At the Fire Rescue MSBU (Municipal Service Benefit Unit) workshop on Jan. 24th, Chief Scott Hechler presented information to the board on the department, its recent insurance audit rating, the department’s dire funding issues, the risk of eliminating staff and some of the ways the department is working to save money.
Chief Hechler began by explaining that the fire department responds to all hazards. They are prepared for all emergency incidents, which are very resource intensive.
The department has a 6.53 minute average response time county wide. The total number of calls is 30,496 emergencies for 2016, which is up 14% since 2014.
Chief Hechler explained that the fire department gets audited by ISO- the Insurance Services Office. They go through every jurisdiction in the United States and assess a department’s fire protection capabilities every three or four years. “It’s based on everything from how we plan, organize, train and equip so we can respond to emergencies,” explained Chief Hechler. The ISO rating of nearby fire departments is a factor in the rates that insurance companies charge.
The Hernando County Fire Rescue was assessed as a class 2/2/Y. They can rate a department between a class 1 and 10. The lower the number, the better. “It’s rare for a rural suburban department to be a class 2,” said Chief Hechler.
Chief Hechler stated that they began preparing for the audit a year ahead of time.
He explained that the biggest hit they took was staffing because they are not NFPA1710 compliant. The industry standard for staffing is to provide a 4 firefighter engine and they staff at 3 firefighters per engine.
“We still were able to come in at a class 2/2/Y which is an amazing accomplishment,” he said.
Chief Hechler stated that Pasco County has three firefighters per engine now, but they are in the process of staffing aerial trucks and rescues with a minimum of 4 firefighters.
According to Chief Hechler, 1/3rd of Citrus County’s engines are staffed with 3 firefighters and the other 2/3rds are at 2 firefighters per engine. Their ISO rating is 4/4/Y said Chief Hechler.
The industry standard recommends 15 firefighters respond to a 2000 square foot house fire and 27 for a garden style apartment fire. To accomplish this, Chief Hechler explained that they meet this through a multiple unit response. He stated that each station is not an island and they work together to provide the needed response.
During his presentation, Chief Hechler emphasized the importance of more staff as opposed to less. He read a statement from the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) Executive Director, Mark Light, in which he urged municipalities to respond with larger crews. Light stated that larger crews can carry out the crucial tasks in parallel rather than in series, saving time and occupant lives.
Chief Hechler then went on to describe how the funding problems began.
“A lot of where we are today stems from the merger of Spring Hill Fire Rescue and Hernando County Fire Rescue,” stated Chief Hecher.
In May of 2011, the County Administrator at the time, David Hamilton presented a strategy for the merger and a series of several workshops and meetings were conducted to hash out the merger. It was made clear that service would either improve or stay at current levels. Spring Hill Fire Department maintained 3 Firefighters per engine at the time of the merger.
From 2008- 2013, the MSBU remained at $194.87.
During the merger in 2014, the MSBU rate was lowered to $171.44. “That was the first decision that impacted us… and set the course for the future,” said Chief Hechler.
In 2016 it was raised to $176.59 and then raised to $185.43 for FY 2017. “The net result,” Chief Hechler explained, “as of today, we are 22% below CPI(consumer price index). ”
Following the merger in 2013, Chief Hechler explained in his PowerPoint presentation, “Firefighter Salaries of Two Departments Were Not Aligned Further Amplifying Internal Merger Tension.” In some circumstances, former Spring Hill Firefighters were making more than their Hernando County Fire Rescue colleagues.
At the same time, the county department established countywide staffing requirement of 3 firefighters per engine, which required hiring 12 new Full Time Equivalent (FTE) firefighters. An additional 6 firefighters were hired for adding a rescue operation which is funded under the EMS budget.
In 2013, “Recurring revenue did not match operational expenditures nor capital needs,” explained Chief Hechler.
In 2014, the BOCC began the process of finding a consultant firm to review and evaluate Fire/EMS funding methodologies.
In Jan. 2015 the BOCC selected the consulting firm Tindale Oliver at a cost of $122,803. (Their contract was $77,303 and public hearing mailing costs were $45,500.)
Also in January, the BOCC unanimously approved the Teamster and Firefighter Union contracts implementing the Evergreen Study for all county employees.
Part of these contracts brought wages in line between the merged departments. On the July 15th meeting, Commissioner Nicholson stated,
“…We have just settled two different contracts with the two different unions, one of them being the firefighters union and what we’ve been trying to do since the merger of the two departments was try to bring the wages inline… With the settlement of this last contract in negotiations we are now doing that over a two year period of time… So obviously we have to be able to pay their salaries, which means we need some additional revenue to do that…”
At the July 15, 2015 meeting the BOCC elected to not go with any of the options presented by Tindale Oliver. They decided to increase the Fire MSBU by 3% every year for 5 years, which they regarded as “inflationary increase.” They instructed HCFR to utilize reserves below the 18% level and not reduce services or minimum safe staffing levels.
In August of 2015, HCFR submitted a 2010 study by NIST on Residential Fireground Field Experiments to the board that determined that reducing fire engine crews to 2 firefighters would increase danger to public and firefighters.
After showing a series of charts depicting the increased hazards in terms of air toxicity with a 2 engine crew response, Chief Hechler described what it would take to equalize the HCFR budget through staffing reductions. The elimination of 59 firefighters would be required. This is equivalent to 19.7 FT firefighter/paramedics and/or firefighter/EMT’s per shift. Additionally 2 of 13 engine companies would need to be shut down and the remaining 11 would be reduced to staffing of 2 firefighters per engine. One additional training officer would need to be eliminated as well.
In 2016, the BOCC approved the first two years of a five year capital improvement plan and a $7.5 million loan from the general fund to sustain HCFR services through FY 2017.
This year Chief Hechler explained that the BOCC was formally notified of the CFO’s concern with the potential use of HCFR funds to provide fire protection benefits to Hernando Beach and City of Brooksville, which is inconsistent with state law. This concern is questionable being that most municipalities maintain interlocal agreements for first responders to support each other.
Also in 2017, the Board directed staff to not fill HCFR vacancies which has increased overtime costs to maintain minimum safe staffing.
Chief Hechler went through a multitude of efforts by HCFR to save taxpayer dollars from the rural fire engine program to in house station repairs and projects, in house fleet maintenance and gasoline ambulances.
Chairman Dukes explained, “We did this to ourselves… unfortunately, all of you ran on no new taxes. Some of you said in the last two meetings ‘I will not raise taxes,’ Well that is what you are getting ready to do.”
Chairman Dukes reminded the Fire Rescue Department of the situation at the July 15, 2015 meeting, “When you guys came up here with your 15 percent increase, the room wasn’t full of firefighters was it?”
“We have dug a hole that we can’t fix unless we can find ways to do things cheaper and find ways to make it palatable,” he said.
Commissioner Nicholson stated that there are 8000 households in the county that pay nothing in taxes and if we raise the tax rates they are still not going to pay for the fire service. “That’s why I personally pushed for the $50 per household increase, so that everyone pays their fair share.”
“My personal opinion is that we should not let 8000 households off scottfree,” Commissioner Nicholson emphasized.
Chairman Dukes stated the only way to affect everybody is to go with the MSBU.
Commissioner Champion, said, “We didn’t vote for these things… If the MSBU had stayed the same or close to it, we wouldn’t be in this situation right now.” He It was a selling point to lower the taxes in order to combine the departments…”
Commissioner Allocco stated, “We want the community to not have to shoulder excessive burden… We don’t want to have to come back every year and have a room full of people afraid of losing their jobs.” He explained that it is crucial for the department to do all they can do to keep costs down if they raise fees. He brought up the point that the community needs to want the services at the level the department believes it should be provided.
Being a realist, Champion explained, “I like the combination of the MSBU and the MSTU because I want the MSTU to go away,” said Commissioner Champion.
He said that a 28% increase for an MSBU is astronomical. He is more in favor of some sort of combined MSBU/MSTU in order to get the funding right, with the MSTU portion going away down the road.
“I would not want to raise fees or taxes at all if it were my preference, but there are some repercussions… If we do nothing, 59 firefighters lose their jobs,” said Commissioner Allocco.
A consensus was reached between a hybrid MSBU/MSTU fee with the stipulation that the MSTU will be scaled down overtime. The MSTU would be voted on in September 2017.
Although not mentioned during this workshop, the potential takeover of the Hernando Beach Volunteer Fire Department (HBVFD) could also affect the financial situation of the Fire Department.
Next up: A workshop regarding HBVFD is scheduled for Tuesday, February 14, 2017 at 2:00 P.M.