2020-01-21 News ArticlesJanuary 24, 2020 Lake Okeechobee News 3
Fire captain
BY Cathy Womble
Lake Okeechobee News
OKEECHOBEE — A plan was proposed
at the Okeechobee City Council meeting
Tuesday, Jan. 21, to save the city fire depart-
ment.
Capt. Lalo Rodriguez, a city fire de-
partment employee, introduced his plan
as an alternative to what the council has
been discussing, which they have been
calling a merger of the city and county fire
departments. He said he understood the
city wants to lower the millage rate and he
believes with this plan they can accomplish
that without dissolving the fire department.
He used a slide show to illustrate his idea.
He explained the city fire department
staff consists of one chief, one adminis-
trative secretary and I I firefighters, with
combined service experience of 147 years.
Seven of those 13 employees have worked
for the city of Okeechobee for 10 years or
more.
He said at the last meeting of the
Okeechobee county commissioners, their
estimate to contract to handle city's fire
services came in at $697,000, but he added,
there were still some numbers they needed
to get clear with the administrators. The
county's option to take over fire protection
within the city limits would add six medics
and a fire engine to the county department,
he said.
Future costs unpredictable
Capt. Rodriguez gave the council two
examples of other entities that went into
contracts with the county and ended up
with much higher rates in a few years.
He said when the city contracted with the
county for animal control services, animal
control had an increase of 119.71 % in I 1
years. "This is what could happen with the
contract for fire services," he said. He also
spoke to Bob Jones, who is the former EMS
director and present administrator in Glades
County and asked him for information on
the rates they have been paying to cover
Buckhead Ridge. He reportedly said when
he first signed a contract with Okeechobee
County in 2017, it was $90,000. Now, it is al-
most $130,000. That is a 33% increase, said
Capt. Rodriguez. Now, Glades County is
building their own fire service and manning
their own station, putting a team together.
Mr. Jones suggested once the city gets all
their personnel through paramedic training,
they get their engine AIS certified and stick-
er it. Mr. Jones is willing to help them get
started so they can do their own transports
in the city, said Capt. Rodriguez. He has
done grants to get funding for his depart-
ment and is willing to help the city fire de-
partment by writing the grants for them. He
is also willing to loan them two med units
and Lifepaks to get them started. Once they
receive their own equipment, they could
give Mr. Jones back his equipment.
With the help of Mr. Jones, Capt. Rodri-
guez came up with what they believe is an
accurate estimate of a budget of $1,360,000
if they were to begin operating as an ALS
certified department and do their own
transports.
Next, Capt. Rodriguez outlined his
U
fire department
moomm
Special to the Lake Okeechobee News
Josh Sanders Is one of the firefighters waiting to learn whether he will keep his
job with the ctty.
plan to pay for his own budget so that the
council could lower their millage rate. First,
he said, they would collect an EMS tax from
city residents. The county already collects
these assessments. The city would just
begin collecting them Instead. This would
amount to approximately $344,000, he
said. Second would be transportation costs.
Based on both county experience and
average medical call volume of 1,200 calls
per year at $400 per call, it would come to
about $480,000. Finally, they would do a fire
assessment. Based on the county's current
rate of $108 per residence, this would add
another $460,000. This brings the total
funding of the budget to $1,284,000. That
would leave the city to fund only $76,000 of
the fire department's services, he explained,
which would allow them to lower the
millage rate. This also does not account for
the possibility of grant funding, which he is
confident they will be able to obtain.
"We are here as a fire department to
protect our citizens, their property and
them. l feel if we are not here, the city citi-
zens are going to be the ones who suffer."
Mayor Dowling Watford thanked him for
the presentation and suggested the council
take some time to think about what he
suggested before making any decisions.
Councilman Wes Abney said it was a
lot of information. "I want to do the math
and check it all myself," he said. "I appre-
ciate you looking and coming up with this
optional idea."
Councilman Bobby Keefe said, "There's
a lot of information, numbers, dollar
amounts, that we've been going through
for the past few months regarding this.
Now, you throw even more at us. Great
presentation. Thank you for all the informa-
tion. In our discussion I shared with you,
numbers and data are presented to reflect
what you want your recipient to see, and I
don't know what 1 don't know. Discussing
these numbers here with you might be
legitimate and look current, but maybe they
are missing some things. I just don't know."
Mayor refuses motion
Immediately after Capt. Rodriguez sat
down, Councilman Keefe said he spoke
with Chief Ralph Franklin from the county
fire department earlier and he alluded to
still waiting for an official request for a con-
tract or merger or whatever. Mayor Watford
said he thought they had already made
it clear. Councilman Keefe said, "In the
essence of being clear and concise. I would
like to make motion that we..." Here he
was interrupted by the mayor who said
a motion was not in order because there
was no item on the agenda to discuss that.
Councilman Keefe said because they were
still discussing the fire department contract
option, he felt it was on the agenda already.
"I would like to make a motion that we
contract with the county for fire services
in the city so that we can begin actual
negotiations instead of just fact-finding,"
said Councilman Keefe. Councilman Jarriel
immediately seconded the motion, but
Mayor Watford shouted, "NO, we're not ...
the chair's not accepting that motion!"
He went on to suggest to Councilman
Keefe that he put it on the agenda for the
next meeting. "A motion is not in order at
this time," he said.
Attorney agrees with mayor
"A motion is never out of order," said
Councilman Bob Jarriel. After a heated
back and forth, the matter was turned over
to the city attorney, John Fumero, who said,
"if there is a vote to direct the city admin-
istrator to do additional fact finding and
bring issues and information to you, I don't
see there being an issue. If the nature is to
make substantive decisions, then I would
respectfully suggest we place an item for
the next meeting agenda." After Mr. FLme-
ro's advice, there was more discussion by
some of the council members. Councilman
Jarriel said he was fired of kicking this can
down the road. "We are asking to vote to
instruct our administrator to bring back a
contract. We are not trying to vote on the
contract."
Mayor Watford again asked Council-
man Keefe to wait and put his request on
the agenda during the council comment
portion of the meeting. "1'm not here to
make enemies," said Councilman Keefe. "I
thought we were still under new business,
section six, letter E — Discuss City Fire De-
partment contract option — Fire Captain."
They once again decided to ask the opinion
of the attorney, who said he saw nothing
wrong with them requesting fact finding,
but he felt they should not request a con-
tract without putting it on the agenda.
Councilman Keefe replied, "Agreed, Mr.
Attorney, would you then give me the exact
wording of that agenda item? Would it not
be'Discuss City Fire Department contract
option?' What would the appropriate word-
ing be for a future meeting?" Mr. Fumero
attempted to explain there was more than
one contract option, and the one discussed
at the meeting was the one on the agenda.
City Fire Chief Herb Smith asked if they
planned to give Capt. Rodriguez's pro-
posal any consideration at all, because it
appeared to him that they planned to go
ahead with their plans with the county and
they were not showing much interest in his
presentation at all, with the exception of
Councilwoman Monica Clark. He was told
no decisions had been made, and they just
wanted to look at a contract and make an
informed decision.
Fire chief urges council
to consider all alternatives
"I appreciate that," Chief Smith said.
"But, at this point, l just don't want it
rushed. This is very important, so please
make sure you have all your facts. if you
have no intention, I'm kind of confused.
Monica is the only one who has realty said
—well, Wes kind of alluded to it as well —
about the other alternatives. But you two:
Are you not even going to consider other
alternatives?"
Councilman Jarriel assured him they had
not made a decision yet and were waiting
for the facts. "Hopefully Marcos (Montes
De Oca) and Robbie (Charder) come back
with a contract next week. That would be
great. We don't have to vote for it. Every-
body's just getting too upset over it. Let's
discuss it," he said.
During the council comments portion
of the meeting, Councilwoman Clark asked
Administrator Montes De Oca to verify all
the information in the presentation given by
Capt. Rodriguez and have it ready within 30
days. Councilman Abney said he would like
that information as well.
Councilman Keefe requested they put
making a contract with the county on the
agenda for the next meeting.
Councilman Jarriel said, "I'm disgusted
we keep kicking this can down the road.
How long are we going to keep putting this
off? We came here trying to do something
for the city, and this is disgusting. I'm get-
ting fed up with it. If they can put a contract
'
together we can agree on, we'll sign it. If
we don't want it, we'll vote it down. I'm
totally against this garbage. I'm getting tired
of reading it in the paper and hearing it on
the radio."
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