting, DFRS Director Tom Owen expressed that eliminating the Fire Marshall’s position was perhaps the most difficult thing he had done. He commended the Fire Marshall, Chief McNeal, for being highly professional. John Neary, representing the career fire fighters on the task force, also admitted that Chief McNeal’s firing was emotional and may have contributed to his comments at the meeting. Mr. Neary flatly stated that the reorganization “undermined the department.” He predicted that the county will have to pay more in overtime now that it has eliminated 6 lieutenant positions. Further, he contended, the department still needs the supervisory positions. Neary felt that the personnel decisions will give all career fire fighters less confidence going forward. Neary also explained that the budget issues currently affecting the Division of Fire and Rescue Services may have been created by purchasing capital expenditures, including ambulances and fire trucks, that were not needed. He gave an example of the county paying $1 million for vehicles when they had perfectly good vehicles. Moreover, the county paid cash for those vehicles instead of obtaining financing. He was very concerned about the potential for further personnel adjustments.
Commissioners’ President Blaine Young immediately defended the Board’s actions. Young said that the county has been living off the fund balance since 2008. The fund balance is a reserve that the county keeps for emergencies. Young also explained that the county had not hired any additional firefighters for fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012. The last time the county hired any fire and emergency personnel was in 2009 when the county hired 25 people.
Mr. Owens explained that out of the 6 lieutenant positions eliminated two were vacant, one lieutenant was retiring, and three had been offered a demotion to Firefighter III. As of February 1, 2011, two of the lieutenants had communicated their acceptance of the demotion. The third lieutenant has until February 4, 2011 to decide if he will accept the offer.
The meeting got even more contentious when task force member Wayne Powell resigned from the task force. He publicly declared that the process the Commissioners had taken made him feel that he has wasted his time. He noted that the task force had submitted a written report on August 31, 2010 noting that they had not addressed any administrative issues in the report. Blaine Young again tried to defend the Commissioners’ actions by stating that the reorganization was beyong the scope of the task force’s assignment. He asked Mr. Owens to confirm that the reorganization did not affect the delivery of service, thus implying that the task force’s assignment to make recommendations about delivery of service had not been impacted at all. Nonetheless, calling the commissioner’s acdtions “reprehensible” Mr. Powell said that he would not be interested in going forward on the task force if the Board were going to behave the way it had. When he commented that he had donated $100 to Commissioner Young’s campaign, Mr. Young opened his wallet and told Mr. Powell to take it back. It did not appear that Mr. Powell took the money back. At the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. Young publicly invited Mr.Powell to continue on the task force and Mr. Powell flatly refused. Mr. Powell’s comments in protest to the Board’s action were met by applause from a large group of the assembled crowd. The members in the group appeared to be career fire fighters. Mr. Powell also felt that the county is greying, which will result in the citizen’s requiring more services, not less.
As other members of the task force addressed the commissioners, it appeared that not all felt as offended as Mr. Powell. Jim Graham said he was the number cruncher on the task force. The DFRS budget deficit, he said, is a result of two things. One is a bookkeeping issue in that the county transferred $4.2 million in expenses from the general fund to the fire tax, which he described as “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” The second reason is that revenue to the county is down by 10%. Combined, Mr. Graham said, the fire department was facing an $8 million deficit. He felt they would have to either cut personnel or increase, or impose, taxes. He noted that an $8 million deficit could be eliminated by cutting 100 fire fighter jobs, as he estimated that an average fire fighter costs $80,000 per year.
Task force members also pointed out that the county currently has 34 vacant fire fighter positions, which would require approximately $2.5 million per year. They asked that those positions remain as vacant positions, but not be funded. The reason for this designation is that any future positions would have to be reapproved by the Board of County Commissioners, which would take time and cost money as the Human Resources Department would have to recreate those positions.
The Commissioners gave the remaining members of the task force additional guidance. Commissioner David Gray liked the idea of a regional delivery system such as that used in Baltimore County. Under that system, both a volunteer and a career fire fighting division are dispatched to each fire. If the volunteers get the fire under control, the career fire fighters return to be available for any other calls. Commissioner Young said his only problem with that is that some citizens would likely see a decrease in services, but an increase in taxes as the county would charge all citizens with a countywide tax.
Commissioner C. Paul Smith wanted to look into ways to increase volunteer participation. Commissioner Young suggested four avenues to look into for funding the fire and emergency services. First, they could continue the current taxing system with urban and suburban fire tax districts. Second, they could go to a county wide tax. Third, they could create 26 fire tax districts. Fourth, they could fund the DFRS from the general fund.
Another citizen, Chip Jewell, described a system used in Harford County in which a non-profit organization is created to collect billing for emergency services. He said this is a way to get funding for the department and not reduce the number of employees. The commissioners suggested that the task force look into that as a possibility, along with the regional delivery system.
