Putnam County Chiefs Wary of Merger

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Chiefs wary of merging

by Brad Buck
The Palatka Daily News


A consultant's preliminary report recommending some fire service consolidation is drawing trepidation from local fire officials.
"That ought to be the ultimate goal," Travis Miller, a Reading, Mass.-based consultant, who compiled the draft report, said of one countywide fire service.
The Putnam County Fire Service Task Force is starting to study a copy of Miller's 40-page report, he said. Some of the key players on that panel expressed reservations about the report Friday.
John Loftis, director of training for Putnam County Emergency Services and chief of the Melrose Volunteer Fire Department, said the task force needs to take the good recommendations from the report and build on them.
"This is an interesting document in that it would offer itself as a master plan for countywide fire suppression improvement ... In actuality, it is not countywide in its application, nor does it recommend consistently safe fire personnel response to alarms," Loftis said in a written response to the consultant's report.
If the panel recommends three-man engine companies for Palatka, that should be the same standard for the rest of the county, Loftis said. Furthermore, he said, the plan takes a more aggressive approach to fires in cities than in unincorporated parts of the county.
Palatka Fire Chief Kenneth Venables, stressing that the report is only a draft, said Friday the report is a good start, and now the task force has to take over.
"It falls short in some areas," said Venables, noting that the task force has been working on county fire services for nearly two years. For example, the report doesn't address recruitment or retention of volunteers. "That's who is going to make this work," he said. "We know we need the volunteers." The task force is looking at possible financial incentive for the volunteers.
"You're asking someone to drop everything they do in the middle of the night and go and respond to an emergency," Venables said.
He said the report "makes some reasonable recommendations on administration." For example, decisions must be made as to who's in charge in every situation, especially major emergencies, the report said, and emergency responders need to coordinate their efforts.
The county task force held a special meeting on the report Friday.
"It's a stone that needs a lot of polish," Venables said. "It needs a lot of work. It's food for thought that we can use. We need to make the revisions."
The county has 18 volunteer fire departments, plus Palatka's, which has paid firefighters.
County Administrator Rick Leary said the task force will review the report and make revisions before it goes to the county commission, hopefully by the end of August. But Venables wouldn't guess when the report would be ready for the consideration of commissioners, who will have the final say on the future of countywide fire services.
Asked if people would be surprised by anything in the report, Leary said, "It depends on one's perspective. There are some suggestions that may warrant or spark a lot of debate."
Included among those is a recommendation to change the method for funding volunteer fire departments, he said. Another major recommendation is to have one provider of fire services for the county, Leary said.
"That leaves the question, 'what happens to the Palatka Fire Department?'" he said.
Some suggestions could take a while to implement, Leary said. Those include consolidating to one department and then where to place personnel, he said.
The fire task force ran into some rough waters several months ago. Many volunteers believe the county is looking at eliminating them and bringing in professionals. County officials say that's not fiscally feasible.
Leary said it would take at least two firemen per station to adequately man them and even then that's not enough to fight a fire.
But Loftis said factions remain among fire and rescue personnel.
"It seems to be clear to me that people are forming little groups to protect their territories," Loftis said.

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Update

Fire chiefs pick apart consolidation recommendations

By Brad Buck
The Palatka Daily News


The chairman of the Putnam County Fire Service Task Force said Friday no local fire departments are waging turf battles.
Task force members are putting together their response to a consultant's recommendations about consolidating fire services in the county. The panel was supposed to meet Friday, but did not have enough members for a quorum.
But that didn't stop task force chairman David Trout, a longtime volunteer firefighter, from criticizing a Palatka Daily News editorial this week, which urged fire departments to stop waging "turf battles."
"Out of the turf wars, we're coming up with good information," he said. "We have good discussions."
He said that sometimes the paid firefighters with the Palatka Fire Department look at their positions as jobs, while for the volunteers, it's more of a lifestyle commitment.
Volunteers feel "brow-beaten sometimes. We're not getting the recognition we deserve," said Trout, an Interlachen Town Council member.
Meanwhile, Trout said he plans to update county commissioners at their Aug. 12 meeting about the consultant's report and the volunteer Fire Chief's Association response to the recommendations.
The consultant, Travis Miller of Reading, Mass., issued a report with numerous recommendations, including:
- Consolidation of fire services should be the county's ultimate goal.
- The county commission should declare itself as the authority over fire service delivery in the unincorporated areas of the county.
- The county should get away from its current approach of paying volunteer fire departments on a per-call basis and toward a centralized budgetary approach.
- Palatka should be integrated into the countywide fire rescue automatic aid response plan.
- The county needs to establish specific performance standards and service level objectives.
- The county should staff several fire stations in unincorporated areas with full-time firefighters.
- All firefighters should be cross-trained for emergency medical service needs.
The Fire Chief's Association, headed up by Satsuma Volunteer Fire Chief J.O. Montonye, had as many responses as Miller has recommendations.
The group points out that there's little to no information about the expected growth of the county; the county's fire resources are inaccurate in the consultant's report and addresses for fire stations are inaccurate.
Regarding the consultant's recommendation for the county commission to declare itself the "authority having jurisdiction" over fire services, the volunteer fire chiefs say, "if this makes the county the sole policy maker, then we deny this declaration."

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8/9/2003

Task force to answer report

by Brad Buck
The Palatka Daily News


Putnam County commissioners could see a report on countywide fire service consolidation by October or November.

The county's Fire Service Task Force said Friday it will put together its report, along with a consultant's report, by the fall, saying it's time to deliver.

"I think this could drag out for months and months, and we don't want that," said County Administrator Rick Leary. He said he doesn't think the task force and the consultant are going to agree on everything.
In fact, the panel and the consultant disagree on many aspects of consolidated fire services. But county Emergency Services Director Doug Stewart said they do agree that water service is the key.
"Water service right now is a political hot potato," he said.
The county wants to deliver clean water to East Palatka from Pomona Park and Satsuma as part of its East Putnam Water Project. Many South Putnam residents oppose the county's plan.
But it's important that the task force get moving on a report for the county commission by November because commissioners will start looking at the 2004-05 budget in March 2004, Stewart said. Many recommendations from the consultant will require additional money. The task force hopes to have a draft of its recommendations by next month.
The task force needs to make sure it doesn't get bogged down in details, Palatka fire Capt. Randy Porter said.
"The consultant's report will stand on its own merit," Stewart said. "Ours will stand on its merit."
The consultant, Travis Miller of Reading, Mass., issued a report with numerous recommendations, including:
- Consolidation of fire services should be the county's ultimate goal.
- The county commission should declare itself as the authority over fire service delivery in the unincorporated areas of the county.
- The county should get away from its current approach of paying volunteer fire departments on a per-call basis and move toward a centralized budgetary approach.
- Palatka should be integrated into the countywide fire rescue automatic aid response plan.
- The county needs to establish specific performance standards and service level objectives.
- The county should staff several fire stations in unincorporated areas with full-time firefighters.
- All firefighters should be cross-trained for emergency medical service needs.
The Fire Chief's Association, headed by Satsuma Volunteer Fire Chief J.O. Montonye, had as many responses as Miller has recommendations.
The group says there's little to no information about the expected growth of the county; the county's fire resources are inaccurate in the consultant's report and addresses for fire stations are inaccurate.
Regarding the consultant's recommendation for the county commission to declare itself the "authority having jurisdiction" over fire services, the volunteer fire chiefs say, "if this makes the county the sole policymaker, then we deny this declaration."

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Fire study

This Boston group seems to have a "generic" format of one size fits all. They did a study in Washington Co. and Walton Co. up here and did'nt say much that we had not come up with on our own.

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Volunteers Needed

Consultant: Volunteer firefighters are needed

by Brad Buck
The Palatka Daily News


No one is trying to eliminate Putnam County's volunteer firefighters, a consultant said Tuesday.
"I know the volunteer fire departments have a lot of concern about what we have in the report," said Camille Tharpe, who works with Government Consulting Group in Tallahassee, which put together a report that recommends consolidating countywide fire services. "But we tried to do an objective report. We are not against volunteer fire departments. A lot of people think we want to abolish the volunteer fire departments. That is not where we're going."
Tharpe went over the consultant's final report for county commissioners, volunteers and paid firefighters at a workshop.
The consultant is recommending the county take over fire services, meaning county commissioners would decide budget issues, she said.
Commissioner Brad Purcell wanted to know the ramifications of county control over fire services -- specifically budgeting.
"We don't want bureaucracy or political boundaries to get in the way," he said. The governing boards need to get together to try to work out a fire service agreement, Purcell said.
"It's a big thing to go to," Tharpe said. "You're talking about "volunteer fire departments, who are providing excellent service."
"If you become the authority of jurisdiction, you plan, you have control over spending," Tharpe said, although that control would not extend to city fire departments in Palatka and Crescent City, which have paid firefighters.
Taxpayers are paying $7,500 for Government Services Group of Tallahassee to do the fire service study, County Administrator Rick Leary said. The rest of a $25,000 contract with the consultant comes from a state grant, he said.
Some volunteer firefighters have complained that the consultants simply looked at a report it did for Walton County in the Panhandle and wrote a similar report for Putnam County.
The Walton County report does start out by saying the county should "take authority" of fire services, exactly the same language used in the Putnam County report.
A consultant's preliminary report recommending some fire service consolidation is drawing trepidation from local fire officials. Travis Miller, a Boston-based consultant, who compiled the report along with Tharpe, said the county should combine its fire services.
The Putnam County Fire Service Task Force is writing its response to Miller's 40-page report. Some of the key players on that panel have expressed reservations about the report.
John Loftis, director of training for Putnam County Emergency Services and chief of the Melrose Volunteer Fire Department, said the task force needs to take the good recommendations from the report and build on them.
Palatka Fire Chief Kenneth Venables stressed that the report is only a draft.
The county has 18 volunteer fire departments, plus Palatka's, which has paid firefighters. Tharpe is recommending putting paid firefighters at six of the county's 24 fire departments.
County Administrator Rick Leary said last month he hoped the task force would give its recommendations on consolidated fire service to the county commission this month. That now likely will happen in October or November.
The fire task force ran into some rough waters several months ago. Many volunteers said they thought the county is looking at eliminating them and bringing in professionals. County officials say that's not fiscally feasible.
Leary said it would take at least two firemen per station to adequately man them and even then that's not enough to fight a fire.
Loftis said factions remain among fire and rescue personnel.

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Update

9/6/2003

Fire chiefs remain hot on issues

By Brad Buck
The Palatka Daily News


J.O. Montonye doesn't like much of what he sees in a recently released consultant's report suggesting consolidating countywide fire services. The chief of the Satsuma Volunteer Fire Department also doesn't like a local panel's response to the report.
On Friday, he raised questions on just about everything in a preliminary report from the county's Fire Services Task Force. Montonye is not a member of the panel.
For instance, he opposes central budgeting. That essentially means volunteer fire departments asking the county for money after they respond to fires.
"The fire chiefs voted that ... things should be left intact," Montonye said, emphasizing that was a vote of 12 volunteer fire chiefs.
Sometimes, getting money from the county commission can get political, some chiefs said Friday.
Larry Beaton, chief of the Southwest Volunteer Fire Department, agreed, saying, "There was a lot of politics on the part of the board of county commissioners and what was then the Department of Public Safety. Sometimes, it depended on who told the best story."
But County Administrator Rick Leary cautioned the volunteer firefighters not to get too anxious over the wording in the recommendations.
"Don't get scared by the word 'centralized,'" he said. "That system can work. Individual departments form budgets, then submit them."
The panel voted 9-4 in favor of the consultant's recommendation that the county establish a central budget system for fire services. How to pay for fire services caused some consternation Friday. But there are other potentially controversial issues.
Montonye also voiced dissent over a consultant's recommendation that the county commission declare itself the authority having jurisdiction over fire service delivery in the unincorporated areas of the county. He didn't like that, saying the commission already has that authority.
However, everyone easily supported the notion that the county establish a water system for fire services.
Members of the county's Fire Services Task Force went over their recommendations Friday on how to consolidate countywide fire services. They also voted on each of a consultant's suggestions.
Ultimately, the county commission will decide whether to consolidate fire services - as the consultant also recommends - and how to pay for the services.
But for now, the task force is putting together its report to go along with the report from the Boston-based consultant, Travis Miller.
The consultant issued a report with numerous recommendations, including:
- Consolidation of fire services should be the county's ultimate goal.
- The county should get away from its current approach of paying volunteer fire departments on a per-call basis and move toward a centralized budgetary approach.
- Palatka should be integrated into the countywide fire rescue automatic aid response plan.
- The county needs to establish specific performance standards and service level objectives.
- The county should staff several fire stations in unincorporated areas with full-time firefighters.
- All firefighters should be cross-trained for emergency medical service needs.
Recommendations from the task force and the conslutants are expected to go before county commissioners in November.