Alachua and High Springs eye joint fire services

County's proposed cost hike chills fire negotiations

 Frustrated with the county’s decision not to approve the enhanced fire assessment fee, and facing an anticipated $400,000 budget cut for the upcoming fiscal year, Alachua Commissioners discussed the city’s remaining options to pay for fire services at a budget workshop Monday.  Prior to the county’s decision last week to not implement an enhanced fire assessment fee, the county had presented the city a fire services agreement based on the proposed assessment fee structure.

Now, Alachua’s first option may be to renegotiate with the county, but commissioners expressed a willingness to look elsewhere for fire services if the county’s price is too high.

“I think it’s important to know that we have other options,” Commissioner Ben Boukari, Jr. said. “I think it’s not too farfetched to think that we could work something out with the City of High Springs,” Boukari said, referring to the City of High Springs Fire Department.

“I’m just a little irritated with the county right now over the numbers that are thrown at us,” Boukari said.

Those numbers being thrown at the city are $430,000; $669,000; and $1 million. The county’s enhanced assessment study sized up the cost of fire services for Alachua at about $430,000. That is $230,000 less than the $669,000 the city is currently paying for fire services, and $670,000 less than the $1 million the property owners of Alachua would have to pay if the city opted to join the county’s municipal service taxing unit (MSTU) for fire services.

Alachua commissioners said Monday that the $430,000 reflects the actual cost of providing fire service and that the city is paying more than it should.

“Even to be paying $600,000 these last couple of years, it seems like they’ve been ripping us off,” Commissioner Gary Hardacre said.

Commissioners Robert Wilford and Boukari agreed.

“If this is a card game, they’ve shown their hand,” Boukari said.

Wilford added, “It just seems awfully ironic that $400,000 and $1 million, and you come out to the middle figure, it’s $700,000.”

Hardacre proposed yet another option, that the city look into to starting its own fire department.

The commission didn’t make a decision Monday, and all the options are still on the table. City Manager Traci Cain said she would be working to set up negotiations with the county during the week.

Cain and Finance Director Marcian Brown are scheduled to meet with High Springs City Manager Jim Drumm and Fire Chief Verne Riggall Thursday.

Drumm said fire services will be the main issue discussed at the meeting but not the only one. He said both sides will look for ways they can share resources to get through a tough budget year.

“This is an opportunity for cities to sit and talk,” he said. “Everything’s open for discussion.”

If Alachua can’t save money on fire services, it will have to find other ways to make cuts to balance the budget.

For the past 10 years, the budget has consistently increased, Brown showed in a presentation at Monday’s budget workshop. The current year’s budget is more than double the budget for 2001.

However, due to dropping property values, this year’s general fund budget will be cut by about $400,000 – from $9.5 million to $9.1 million.

And in that $9.1 million budget, only $475,000 is set aside for fire services.

The city will not only have less money coming in, it will also have to work to build up its depleted unreserved fund. The audit for fiscal year 2008-09 revealed that the unreserved fund, which was at $1.3 million in 2005, is now negative $375,000. The city has stated its goal to build the unreserved fund back to 10 percent of the total budget, which would be about $910,000 for the upcoming fiscal year.

The city commission will meet July 26 to establish a proposed millage rate for the upcoming fiscal year, will hold budget workshops on Aug. 9 and Aug. 23, and will hold budget public hearings on Sept. 13 and Sept. 27. The fiscal year ends Sept. 30.