Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Fire Officials Propose New Purchasing System

AMITE--Tangipahoa Parish is poised to centralize more purchasing, accounting and paying bills by 10 city or volunteer fire departments.

The Tangipahoa Parish Council, sitting as Rural Fire Protection District 2, postponed the vote Monday night because some of the six fire chiefs said they did not know in advance about this critical step. Four departments were absent.

The board agreed to move the vote to Wednesday afternoon at 6 p.m., Jan. 16, with all of the 10 chiefs notified and expected to be present.

What's likely to disappear: credit cards held by individual fire departments, their own checking accounts, their ability to walk into a Lowe's, Walmart or Crapanzano Brothers Hardware and buy something on the spot. Put it on my account.

What's proposed: a requisition for any purchase from a fire department to Chief Dennis Crocker, then a purchase order from the parish office, the actual purchase either by the firefighter or the parish. And then accounting, payment by the parish and audits by financial services provider Lee Gray CPA. Also proposed: centralized payroll and expected savings by cutting duplicate services and using the parish's buying clout.

Council member Carlo Bruno carried most of the water on this issue, which he reminded all had been discussed for years.

Bruno detailed how this plan:

--would meet state legislative auditor requirements. The board heard about 75 audit infractions over the past 10 years among parish departments.

--established centralized requisition, purchasing, invoicing, payment and accounting in Amite by existing parish staff.

--could save at least $70,000 to $80,000/year by eliminating individual audits by each fire departments.

--could have audits performed by Lee Gray for about $35,000 for all vs. four departments alone paying $39,000 for their audits.

--could bring "power buying" to seek lower costs on items ranging from fuel and tires to office supplies by using the parish's purchasing power.

--the first four departments to be integrated into the parish system will be the smallest: Manchac, Independence, Loranger and Wilmer. Finance chief Jeff McKneely aims to bring them in by Feb. 15, with the remaining six departments coming aboard by March 15.

The six firefighters sat largely quiet Jan. 14. Paul Collura and Bruce Cutrer both indicated that the vague agenda item caught firefighters by surprise Monday night.

Here is what the agenda item said in the public notice in the Amite Tangi Digest:

"Tangipahoa Parish Rural Fire District No. 2 Financial Matters."

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Collura: "I'm not in favor of it. It's cumbersome. But you are the boss."

Council member David Vial: "It did take me off guard. I know the chiefs are surprised."

Council member Bobby Cortez: "I'm kind of shocked our chiefs did not know about it."

Council member Carlo Bruno: "This decision has to be made. We have to quit kicking the can down the road."

Council member Nick Joseph: "For the sake of transparency, can we invite the chiefs Wednesday night?"

The board agreed to have Dennis Crocker notify all the chiefs of the meeting Wednesday at 6 p.m. when the board would vote.

No board member spoke against the plan. Vial, Cortez, Bruno, Muscarello all spoke in favor.

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What's unspoken by the firefighters from Manchac to Kentwood: fears about loss of autonomy to run their own departments.

Collura: "If I need a screwdriver, I need to call him [Dennis Crocker], get a requisition and a purchase order and then go to Walmart?"

A council member answered: "Get six of them while you're there."

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Helping make this work from the parish end are new parish coordinator Dennis Crocker, finance chief Jeff McKneely, Lee Gray, parish president Gordon Burgess and purchasing agent Donna Domiano and others.

McKneely answered many questions by fire chiefs and board members. "We're not here to tell you no. We are going to look at purchases. If it's over $15,000, we are going to need to get quotes. If it goes over $30,000 we will need to get bids" to satisfy state regulations.

Dennis Crocker summed it up: "We are going to pool. We are going to try to save money all the way around." This could be done through collective purchases as a Tangipahoa unit--or joining other agencies. Crocker said the Independence Fire Department which he headed until late December pooled with New Orleans fire organizations to get lower prices on air packs to help firefighters breathe in hazardous areas.