I am eagerly awaiting the report on the fire/rescue consolidation from the consultant. At the same time, I am becoming more and more concerned with the current conditions at Martin County’s Fire/Rescue Department.  The county commission and their department have been at  a contract impasse since last December. Both sides are at odds over a variety of issues critical to maintaining a functioning department. As time progresses I am uneasy about Stuart becoming involved with what appears to be an economic and, perhaps, operational nightmare.

The city has completed contract negotiations with our fire/rescue department. I believe the final contract represents a fair and equitable deal for both the employees and the city. I attended some of those bargaining sessions, which are open to the public, as a silent observer.  I can report that, though at times tense, both sides conducted themselves professionally throughout. The outcome is while employees received increases; our operating costs are still less than Martin County’s.

According to the Martin County Firefighters and Paramedics’ Union president, the county has already expended 107% of the overtime budget. The city and their firefighters/EMS employees, by working together, have decreased our own overtime costs substantially. According to the county’s union, the county is on track to lose 20% of their employees by May of 2016. This fact has been disputed by the county administrator. On the other hand, the city has not had employee attrition anywhere close to the county’s level, and our rate has remained fairly constant from year to year.

From what I have been told, Stuart’s two fire-rescue facilities are the most active within Martin County.  The vast majority of the calls are accident and medical related. We had only a smattering of house fires last year with a few brush fires. The City of Stuart has a paid agreement with Sewall’s Point to answer their fire/rescue emergencies, and those responses are counted in our statistics.

As a city commissioner, my only concern is how any consolidation or merger will affect Stuart’s residents and taxpayers. As of today, each commissioner and the management staffs have had briefings on the consultant’s progress but nothing has been given to us in writing. When a report is finally issued, I will need to study the data to make sure that whatever the recommendations are they will be based on using similar criteria. Currently, the budgeting and management criteria are accounted for differently within the city’s and the county’s budgets.

There are differences in health, PTO  and pension obligations. How the entities  pay to have equipment replaced and what happens to those funds in the future. Administration, finance, payroll and legal expenses are accounted for differently (Stuart allocates proportions of those expenses directly in the Fire/ Rescue budget while the county does not). In making a financial determination, not only do these costs have to be equalized for a merger or consolidation today, but we will need to know what will be the costs to Stuart’s residents, businesses and taxpayers going forward. The county already is near its millage cap so how we pay for any new department or consolidation is critical to analyse and understand.

Another question to be answered is how Stuart will do best operationally. As I said above, we have very good service. If you call with a medical emergency (the overwhelming majority of calls are just that), response times are excellent and the care received is outstanding. We currently have a station on either side of the tracks and, with the BrightLine looming, that is an important consideration. If Stuart were to give up operational control, we may not have a station on both sides of the tracks to respond for all our residents in the future.

Any decision made will be critical to how Stuart evolves and develops. If we disband our independent department, we won’t be able to return to having one. If Stuart does decide to consolidate or merge, it will be important that the new department be formed in a way that gives Stuart’s 16,000 residents some meaningful political representation into both operations and financing aspects of the new department.  Looking at the county fire/rescue department situation today, it gives me pause going forward.

Currently, as a Stuart commissioner and a resident, I know what our department costs and how it responds. To change that, I would have to be convinced the outcome for the city would be better for response times, financially and operationally. This will probably be the most difficult decision that I will make as a commissioner since I was elected. It is not a decision that I will take without much thought and deliberation.