BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — It seemed like a win-win scenario to apply for a no-match grant to fund new firefighting positions, but not everyone saw it that way.
Previously, Bradford County commissioners declined the original opportunity to apply for a SAFER grant because they couldn’t afford to partially fund nine or more positions over the three-year grant period.
Attorney Will Sexton informed the board Jan. 20 that FEMA was no longer requiring matching funds for the upcoming application period, so if the grant was awarded, the county would have no additional salaries or benefits to fund.
Sexton said the positions would be advertised as SAFER positions so applicants would know they were temporary, pending receipt of a new grant three years from now.
But Sheriff Gordon Smith said any grant funding should go toward funding the positions that are already in place but unfunded in future years by a recurring source of revenue.
That is how he said he intended to fund salaries and benefits when he oversaw the fire department.
The problem Sexton and Commissioner Danny Riddick had with funding existing positions is that those employees must be terminated now, or at the very least told that their jobs rely on the county receiving the grant. The county would be pulling a bait and switch if the grant application is unsuccessful but it continues to fund supposedly lost positions.
Riddick said county firefighters are worried enough about their jobs as it is.
Smith said they should be because the commission — beyond maxing out property tax rates — hasn’t committed to raising additional revenue to pay for fire rescue.
“We have kicked the can down the road far enough in Bradford County,” Smith said. “We should work on what we’ve got first before we start moving on to something we don’t have.”
Commissioner Kenny Thompson sided with the sheriff.
“We’ve got to find a way to fund what we’ve got,” Thompson said.
When it comes to electrical franchise fees, Florida Power and Light is cooperative, but Clay Electric wants to hear from its members. A meeting is being set up toward the end of February for co-op customers and members of the public to sound off on having 1% to 6% added to their monthly electric bills to help fund fire rescue.
The commission has also discussed adding fire and EMS special assessments to annual property tax bills. Sexton said once the county knows how much revenue the franchise fees could bring in, then it will know how much of the budget needs to rely on fire and/or EMS assessments. The figure should be lower than the public has seen in the past, he said.
“I think if you want to run off your existing employees, you start giving them pink slips so that you can show those pink slips to the federal government with your SAFER application. Then they’re going to really go ‘I don’t know what’s going on here,’” he said.
Riddick said they must get funding in place, because just like infrastructure and law enforcement, fire rescue is needed to help the county to attract development and grow.
“We’ve got to have good fire and rescue. We’ve just got to,” he said.
“It’s great to talk about nine or 10 more,” the sheriff said. “I’d like to have nine or 10 more deputies. You got 14 to 16 fire-EMS persons working a shift right now. I got three deputies.”
To be accredited, his agency needs one deputy for every thousand people in the county, he said.
“Guess what? I don’t have it. We can’t afford it. But we give the best service we can afford.”
The discussion continued like this for several more rounds. Bradford Fire Rescue Director Allen Parrish was at a conference and not available to speak to the board. Rather than decide that night, the commission chose to schedule a special meeting for Jan. 25.
Parrish and Fire Chief Ben Carter answered lingering questions, clearing up confusion and laying out the numbers. First Parrish wanted commissioners to know it wasn’t his job to convince them of anything. He was presenting information about a funding opportunity, but it was up to the board to decide whether to pursue it. Fire Rescue will continue operating with what the board provides.
“I am in no way asking you for permission to apply for the SAFER grant, nor has our department. We have an obligation to take direction from the board, give recommendations and take your guidance,” the director said.
Parrish said the SAFER grant exists to help departments raise themselves to meet federal standards — to increase the number of trained frontline firefighters in communities. While his department does not expect they will ever match federal standards — including having 16 responders for a first alarm call — using the $3.4 million grant to hire additional firefighters could get them closer. In fact, he said, they could go from having two firefighters per shift at each of the three existing stations to three, plus add two firefighters per shift in the Brooker area, where Commissioner Diane Andrews pointed out many structure fires have taken place.
Parrish also settled the matter of whether the grant could be used to pay for existing employees, pointing out that once the grant cycle opens, it is too late to cut positions to request grant funding to retain them.
Commissioner Chris Dougherty, who, like Thompson, was opposed to adding new positions, asked Parrish and Carter to evaluate whether they were able to provide adequate service with what they have.
“I think we’re doing the bare minimum right now,” Parrish said, adding they can get six firefighters on a scene and hope there isn’t another emergency taking place at the same time.
Parrish was upfront about the fact that the grant would not cover all the expenses of hiring new employees. The grant covers salaries and benefits for three years as well as initial training. Ongoing training, overtime, personal protective gear, uniforms, etc. are not provided for and would be an additional cost to the county — around $100,000 a year for three years.
Hiring one firefighter per day (three shift positions in 24 hours) at the starting rate costs nearly $232,000, according to the director. Adding five firefighters per day (15 shift positions) costs nearly $1.16 million. The SAFER grant could accomplish that, but as he stated, there would be some additional cost to the county even with no match required.
Commissioner Carolyn Spooner called the grant a rare opportunity to raise the standards of the fire department.
“There’s not a guarantee we would get it, but there’s a real possibility. I don’t know how you can decline an opportunity like that,” Spooner said.
Riddick, who arrived at the meeting ready to support the grant application, began expressing doubt after hearing about the costs the grant would not cover. Clerk Denny Thompson said the county didn’t have any money available.
Andrews then commented, saying priorities were backward.
“When I see huge equipment for $200,000, $500,000, and then I look at them, look at their faces and I say I can’t afford $300,000 in three years for their safety. To me, that makes no sense. But that’s just my opinion,” Andrews said. “Because I’d much rather give it to them than I would for a piece of equipment that — do we need it? Not really.”
Riddick asked about pulling the additional cost of hiring new positions out of more than $5 million the county is expecting in federal relief funding. Sexton said he would like to present the board with a complete spending plan for the revenue instead of chipping away at it, because it will be spent faster than they think. He did, however, agree it would be an eligible expense for the funding.
As was the case this year, it will also be the likely source of funding fire rescue services in next year’s budget while commissioners arrange for new sources of funding from fees and/or assessments.
With that, the board voted 3-2 in favor of applying for the SAFER grant. Commissioners Dougherty and Thompson were the dissenting votes.
