On Tuesday, the County Commission appointed two members, Sarah Heard and Ed Fielding, to a proposed Fire Consolidation Committee. Next Tuesday the Stuart City Commission will discuss whether we should do the same. I believe the City Commission should only move forward, if a consolidation is in the interest of Stuart. After examining all the data, I am of the opinion we should not move forward.
Have you ever heard the phrase “Numbers don’t lie?” That may be true, but the outcome you want to obtain can be determined by the numbers used. I am sure you have also heard the phrase “garbage in…garbage out.” This is what happened to the Fire Consolidation Study. The consultants, at least in Stuart’s case, did not bother to speak with our Finance Department. Rather they chose to use numbers that would support their conclusion that a consolidated district is possible.
From the first time I spoke to Fitch and raised doubts with certain of their assumptions, I was told that they would go back and investigate my concerns. It doesn’t appear to me that the consultants did do that. I suspect Fitch probably didn’t do so for any other questions that others had either. The result was a flawed study based on inaccurate data.
Most citizens think that Stuart pays for government through ad valorem taxes also known as real estate taxes. In actuality those taxes comprise roughly 27% (about $6.6 million dollars) of total City revenue of $23.6 million dollars. The balance collected comes from other taxes, revenue sharing, fees and other sources. Public Safety has a budget of approximately $12 million dollars with a little over $5 million being spent on Fire/Rescue. Stuart uses all sources of revenue to pay for general services that are provided. The consultant’s report intonated that the City only used the Fire Fee and real estate taxes to pay for Fire/Rescue. By backing into their numbers, they assigned 1.838 mills for fire and assumed that Stuart could cut their millage by that amount if consolidation occurs.
The County pays for Fire/Rescue strictly through a MSTU with a millage rate of 2.5263. The entire millage for Stuart is 4.5520. Martin County’s current Fire/Rescue alone is 55% of the City’s total millage rate. The consultant did not take into account Stuart’s ability to have different funding sources pay for fire service. So when calculating proposed savings to the City the consultant relied on real estate taxes and the fire fee only to pay for Fire/Rescue. They did not count any money we collect for providing service to Sewall’s Point, insurance reimbursement or other related income in allocating funds to pay for SFD. Fitch just reallocated those collections to the new entity but never deducted the amount from our total expenses to provide Fire/Rescue services.
In calculating what Fire/Rescue costs an “average” home owner in the City, the consultant used an average taxable value of $150,510.00 which is the County’s average, instead of the actual City average of $124,567. While a Stuart condo owner has an average taxable value of $51,677. This substantially alters what the average Stuart homeowner pays for Fire Service from their price of $424 per homeowner to $360. Fitch stated in their report that the average County homeowner pays $365.
65% of our residents pay only the Fire Fee. The new district will have the same fee for everyone county wide. Therefore the vast majority of Stuart’s residential taxpayers will see no difference in their tax bill, unless the proposed new district increases the amount of the fee, which they could. What Stuart taxpayers are guaranteed to experience is a reduction in response times as outlined in the report. Still using the consultant’s numbers here is what elimination of the SFD means financially to the City:
Cost of SFD without administrative costs $5,010,143
Fire Assessment ($1,009,857)
Fire Related Revenue ($1,523,750)
Ad Valorem of 1.838 ($2,849,286)
City of Stuart loses ($ 372,750)
To make matters worse, the City actually collected $125,000 more in the Fire Fee than the consultant claimed. This would leave a hole in our budget of $500,000. This means that Stuart could not reduce the real estate tax as much as the consultant states in his report. The City would be able to cut 1.3 to 1.4 mills. In a consolidated district the consultant has the millage at 1.4 plus the fire fee. At best the average taxpayer in the City would pay the same but loose having its own home department.
What the numbers do not show is any administrative expense. There are no costs for payroll, finance, human resources, public records or legal. They claim that through consolidated savings, administrative expenses would all be covered. The duplication of a fire chief and a few battalion chiefs won’t cover that expense. The St. Lucie County district spends about $1 million dollar on these personnel costs per year. Any further savings to our consolidated district would come through reduction in personnel, stations and equipment. The consultant’s report does not even begin to address equipment and stations that need to be transferred and paid for somehow by the new entity.
You may hear that the City will save or the County will save with a new district. Just remember that you, the taxpayer, still pay all the bills regardless of which entity receives the money. Martin County has almost reached the limit that it can increase millage. If the County can succeed in having another district bill Fire/Rescue use then it can remove more than 2.5 mills from their current tax millage. This will allow the County to have more room to increase taxes in general. It is all smoke and mirrors. Stuart and all Martin County taxpayers ultimately receive no break; they will have one more governmental entity….one more line on their tax bill…and less control.
Even in the Fitch study, one of the findings was that stakeholders believed that they were receiving high quality service that are meeting or exceeding expectations. Another of the findings was that stakeholders have a common expectation that current performance should either be maintained or improved. For Stuart taxpayers, businesses and residents consolidation adds response times and looks to ultimately close our station on Martin Luther King, which the City is still paying a bond to construct. This is not in the interest of any of us including Stuart Fire employees, who are also stakeholders.
Another finding of the study was that overall risk is predominantly located in and around the urban areas on the eastern side of the county. That is the definition of the City of Stuart. That’s not where you should be closing stations and reducing response time. When you are having a heart attack (study states 78% of the calls are for medical emergency) do you want to wait another minute or so before help arrives? What happens when you have a fire downtown and the tracks are blocked by an All Aboard train? The closest station on that side of the track will be at Salerno Road. Will we lose all of downtown or have more damage than would have occurred, if the station had remained open on MLK?
Less service, more money and a giant department that is less accountable to the citizens. I am not voting for this. This is an idea that needs to go away. It may be a politician’s dream but not yours.