The Lehigh Acres Fire and Rescus District has submitted a request for the SAFER Grant, according to Chief Don Adams.

“We submitted it Tuesday night, Dec. 15 via the internet. We are asking for the rehire of the 34 positions. Those 34 positions received letters regarding layoffs although we had a couple resign prior to the layoff.

“We are also asking to retain 12 positions for the future if the economy decreases as anticipated by 20 percent. The total amount of money requested is $8,971,851. There are several strings attached as I have said at a Commission meeting. The Fire Board needs to have a workshop to better understand the requirements of the grant if awarded and if the District accepts the grant,” Adams said.

The fire board meets in regular session on Thursday at 4 p.m. at the Veterans Park Community Center. Commissioners are expected to vote on whether the department will hand over its ambulance service to the county so the EMTs/firefighters can be put back on fire trucks dispatched to blazes.

The meeting as always is open to the public.

Millions of dollars in taxes from Lehigh have been paid for the county ambulance service while Lehigh has maintained its own ambulance service since 1980. The vote on handing over the ambulance service to Lee County EMS was put off at the November meeting because Chairman Jeff Berndt was absent. The month before that, Commissioner Julie Barrett was absent, and when the four presesnt commisioners voted, it was a tie vote.

The grant request narrative follows:

Narrative Statement – Introduction

The Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District provides fire protection and Advanced Life Support (ALS) transport services to a defined unincorporated area within Lee County consisting of 143 square miles. Prior to October 1, 2009, the District utilized 112 fire fighters and 18 administrative positions to operate five stations. Operational personnel and most of the administrative personnel have been trained to the BLS/ALS level, hazardous materials operational level, firefighter I and II for structural, mobile and wildland fires, and to provide public education in the prevention of fires. The District is the largest unincorporated special fire district within Lee County, Florida. Mutual Aid is provided regularly to surrounding fire districts, cities and counties for large scale fires in commercial and residential areas, as well as wildland fires. The District is part of the Regional Team for the State of Florida Region 6 USAR and MARC Communications System.

The population noted in the 2002 Census is listed at 38,884, although many residences not accounted for are seasonal. Lehigh Acres is primarily a rural community consisting of mainly residential homes, light industry and commercial properties. However, during the building boom of 2004-2006, the Chamber of Commerce believed that the population increased significantly to approximately 80,000. Homes now occupy a majority of the streets that were once vacant. Because of the plummeting housing market and devaluation of homes, many home owners either walked away from their homes falling into foreclosure or sold their homes via a “short sell”. This has left the estimated population of Lehigh Acres to be approximately 45,000. In addition to this financial impact in lost revenue, Florida lawmakers mandated a roll-back in property taxes, they instituted a constitutional amendment expanding the Homestead Exemption through the election process, and put caps on capital growth. Due to the decreasing revenue, one fire station has been closed and other fire stations and apparatus are browned out on occasion, as well as the laying off of 34 firefighters resulting in decreased levels of services provided to the citizens. In fact, a total of 66 employees were placed on notice in July 2009, for possible layoffs through issuing a business plan to all personnel. The business plan identified personnel and the different phases of layoffs that were to occur due to the decrease in revenue. Nonetheless, the problem the District is facing has many issues and there is no standard, universally accepted model, or methodology for identifying and analyzing the risks that exist in the community or even effectively deploying resources to provide a level of protection that is politically and financially acceptable to the local community due to these tough economic times.

Project Description

As an independent special district under Florida Statutes, the District is requesting this grant to restore funding and increase the current level of staffing in order to attain a more effective level of response and a safer incident scene. The rehiring and retaining initiative would be for 46 firefighters. Of the 46 firefighters, 34 firefighters that had been laid off August 19, 2009, would be rehired and 12 personnel who were previously notified of a possible layoff in the future would be retained. The District’s highest priority for rehiring and retaining these firefighters is to restore compliance with the national standards promulgated by the NFPA 1710. Due to the layoffs the initial Full Alarm Assignment capability of the District has decreased to approximately nine firefighters depending on variables, such as sick time usage, vacation, administrative leave, and incident call volume. Therefore, in order to maintain compliance, the District would institute the minimum four firefighter standard for the first arriving engine (or vehicle capable of initiating suppression activities) that it once had. This increase of staffing levels to four per fire suppression apparatus would improve automatic and/or mutual aid to surrounding fire departments. In addition, if awarded the grant each of the rehired firefighters will undergo an entry-level physical and receive immunizations as outlined and required under NFPA 1582.

As the result of the District being an integrated fire-based ALS transport service, these firefighters would be assigned on a rotational basis thirty-three percent of the time to ALS transport units while still being part of the initial and secondary response to structure and wildland fires. The ALS transport apparatus provides a more productive and safer emergency scene when accompanying fire suppression units and moves the District closer to compliance with the performance objectives included in NFPA 1710, Standard for Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations.

Impact on Daily Operations

During the last two years the District has had a significant decrease in property values. First, 23% in FY 2008 2009; and now 49% in FY 2009 2010. This impact has been a significant and direct hit to the budget. As an independent special taxing district the majority of revenue is received from property taxes. The District also receives a small percentage of revenue from impact fees and ambulance billing. The 49% decrease equated to a $9,957,440 loss in ad-valorem taxes. With a loss that significant, the District was forced to lay off 39 personnel with 34 being Firefighters. The District closed one of five stations, as well as decreased the number of fire-based ALS Ambulances from five to three. Layoffs in Administration included the elimination of public education, life safety management-inspectors, and public information. Staffing levels were reduced to a minimum level of two on engines and ladder trucks with a staffing of two on each ambulance, which is against the recommendation of NFPA 1710. Over the past few years, Lehigh Acres has grown in population significantly and with that, call volume also increased. The layoffs have placed a strain on the firefighters that are left by having to respond to the same number of incidents (7,174 to date) with less personnel and fewer trucks as well as picking up the calls in the area of the closed station. Currently, legislation is attempting to limit the amount property values can increase (approximately five percent per year maximum) removing any chance of a quick recovery in the next few years. Reserves are currently being used to balance the current fiscal year’s budget. Current contract negotiations with the Collective Bargaining Units, management has asked for pay cuts and other concessions from personnel to be able to balance the budget in the future.

In 2006, the District received national attention because of the wild land fires that adversely affected the community with one fire encompassing the loss of 13 homes. At that time, the District had three stations in Lehigh Acres and a minimum manning of 12. Since that time, two new stations, station 104 and 105 were added, in addition to several trucks. A result of the new stations minimum staffing increased to 25. After the addition of the fire stations, fire apparatus and personnel, the District was able to contain wildland fires with only minor damage to homes built without defensible space around them. This is postulated to be directly related to the fact that the District had an adequate amount of fire apparatus in more locations with more personnel to make the responses purposeful. Currently, our minimum manning is 14 with four stations. The District simply does not have the resources to make an adequate response to these calls since the cuts and layoffs.

Another area where the community is adversely affected is the inability to provide or receive adequate mutual aid in Lee County. Although Lehigh Acres had the largest property value decrease in Lee County, other cities such as Cape Coral, Ft. Myers and 16 other fire districts, had decreases, as well and though not quite as severe, had to deal with shortfalls up to and including layoffs in some departments.

Minority recruitment

Prior to the recent reduction in staffing, the District was able to provide 26% percent the operational staff as members of racial and ethnic minority groups and women. As a result the District had more female firefighters and members of racial and ethnic minority groups than any other fire district in the area. However, due to the layoffs, the percentage has been reduced to 14%. The Districts strives to follow current State and Federal guidelines regarding hiring practices.

Discrimination Statement

The District does not discriminate against, or prohibited any member from volunteering as a firefighter to other fire jurisdictions during off-duty hours. Several of the District’s firefighters who were laid off, as well as those firefighters currently working for the District, live in rural communities where they are permitted to volunteer as firefighters. Although there has not been a need for a General Order or a policy concerning discrimination for volunteering, if the grant is awarded the District will insure a policy is developed to cover discrimination against volunteer firefighters.

Financial Need

The District has recently received national attention as one of the communities that has been hit hard with bank foreclosures and unemployment. This has triggered a land-slide in the devaluation of the tax base with a direct impact on firefighter safety. In 2008/2009, property valves dropped 23 percent. In 2009/2010 property values dropped an additional 49 percent. The Lee County Property Appraiser is warning county leaders to expect an additional devaluation for the next budget year. Some of the community leaders are estimating an additional 20 percent devaluation.

Although citizens are aware of this devaluation of property taxes and decline in revenue, they are reluctant to pay the additional taxes needed to fund current firefighter positions and demanding improved levels of service by opening the closed fire station. The District’s budget has been set at the maximum allowable ad valorem tax millage by the Board of Fire Commissioners in an attempt to balance the budget. Nonetheless, the District is currently utilizing $2,297,859 from the reserve funds, designated for natural or manmade disasters, in order to balance the budget and maintain as many firefighter positions as possible. The District will deplete all its reserve funds by 2011 and is in danger of not being able to provide a safe level of service to the community extended response times and reduced staff. The current budget does have funds to maintain these positions.

The District is pursuing other avenues of funding the retention of current position and positions requested within this grant application. The current tax assessment method is being evaluated for a flat assessment in lieu of the primary ad-valorem method of assessment. Recent Bills in the Florida Legislature have prevented fire districts within the State of Florida from creating additional “user” fees that were not already in place at the time of creation of the Law. This has left many departments and districts with limited funding alternatives.

Financial obligation

If the grant is awarded the District intends to use the money to retain 12 firefighters that may be potentially laid off as another anticipated drop in property values is expected. The District anticipates rehiring 34 firefighters with the SAFER Grant to bring the District closer to compliance with the performance objectives included in NFPA 1710. The Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District is currently considering dropping the fire-based ALS transport service to utilize the personnel to better staff fire engines. The District has been providing ALS transport service since 1980 to the citizens of Lehigh Acres. Retaining those employees (potentially 12 more laid off if the estimated 20% drop in value occurs next year) will assure that the District can provide an adequate fire service. Rehiring 34 more employees will enable us to adequately staff the fire-based ALS transport service, as well as have adequate staffing for other fire apparatus and make it possible to achieve the basic response suggested in NFPA 1710.