Fire district faces upcoming challenges
Another difficult economic environment is ahead for the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District and Chief Mike Becker. The current financial status of its working fiscal budget will be discussed at the Beach Fire Commission Board meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 20.
During the past seven months, the fire district and its chief have gone through layoffs, animosity with its union and the ability to get its work force back to full strength. Much of this occurred after the FMB Board of Fire Commissioners did not adopt the management-proposed budget and millage rate presented to them at the tentative budget hearing in mid-September 2009. A much lower rate was passed, and administrative personnel has been struggling to adapt to it, according to the fire chief.
“We are going to have to do some forecasting along with some strategy to keep the district whole, given the fact that we’ll be dealing with reduced revenue,” said Becker. “I do not want to go through what we went through last year. The district has never been through this type of decrease in revenue before. I’m confident that we’ll be able to balance the budget by the end of the year. Come May 1, I may have to reduce staffing and overtime to save money.”
Becker hopes the serious financial struggle and bickering of 2009 is in the past.
“At the same time I was trying to adapt to the environment, the union was trying to get me fired,” he said. “It was an awkward situation rendering me powerless at the budget hearing. That was not a good strategy on their part at all. I’m the one that’s going to argue for what we need like equipment and protective gear. We need to learn from that. I’m the chief executive officer of the fire district. I need to be the most informed, educated and prepared to present a budget that will keep the district functioning to provide a service of delivery that we’re accustomed to.”
Becker stated 2010 is a contract year with union negotiations. It includes preliminary discussions in May, a new fiscal budget starting in October and commissioner elections in November.
“Contract negotiations with the union may bring out some animosity there,” said Becker. “We’re trying to keep the two things separate, but they are kind of directly related to taxpayers’ money. The new agreement will not be expected until at least July when we have our hard numbers, and that’s being optimistic.
“We have two unions -a rank-and-file union and a supervisory union,” he said. “Both contracts have to be negotiated from top to bottom so that means any benefit or any of the 37 articles in the contract is up for re-negotiation. It’s important from labor’s perspective that they are working under an agreement that will come Oct. 1. If they are not, then the board will have already set the budget and will potentially establish what money we have to work with anyway.”
Becker warns a contract is not expected to be set in stone come October or November.
“We may negotiate for the next 6-8 months beyond that if we can’t reach an agreement,” he said. “But, just like any negotiation environment, we are going to negotiate until we reach a deadlock or an agreement.”
Six fire fighters were laid off immediately after the tentative budget hearing and were back to work after successful negotiations between Becker and the Local 1826 District 3 and 15 Union yielded positive results. Recently, the fruits of a full work force paid off.
“In January, the district had the best response time ever at 4 minutes and 37 seconds,” said Becker. “That’s the best in Lee County. Recently, we had a construction fire by Pink Shell. To have the two engines and a ladder coming in gave me a sense of security that, even though we’re dealing with a typical old cottage structure that can be dangerous once on fire, we were able to handle it. We were not waiting for Bonita or Iona to send a truck. That’s been the goal the whole time. I know that each truck has at least three fire fighters on it making it a fully staffed truck instead of marrying crews together at the last minute.”
With the rush of Spring Break nearly over, the fire chief and his administrative staff can prepare for the fast-approaching hurricane season and crunch numbers for a new budget cycle. He said the voluntary Community Emergency Response Team is more than 100 members strong after another class graduated and a growing Explorer program (14-20 year olds testing the fire fighter experience) needs seven more applicants (fill out an application at the FMB Fire District Administrative building at 100 Voorhis Ave.) make the district well prepared for hurricane season.
“The challenges that we will be facing in the next fiscal year, although difficult, are attainable. We’re looking at trying to maintain service delivery while balancing the cost of that service. That’s going to be the goal of the contract, the budget and the negotiations.”