Florida County's Dousing of Volunteers to Cost Millions

Nov. 15, 2012
To complete the takeover, the county must hire 78 full-time firefighters at a cost of $5.2M.

Nov. 15--TAMPA -- The nights when a phone rings and a private citizen leaves his bed to fight a fire in rural Hillsborough County are just about over.

Today, county commissioners are poised to eliminate the last three volunteer fire associations still staffed either partially or fully by volunteers. Hillsborough County Fire Rescue will control all county fire stations as of Jan. 1.

Six volunteer fire associations were still functioning before a county audit was released in September. Among the audit's findings: Volunteers often lacked the experience and qualifications that career firefighters must have, and guidelines were not in place to ensure that volunteers operate according to county standards.

"The key thing is that the level of experience and training is going to go up overnight" once the transition is final, said county Fire Chief Ron Rogers. "The important thing to focus on is this is not a condemnation of volunteers."

The audit also found that communications between Fire Rescue and the volunteers were haphazard. Two departments -- Cork-Knights near Plant City and Dover-Turkey Creek in east Hillsborough -- had not complied with Internal Revenue Service reporting rules for nonprofits, auditors found.

The other volunteer departments -- Lutz, North Brandon, Bloomingdale and Sundance -- filled out their tax forms correctly.

Mark Curts, chief of the Dover-Turkey Creek volunteer association, said his group and Cork-Knights did not file the nonprofit tax forms because the IRS had purged them from the rolls for failing to meet the minimum contributions threshold.

"We did not know we needed to reapply," Curts said. "When that information was provided to us, both Cork and Dover immediately filed with IRS and are in the process of correcting that problem."

To complete the takeover, the county must hire 78 full-time firefighters at a cost of $5.2 million. Rogers said the money will come from a county reserve fund in the coming fiscal year, but commissioners will have to find a permanent funding source after that.

Fire Rescue is one of costliest departments in the county administrator's budget at $111 million. The department has about 900 employees, not including the 78 new positions.

Rogers said as the county has grown to 1.2 million people, the original model for volunteer departments -- community residents contributing to their own fire protection -- has largely disappeared. Now, a volunteer for the Lutz Volunteer Fire Association could live in St. Petersburg or Pasco County.

And as the pool of community residents willing to volunteer shrinks, the associations find it harder to staff a fire engine.

"They are truly community spirited people," Rogers said. "But when you ask them are there issues in getting people just showing up to staff the truck, they will say yes."

Volunteer departments still cost taxpayers money, too.

Though the associations raise revenue through fundraisers and grants, each also receives $49,950 a year from the county to cover operations, equipment and training. The county also has a length-of-service award program that costs $150,000. The money is used to provide financial assistance to associations to retain long-time volunteers.

Curts questioned why the county would want to get rid of a volunteer program that costs $450,000 a year and replace it with career firefighters who will cost $5.2 million.

He said most volunteers at his station have the same training rating as career firefighters and have provided a high level of service without complaints from the public.

"How can we claim to save the $450,000 a year we're providing for volunteer fire protection by spending $5 million or $6 million to staff these stations?" Curts asked.

In response, Rogers said the $5.2 million to hire 78 firefighters will be reduced in 2014 by the $450,000 now going to the volunteer associations. And though the county will be paying more for fire protection after the transition, all county residents will be getting the same level of quality fire protection for their tax dollars, he said.

"The important thing to look at from the taxpayers' view is every taxpayer is paying the same rate for fire service but they're not all getting equivalent service from the volunteers," Rogers said.

Rogers said there have been "issues" with some volunteer groups, including tankers arriving at fires without water.

"A lot of the issues are related to them not following the rules," Rogers said. "That's not to say career firefighters don't do it, it's just that the frequency is higher with volunteers."

Firefighters at the Lutz department declined to comment. Chiefs or association presidents at the other volunteer departments did not return phone calls.

Volunteers who want to continue helping with firefighting duties can apply for a new reserve responder program, Rogers said. The reserves will provide a fourth firefighter for engines called out to emergencies. County fire engines now respond with just three firefighters due to staffing shortages, Rogers said, but a four-person team is optimal.

The reserve responders also could staff parades and county fairs, Rogers said.

"We want communities that have been involved to stay involved," Rogers said. "What we're trying to do is mold this to be the reserve program that does the things that are needed incrementally by the department that don't justify staffing 365 days a year."

Copyright 2012 - Tampa Tribune, Fla.

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