Members of the Lehigh Acres Fire Rescue and Control district will meet at 5:01 p.m. on Thursday, September 24 at the Veterans Park Community Center to make it official and pass a new budget for the fire district.

Members of the board and Chief Don Adams and other officials with the fire district and its legal counsel, Richard Pringle met last week on Sept. 9 at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of East Lee County High School and passed two resolutions, the first to officially raise the millage rate to 3.0 mills and to okay a budget of $21,963,337. The action is required by state statue.

Some 25 people turned out for the 45-minute meeting and only a few took advantage of addressing the board and the chief during a public comment period before each resolution was passed.

Pringle told the board that the only reason for the meeting was for the passing resolutions setting the millage rate and approving the budget. A final passage of both will take place on September 24

It was termed a “tentative budget hearing” and discussion began by stating during the budget workshops, it was determined that the millage rate would be set a 3.0000 mills which is the percentage reported on the DR420.

According to the agenda, the first substantive issue to be discussed was the percentage increase or decrease in millage over the rolled-back necessary to fund the budget and the specific purpose for which ad valorem tax revenues are being increased and/or decreased.

The 3.0 millage rate is a 45.13 percent decrease over the roll-back of 5.4677.

The roll-back rate is the millage rate used to generate prior year’s ad valorem taxes using this year’s taxable value.

The few people who spoke said they were not happy with the recent layoffs that Chief Don Adams had made.

Adams laid off around 37 firefighters a few weeks ago and closed one fire station. The meeting last week was held a few blocks from the station closed for the time being, Station 105 on Milwaukee Blvd.

Adams answered questions from the audience and explained various part of the budget with the help of an administrative member.

As a result of the cutback, there are now four open fire stations in Lehigh with three ambulances.

Commissioner Hemingway made a comment during the discussion and said another ambulance is needed in that area.

The votes for the new millage rate and for the new budget were unanimous by all five commissioners, including Dave Adams, Joel Guzman, Jeff Berndt, Julie Barrett and Ralph Hemingway.

After the Sept. 24 vote, the budget will take effect on Oct. 1, according to Florida statue.

During budget workshops over the past couple of months, the board has yielded to public pressure by asking the chief not to lay off personnel until the end of this month. But the chief is the one, according to state law, who has the authority to fire and hire.

“It was the hardest thing I ever had to do,” he told The Citizen, referring to announced the massive layoff in August.

The reduced income to run the department comes because the valuation of property in Lehigh has fallen almost 50 percent in value, determined by the county property appraiser. The layoff included administrative members, too.

With the layoffs, that leaves around 70 firefighters on the job.

A copy of the budget may be obtained by contacting the chief at the fire department.

Meanwhile, at the next regular business meeting of the fire and rescue district on Sept. 17, a policy will be voted on regarding “Veteran’s Preference.”

Chief Adams said that after the layoff in August, one of the employees of the fire department contacted the JAG Office in Tampa to verify that Veteran’s Preference applied to layoffs.

Adams said that if he understands correctly, the JAG officer told him to contact the State of Florida because there was a state statue covering layoffs for veterans.

“After he obtained the state statue and other information pertaining to ?Veterans Preference, he asked to meet with me to discuss what he had found out,” Adams said. The employee conducting the leg work was not one of the people who had been laid off.

However, the chief said, because Robert Anderson of Lehigh had posted breaking new on his personal website that the chief was going to lay off more firefighters, the employee started to check on his status since he was a veteran.

“Once I received a legal opinion from our labor attorney, I contacted all the employees who checked Veteran’s Preference on their application and asked if they had documentation to support the state statue for retention of veterans.

“One declined the job offer and two accepted their positions back. As a result, at the next board meeting on Sept. 17, we are going to present a policy to be voted on regarding Veteran’s Preference. In addition, the same or similar language will be added to the collective bargaining agreement,” he said. Adams told the Citizen he had no plans to lay off any more firefighters off.

He said he has dealt with Veteran’s Preference many times for promotions and hiring employees; however, this is the first for layoffs.

“Many chief officers I have asked are completely unaware that Veteran’s Preference applied to layoffs. I hope this helps some of the misinformation being presented on the Internet by Mr. Anderson,” Adams said.