http://www.news-press.com/article/20110623/NEWS0102/106230416/Bonita-dissects-fire-budget
Bonita Springs Fire District officials spent Wednesday struggling with ways to make up for a $4 million budget shortfall without increasing taxes.
Archive for the ‘3. SPECIAL DISTRICT’ Category
Bonita Fire District $4 million budget shortfall
June 26, 2011Combining Fire and Police Services
June 20, 2011Numerous Michigan communities — including Oak Park, the Grosse Pointes, Huntington Woods, Fraser and Kalamazoo — have combined safety forces. Other municipalities are studying the idea, responding to tight finances and Gov. Rick Snyder’s push for consolidation.
Gov. Rick Scott cut $19.2 million from SW FL budget
May 28, 2011Pension Defined Benefit or Definded Contribution
March 14, 2011http://www.dms.myflorida.com/human_resource_support/retirement/municipal_police_and_fire
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/feb/28/pension-local-government-police-fire-Legislature/
“The place that’s on the hook to make sure (a government) is financially sound is the city,” said Bob Lee, executive director of the Center for Florida Local Government Excellence at Florida State University in Tallahassee. “It’s not the state. It’s not the employees. It’s the cities.”
Local government officials are beginning the process of reforming their pensions systems.
Lehigh Acres Firefighter Union Concessions
February 2, 2011Editor’s Note: The following article was prepared by Terry Dettmar of the IAFF Local 1826 (A Shift) and John R. Wayne, IAFF Local 1826 (B Shift) of local firefighters and presented to members of the Lehigh Acres Fire and Rescue District Board of Commissioners on Jan. 20. (more…)
Fire Districts Need Fiscally Responsible Elected Commissioners
November 17, 2010http://www.news-press.com/article/20101117/OPINION/101116052/Read-today-s-letters-to-the-editor
Bigger not better
by DAVID S. BROWER, Fort Myers Beach
As a fire commissioner-elect for the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District, I read with interest your recent editorial on fire district consolidation.
You state the fire districts are an expensive anachronism.
The same could be said of cities. Why not abolish them and just have the county?
In fact, why not abolish the counties for the state? It is axiomatic the larger the government, the less responsive.
Firefighter Pensions
November 11, 2010http://dms.myflorida.com/human_resource_support/retirement/municipal_police_and_fire
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2010/nov/11/bonita-spring-fire-commissioners-seeking-pension-r/
Taking their cue from the Nov. 2 election results, the Bonita Springs Fire Commission is taking steps to lobby state legislators for state employee pension reform.
Commissioner Ed Fitzgerald, who won the election to keep his seat, said the current pension system is excessive, but the fire district’s hands are tied on how much money taxpayers can be on the hook for providing pensions for firefighters without changes from the state.
Fitzgerald said he is hoping to lobby changes to the entire state employee pension system, not just for Bonita firefighters.
However, using the district’s personnel as an example, he pointed out that current firefighters stand to make 100 percent of their salaries after they retire. Fitzgerald would like to see that pension more in line with private sector pension plans.
In the current system, the fire district is on the hook to make up the difference if the pension’s stocks don’t deliver the promised amount.
FGCU and SF Water Mgmt $1.3 million contract to monitor oysters
November 11, 2010http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2010/nov/10/fgcu-strikes-5-year-deal-continue-monitoring-oyste/
South Florida water managers approved a five-year contract today with Florida Gulf Coast University to continue monitoring oysters in the lower Caloosahatchee River and San Carlos Bay.
Fire chiefs from Bayshore, North Fort Myers Shores and Tice predict more layoffs
November 7, 2010http://www.news-press.com/article/20101107/NEWS0107/11070374/Fire-chiefs-face-tough-calls
Three fire districts in northeast Lee County are weighing staff cuts after voters rejected higher tax rates.
The dire straits are fueling calls for consolidated fire districts. But chiefs say it will be a decade or more before that happens – if it happens at all.
In the meantime, chiefs from Bayshore, North Fort Myers Shores and Tice predict more layoffs, less apparatus and slower response times as sinking property values continue to drag down fire district taxes.
Tice this year has already cut a third of a 34-member force. Chiefs in Bayshore and Fort Myers Shores say they have enough reserves to postpone the deepest cuts for another year or two.
Bayshore Fire District millage cap increase request from 3.5 to 3.75
October 31, 2010http://lowertaxesnow4lee.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/nfm-fire-district-balances-budget-without-tax-rate-increase/
By ANDREA GALABINSKI, October 26, 2010
On the Nov. 2 ballot, the Bayshore Fire District will ask citizens in that district to approve a millage cap increase from 3.5 to 3.75 mills to help the district maintain its level of service.
