BOYNTON BEACH – A fire station in Boynton Beach has been staffed below the region’s standard minimum level by about six employees for at least two years. City officials plan to fix that and pay about $420,000 for those positions from this year’s budget without raising the tax rate or fire assessment fee.
But it’ll come out of the $12.4 million reserve fund, the commission decided Tuesday at the second day of budget workshops. City Manager Lori LaVerriere advised against this.
The $420,000 is in addition to about $300,000 to be removed to pay for new greens at the golf course, and about $425,000 already planned to be taken out to balance the 2016-17 budget. In total, about $1.14 million will be removed, LaVerriere said.
Mayor Steven Grant voted against paying for the firefighters with reserve money, and instead proposed to raise the tax rate from $7.90 to $8 per $1,000 of taxable value, which failed.
Commissioner Joe Casello brought the staffing up at the city’s budget workshops. He said the extra firefighters are being put in danger because they are at calls when they don’t need to be, and sending out extra equipment is increasing “wear and tear.”
Common standard practice in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties is to have three employees per truck when responding to calls. Fire Station 1 at City Hall on Boynton Beach Boulevard has only two available per truck and ambulance. To make up for that, the city has been sending out a second truck with two people so they can have four people at the scene.
Casello recommended a firefighter be paid overtime to bring the count up to three per truck.
However, it would be more cost-effective to actually hire someone, Fire Chief Glenn Joseph said. He said it would be about $420,000 per year to fully manage Station 1 and about $712,976 per year to pay for overtime. With hiring the six employees, one person will be added to each truck or ambulance for each of the three shifts.
Casello originally proposed raising the fire assessment fee, but changed his mind after hearing other commissioners’ opinions.
Commissioner Justin Katz feared increasing taxes or the assessment fee would hinder the chances of residents voting in favor of other proposed taxes, such as the countywide sales tax that will be on the ballot in November. If the sales tax passes, the city would be given about $3.9 million annually that would pay for a long-delayed list of necessary capital improvement projects at City Hall, the Civic Center, the library, the public works complex, several parks and centers, fire stations, and sidewalks.
The fire department’s budget is about $22.5 million, which is about 28.7 percent of the general fund budget. In the general fund, it is second only to police, which has a $30 million budget.
Before the proposed changes made Tuesday, the city’s proposed general fund budget is $78.5 million, which is a 2.7 percent increase over last year’s. The complete proposed budget is $179.9 million. The proposed tax rate is $7.90 per $1,000 in taxable value, the same as last year, and the proposed fire assessment fee per residence is $100. The commission will hold two public hearings in September .
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