By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(April 4, 2019) While the Town Council looked at a general fund budget proposal 18 percent lower than the current year’s spending, Berlin Fire Company and EMS officials on the same evening asked for a significant funding increase.

Several town officials also questioned some of the fire company’s accounting practices.

The Town Council a year ago approved a $605,000 contract for services for fire and EMS, representing a large increase over previous years. From 2015-2017, the average annual funding was $400,000.

This year, however, fire and EMS officials are requesting $909,000 in total funding, which includes capital requests for several new vehicles.

Fire Company President David Fitzgerald said the total EMS budget was just over $1.5 million, with the town’s share being just about $443,000. County grants and fundraisers also support fire and EMS budgets.

Fitzgerald said that did not include a $116,000 capital request for a replacement ambulance.

According to Fitzgerald, about 58 percent of EMS calls were within corporate limits, but only 29.5 percent of revenue comes from the town.

He suggested the town allocate 10 cents from its property tax collections each year to fund emergency services.

Fitzgerald also said the town could use a portion of its casino revenues for fire and EMS, as it would be for the allowed use of “public safety.”

The town had earmarked casino funds to pay back the cost of its new police station, but Fitzgerald said it would be better to spread out that repayment period to 12 years instead of the current eight-year goal.

The fire company request totaled $250,000, plus an additional $100,000 capital request to fund a replacement vehicle schedule. Fire Chief Jim Corron said new rescue trucks cost about $1 million.

“We obviously can’t afford that any time soon,” he said. “We’re making the best of what we are … with upgrading older pieces of equipment.”

“Major building repairs” listed in the budget were because of renovations to Station 1 on Main Street, which would include replacing the original paneling in the 1965 building and bringing at least one bathroom up to ADA compliance, Fitzgerald said.

He said $40,000 for office supplies were for new computers, as well as for hardware and extra modules required for safety upgrades required by the county. Fire prevention also had a big jump, Fitzgerald said, because the company wants to increase its presence at Head Start programs and in local schools, and to provide more life-saving education classes.

Fitzgerald said about 46 percent of fire calls during the last calendar year were in Town of Berlin limits. He did not comment on the funding breakdown between the town and county.

Fitzgerald suggested earmarking 6 cents of Berlin property tax collections to fund the fire company in the future.

Mayor Gee Williams said the request had much more detail than those of earlier years and overall praised the presentation.

Others on the council, meanwhile, questioned some of the accounting methods.

Councilman Dean Burrell said he recalled previously seeing a “cash on hand or cash reserves” line item for fire and EMS. Fitzgerald said he did not print that page.

“If I said in the neighborhood of $2 million, would I be off very much?” Burrell asked.

“For the fire company, yes, but not for [EMS],” Fitzgerald said, adding those two funds could not be “co-mingled.”

“I’ve been with the fire company 31 years, since 1988, and they’ve always kept the fire and EMS money separate,” he said. “They may do transfers … but we stopped that several years ago.”

Councilman Troy Purnell argued there was nothing keeping fire reserves from being used for emergency services. He also said fire and EMS would do well to finance larger projects, rather than largely work on a cash accounting basis.

“As long as we have a way to pay it back,” Fitzgerald said.

Purnell then said it was unclear how the fire company planned to pay for the new Station 3 on Route 50, near Stephen Decatur High School, because there was no balance sheet for that. He did reference a Berlin Fire Company statement of cash flow from the prior year.

“I see $1.4 [million] in unrestricted cash and you’ve got $660,000 in restricted cash … it shows you’ve got $2,072,000 in the bank,” Purnell said.

Fitzgerald said the fire company raised funds and had several large donations to pay for the building, and had borrowed “up to $800,000” to cover the remaining cost.

He added the fire company made a commitment not to use town funds for the building, which is currently outside of town limits.

Berlin Finance Director Natalie Saleh said she did not get a printout of the EMS budget, but also had a few questions. She said a previous financial document showed that health care for retirees was a new line item, for $134,000 for two people.

“Do you have that anywhere in the budget going forward, and how many people are eligible to participate?” she asked.

Fitzgerald said that was a restricted fund that had already been designated.

“Whatever they do in an accounting world to show that it was restricted, that’s beyond my accounting expertise,” Fitzgerald said.

“Is it in your budget?” Saleh asked.

“It doesn’t have to be in the budget. It’s already been designated,” Fitzgerald said.

“The money’s gotta come from somewhere, David,” Purnell said.

Saleh agreed.

“When you pay the expense, if somebody decides to draw that benefit today, you would have to record the expense. And if you’re recording the expense today, you have to plan that for fiscal 20-21, because it’s a minimum 10-year plan, per person,” she said.

Saleh also questioned the spending plan for the new Station 3, noting there was $100,000 debt cost budgeted. She asked, if the life expectancy of the building was anywhere from 30-100 years, why were they paying it off in eight?

Fitzgerald said the company planned to repay the building loan “very aggressively.”

“We’re planning to budget $100,000 a year toward that building,” he said. “We don’t know exactly where that loan is going to be … we’re getting donations every day. We just got another large grant and another large commitment for July, that’s why I keep reiterating it’s an $800,000 line of credit, because that number keeps going down every month we get a donation or a large pledge.”

Following the meeting, Purnell explained his rationale for questioning fire company officials.

He said a June 30 report from accounting firm PKS & Company showed the fire company had $2.2 million in the bank. Purnell suggested some of that be used for operations, rather than spending so much cash to pay off a new building so quickly.

“They need to borrow more than that to go ahead and spread this out, and it eases the pain of all the taxpayers and the town,” Purnell said. “I’ve suggested it before. I’m going to keep suggesting it.”