Memo sent out by fire chief about financial problems

Fire Chief unveils budget plans: Chief Donald Adams shares news of a looming financial crisis in the Lehigh Acres Fire Dept. at a special meeting last week attended by more than 150 people. Also shown in the photo is Julie Barrett, one of the five members of the board of commissioners. Photo by Mel Toadvine
Editor’s Note: The following is the memo, dated April 1, 2009, that was sent out to all employees of the Lehigh Acres Fire control & Rescue District as well as the five commissioners from Lehigh Acres Fire Chief Donald Adams. The department is facing a crisis if a shortfall of 40 percent in revenue income is lost. It could mean the loss of jobs, the closing of fire houses and the curbing of local ambulance service.
By DONALD ADAMS
During the last year, and more recently, the housing market has plummeted causing property values to decrease dragging down property tax receipts. now that property values are at an all time low, many homes and properties are selling.
Unfortunately, the selling price is much lower than two years previous. As a result, several fire departments are experiencing a significant reduction in tax revenue affecting the level of service now and in the years to come.
Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District is one of those departments with anticipated reductions in tax revenue from 12 percent to 40 percent depending on who is forecasting future tax receipts. As a result, many of our personnel are anticipating the reduction in our staffing levels and are even expressing this concern to others.
No doubt this is a concern to all of us. I wish I could tell each of you everything will be all right in the future and I would like assure everyone that at this point and time there is no plan to make any changes.
Since my tenure with our department we have strived to maintain and build our reserve accounts anticipating the need in the event of a disaster. Even though having adequate reserves is a must in any business, government or even home budget, many vocal citizens in our community criticized myself and the department for having reserves.
The reserves we have today, as well as some adjustments made to the budget will currently carry us through these challenging times.
However, if we do not make some additional adjustments we will be several million dollars in deficit. I have been in contact with both IAFF 1826 District 6 and 19, and we are planning to meet to determine what changes we can make in order to provide the highest level of service to our citizens and community, as well as to our personnel while reducing the financial impact on the budget.
These are very challenging times for each of us and there are many fears of losing jobs, homes, or vehicles within our own organization. We are in times that will change us as individuals forever with challenges no one has ever seen during the history of our country. Many of our
parents or grandparents lived through challenging times during the Depression; however, these times are different.
Today the decreasing revenues are having and will have a profound impact on fire-based EMS funding and service delivery that was not available during the Depression. Today some departments are laying people off, closing fire stations and reducing companies.
Some are “browning out” stations when staffing falls below minimal manning requirements.
While all this is happening, call volume is increasing and I believe our department will become the primary care facility for those without health insurance.
Without health insurance EMS transports will not be reimbursed adding to the dilemma of reduced revenue.
In addition, Florida is known for being a retirement community and as baby boomers continue to age, call volumes will significantly increase over the next several years. Also, the educational requirement for EMS personnel continues to increase and different modalities of treatment for cardiac patients are on the horizon for STEMls and hypothermia treatments.
Nonetheless, the current economic times have caused public expectations to shift toward an increased focus on fiscal management.
With the increase in public expectation there has been a heightened attention to what we do, responses to calls, driving department vehicles, stopping by the store of just being out in the public.
Although many citizens in our community are very grateful for our firefighters and what they do, at the same time they are reluctant to pay any additional taxes that may be needed to finance our department.
The question that I must face as a leader is: how can these issues be resolved so that these concerns are addressed and community interests of providing the highest level of service is best served?
It will take the commitment of each of us to accomplish this daunting task and each of the leaders in this organization need your thoughts, prayers and support during these challenging times.
During these next several weeks and months, we will be working hard to balance our budgetary needs through a systematic decision making process for identifying reductions and cost containment in terms of impact on service levels, from those with the lest impact to those with the greatest impact.
Budget reductions with the most significant impact upon services and service levels will occur as late as possible throughout our organization.
These current economic challenges are taking a toll on our nation, local government and each of us, as we are faced with some tough fiscal decisions in the next few months.
Each of you are a valuable source of support and ideas, therefore, it is critical that you share your cost saving ideas while keeping in mind our core services and mission critical programs.
I have made myself available to anyone who would like to meet with me at Station 105, Monday through Wednesday and Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. to either ask questions or express their ideas. If you have any questions, please contact me.