Here are several articles that, in detail, outline
the discussions that took place at the end of 2001 and for most of the year of
2002 up to now on the finances of the Emergency Services Agency. The articles
begin in November, 2001, and are in chronological order until
ESA BOARD LOOKS AT 2002
BUDGET
The board governing the Emergency Services Agency
met
--The operations budget for 2002 presented by the Executive Director totaled $5,166,812 in expenses and $5,178,816 in anticipated revenues. Smith also said the total expected expenses that would be incurred by the ESA by the end 2001 would be $4,856,041 and the revenue would be $4,868,465. Those revenues included all property taxes, fees and charges paid. One of the departments with the largest budget is fire suppression; its operating expenses were set for 2002 at $2,177,358, while the estimated expenses for 2001 will be $2,084,628. For the volunteer fire departments, 2002 expenses are budgeted at $222,410 and 2001 expenses are expected to be $254,671. Purchases and contracted services are budgeted in 2002 at $520,492 and expected to be $535,277 in 2001. Supplies are budgeted in 2002 at $268,203 and are expected to be $297,138 in 2001.
--Debt service on the interest towards operating funds and pre-sales tax obligations are budgeted for 2002 at $126,411 and expected to be $126,086 in 2001. After the meeting, the Executive Director said he expected the debt service in 2002 on SPLOST-financed equipment to be about $698,421; that includes 7 new fire-pumpers, the new ladder truck and new ambulances.
--Personnel Services, which includes salaries for
the ESA, is budgeted at $4,230,347 in 2002 and is expected to be $3,870,617 in
2001. Smith told the board the salaries included average raises of 5% for employees
based on merit. Smith said some employees had not had raises in 14 months.
Smith also pointed out that the budgeted salaries were for employees currently
on duty. Additional firefighting personnel that are needed were not included in
the budget. He said Fire Suppression were currently at least 6 personnel short
of what was recommended under national standards; those standards call for four
personnel to roll-out with each fire truck dispatched, while the ESA currently
rolls out with less. Smith said as each of the three outlying fire stations are
completed, each needed at least 18 personnel to staff with two firefighters on
a 7-day a week, 24-hour basis. Smith said once those outlying facilities are
completed, they would be staffed with firefighters already in service, but it
will take at least 6-months lead time to train the firefighters that would
replace those personnel sent from the
--Smith told the ESA board that there were several areas that needed attention for future funding. The ambulance service needed to replace two trucks that were in very bad shape; in the past year the ESA had bought two new units. Smith said fees that go to E-911 – including the per-phone line charge on customer bills – are about $400,000 short of meeting the actual expenses of E-911. Smith said the county commission was the only entity legally allowed to impose additional fees for each phone line. He said he would be coming to the county commission in the future to ask for new fees to provide a way for individual cell-phone users to be located when they call 911.
The Emergency Services Agency board
of directors met
--The board went into an executive
session to discuss what the chairman, Ricky Smith, called personnel issues.
After the executive session, the board took action on authorizing the hiring of
the extra personnel in the 2002 budget, the purchase of the ambulances and the
amount of the merit pay raises. After the meeting was over, ESA Director Jack
Smith said during the executive session the board did discuss a specific
employee’s personnel record and discussed making progress on finding a site for
a new Ochlocknee fire station to be manned 24-hours a day.
--The ESA board adopted a budget
for 2002 that was virtually the same as the $5.2 million budget reviewed the
week before. The budget was only for the operations of the ESA; spending by the
agency for new capital equipment will be adopted later under a Special Purpose
Local Option Sales Tax budget. However,
the board did authorize the immediate purchase under SPLOST funding one new
ambulance and also the purchase of another new ambulance after the first of
2002. Chairman Smith said the ambulances were bought after
--Over thirty firefighters and
--The three
--After the meeting, Chairman Ricky
Smith said the ESA board decided to create nine new positions in the ESA, but
which department would get how many positions would be decided later. Smith
said, “We definitely hope that within the next six months or a year we can
revisit this and hopefully hire three or four more people.” He said salary
increases were lowered from a proposed 5% merit based increase to a 3% merit
increase, “We will probably come back in six months and revisit this percentage
as far as the salaries are increased and see if we could do a little better. We
sure hope we can but that’s to be seen.” Smith said, “We don’t know as far as
the tax dollars how they will come in. Right now the economy is in real bad
shape but we also realize the ambulance service, the E-911, the firefighters
are protections we want to keep going for the citizens of
--
The Thomas County Board of
Commissioners voted to approve all budget resolutions for 2002 during a meeting
--Commissioners voted to approve
budget resolutions for 2002. Included in the vote was the budget for the
Emergency Services Agency of revenues of $5,178,816.36 and expenditures of
$5,036,004.53. In that budget, the ESA created nine new positions but lower
proposed merit raises for employees from 5% to 3%. The
commission has to officially adopt the millage required to fund the budget from
the three fire districts in the county. The budget is only for the
operations of the ESA; spending by the agency for new capital equipment will be
adopted later under a Special Purpose Local
Option Sales Tax budget. The ESA budget was presented to the county
commission by ESA Executive Director Jack Smith. During discussions with Smith,
County Commissioner Elaine Mays said she thought the budget for training may be
“too high” compared with other training budgets for specialized personnel in
other county departments. Smith said there were several factors that made
training for firefighters and
--The commission reviewed the appointments to the
various advisory boards of the county commission. There are some that have
members with terms that expire at the end of 2001. On the suggestion of
Commissioner Moses Gross, the board decided to advertise the openings on the
various boards. The commission will consider the appointments after the first
of 2002. The only exception will be for the board governing the Emergency
Services Agency. That board has two members appointed by the county commission
and two members the
The Emergency Services Agency board
of directors met
--E-911 Director Ann Powell told the ESA board that when the new 911 dispatch center was completed in the downtown fire station next to the Thomasville City Hall, the dispatch center would be at least capable of using new technology to locate cellular telephone calls within a five mile radius of the user, but most likely within several hundred feet of where the calls were being made. Powell said there was every indication that there would soon be federal mandates that the cell-phone 911 locator system be required in every state. She said to implement the technology, the cellular telephone companies had to be paid for the use of their user databases and equipment. The funding for those payments could come from fees authorized by the state of 28-cents to 30-cents per cell-phone. The Executive Director of the ESA, Jack Smith, said the Thomas County Board of Commissioners was the agency-of-record for 911 and had to authorize the imposition of those fees; the fees could begin 18 months before the system was actually in place. Smith asked the county commission members present at the meeting what the best way was for the ESA to get the commission to approve the fees. Mays said the best way was to appear before the commission in person and make the case for the locator system. Smith said he would go to the commission at their second meeting in January to ask for the fees.
--The ESA board voted to buy two new 2002 model ambulances at $70,350 each, one before the end of the year under the 2001 budget and one just after the first of the year under the 2002 budget. The board was told the ambulances would be the same price and from the same company as two other ambulances bought early in 2001.
--New fees were discussed that the
--The status of new fire stations
were discussed. Smith said staff was still looking for a location for the
Ochlocknee fire station, the county public works department had requested plans
for the
--Board members discussed the end
of the year financial report as of
--Cash, accounts receivable and prepaid expenses total $2,717,539.01. Net fixed assets are $4,512,955.56. The total assets are $7,230,494.57. Liabilities include accounts payable, $71,872.75; due to the City of Thomasville, $150,000; notes to Bank of Thomas County (the president of the Bank of Thomas County is the citizen member of the ESA board, Ervin Brock), $3,000,000; notes to the City of Thomasville, $23,798.25; notes to Commercial Bank, $51,332.88; notes to Bank One Leasing (for fire truck financing) $1,242,109.31; a note to Commercial Bank for financing the new ladder truck, $710,000; accrued interest payable, $132,715.78; accrued bank leave, $23,342.81; for a total of $5,405,171.78. The fund balance is $1,825,322.70. That makes a total of liabilities and fund balance of $7,230,494.57.
--In the income statement for the
ESA, under revenue, the total year-to-date (YTD) is $5,837,643.23. The budget
for 2001 for income was $4,530,981.53. Included in the revenue was tax
collections YTD from Fire Zone 1 of $1,945,628.23 (budgeted for 2001 was
$1,930,941.22), Fire Zone 2 of $313,570.84 (budgeted for 2001 was $353,
456.76), and Fire Zone 3 of $609,158.84 (budgeted for 2001 was ($661,626.98).
E-911 revenue was YTD $291,826.72,
--In the income statement for the ESA under expenditures the total YTD was $5,004,408.13; the 2001 budgeted expenditures was $4,524,474,17. Included in the expenditures were YTD for personnel services, $3,945,891.74; for purchased/contracted services $520,741.15; supplies $290,015.89; capital outlays $3,648; other costs $23,449.98; debt service $220,661.37.
CHANGES IN ESA PERSONNEL
Jack Smith, the Executive Director of the Emergency Services Agency in
--Previous to being Special Projects Director,
--While
Richard Smith has resigned from the
Emergency Services Agency board of directors and
--At the Tuesday meeting, Commissioner Richard Smith was re-appointed as one of the county’s two representative on the Emergency Services Board to serve a two year term. That action came after Commissioner Mays moved Smith’s name and Commissioner I.L. Mullins immediately seconded it. The vote to approve Smith’s appointment to the ESA board was approved on a unanimous vote.
The Emergency Services Agency board met for a brief
meeting Thursday, January 17, for the first time in 2002. Thomasville City
Council member Earl Williams was elected chairman of the ESA board and County
Commissioner Bobby Brown was elected vice-Chairman. Elected to replace Ervin
Brock as the fifth member of the board was
ESA BOARD HEARS ABOUT 911 CONCERNS
The board governing the Emergency
Services Agency heard about concerns with the 911 dispatching system during a
meeting Thursday, January 31. Thomasville Police Chief David Huckstep outlined
a list of those concerns that he said represented the views of the users of the
911 system in the county. At the meeting with Chief Huckstep and supporting his
views were Sheriff Carlton Powell, several firefighters, including the
Battalion Fire Chiefs, and
--Chief Huckstep said, “If the [new
911] center fails, then all public safety fails.” He said the new building
being built next to the
--Huckstep said the 911 center currently being built here did not have room for expansion, needed a good air quality control system and windows. He said the current facility being built “isn’t good for keeping good people employed.” It needed “proper computers” and communications and control systems even if it was more expensive than buying piecemeal, “The biggest suggestion I have is buying one turnkey operation from one vendor.” The consoles to be put in the new facility “needed to be more than the band-aid system currently in place.” He also said personnel in the field needed “more than the portable radios they currently have”; more powerful radios were needed to communicate from outlying areas of the county. Huckstep said the new center needed reverse-911 (a system that calls phones with automatic emergency notification messages) and needed dispatchers trained in giving emergency medical aid over the phone. Also needed were plans for putting in place a way for locating cell-phone calls to 911. Huckstep said when the new center was built, it needed to have at least five dispatchers on duty, one for answering the telephone, one for handling law enforcement communications, one for handling fire communications, one for medical calls and one for communications with outside agencies including state and national information databases. Huckstep said the current practice of having three dispatchers on duty at a time was “not enough.” After the meeting, city council representative Roy Campbell said the issues Chief Huckstep raised were important but the ESA board were aware of them and were addressing them.
--The ESA board approved a $3 million
line of credit from the Bank of Thomas County after bid openings from several
banks offering interest rates on payback. The winning bid from BTC was a rate
of 2.45%. Other bids were from Suntrust at 2.66%, a floating rate of 68% of
prime from Commercial Bank (currently 3.23%) and a ceiling of 4.02%, and from
Thomasville National Bank a floating rate of 68% of prime or an option of
3.20%. Attending her first meeting as the fifth member of the board was Ann
McCrickard of
The Emergency Services Agency board
met Thursday, February 21, and discussed addressing in the city of
The Thomas County Emergency
Services Agency has decided to place the construction of a new volunteer fire
station for
--Executive Director Jack Smith
told board members that the
--Smith and fire staff told the board that new firefighters were in training and seemed to be all high quality personnel. In addition to 18 new volunteers currently undergoing training, Smith said there were 18 volunteers already trained and available to work to supplement positions on the shifts of the full-time firefighters that were open because of sickness, vacations and training. Smith said using volunteers in the career positions would help the department avoid excessive overtime costs. There were also 9 new full-time firefighters close to receiving full certification.
--E-911 Director Anne Powell said there were problems of late with shortages in filling shifts due to sickness and childbirth. Powell also said the 911 staff had worked to bring the over 900 places in Thomas County that had addressing problems down to about 130. She said she expected those few problems would be dealt with shortly. Powell said work is continuing to improve the E-911 system to identify cell-phone locations when they call into the center. There was also progress to develop emergency medical dispatching training for call-takers in the E-911 center.
--The Emergency Medical Service
department told the board that two new ambulances would be in service by next
week as soon as radios were installed. Once in service, the
--After a closed executive session, the ESA board voted to increase Executive director Jack Smith’s salary by $2,000 a year and negotiate a bonus at the end of the year. The board also commended Smith for a job well done.
The Emergency Services Agency
approved a bid to construct the
--The board approved a bid by Vista
Construction Company of
--Smith told the board that the
first county fire station in Coolidge was manned 24/7 as of April 15 and the
only work that needed to be completed was landscaping. Smith said several local
business in Coolidge and
--In an executive session that lasted almost an hour, the board discussed pay issues and potential litigation with its attorney. After the closed session, Smith said the pay issues involved career firefighters who are also volunteer firefighters in their communities. Smith said those issues would continue to be addressed by the board.
--Smith told the board that there were decisions that had to be made soon on technology upgrade options to the E-911 system. The board will meet in a special workshop May 7 to discuss the upgrades.
The Thomas County Emergency Services Agency wants
to spend almost a million dollars for software and equipment for the new E-911
center being built in downtown
--On Monday, May 20, Chairman
Williams said, “No one is considering going up on any property tax to pay for
this,” but he did say “We’ve got to do something in the next thirty days” to
figure out how to pay for the equipment and software. Williams said, “We can’t
do without – it’s a public safety issue.” He said, “We are going to go to the
City Council and
--Among the other expenses the ESA board will also ask the county to meet will be implementation of “Phase One Wireless Identification”; that is designed to allow 911 calls from cell-phones to be located just as 911 calls from land-line phones are located. The board plans to ask the county commission to impose a $1.00 fee per cell-phone and a $1.50 fee per land-line phones to pay for the cell-phone 911 locator system.
ESA VOTES TO BORROW MORE MONEY
The Emergency Services Agency governing board has voted to borrow more money for operating expenses. Also discussed was the status of volunteer fire departments in the county and the status of new fire stations. The board met Thursday, June 27, in a regular session; one of the members, county commissioner Bobby Brown, was not present. Present were the chairman, Thomasville city council member Earl Williams, city council member Roy Campbell, county commissioner Elaine Mays and board member Ann McCrickard.
-- The board voted unanimously
Thursday to borrow $140,700, at 3.91% interest, from Bank of Thomas County to
help meet operating expenses on an interim basis, until board members can
devise other revenue sources during a workshop. The ESA took a $3 million line
of credit in January from the Bank of Thomas County to meet expenses until
property taxes were collected at the end of the year. According to Executive
Director Jack Smith, “Expenses for the agency are on track with the budget, but
revenue collections are down.” Smith said much of the day-to-day operating
expenses of the agency were run on revenue from
--The buildings being built by the
agency, such as the fire and E-911 station in downtown
--There was some discussion about the equipping and supply for the twelve volunteer fire departments in the county. Volunteer Fire Department Liaison Chris Jones said currently there were about 130 volunteer fire fighters signed on in the county. Jones and Smith said as a general rule each department would be allocated with new equipment for 12 volunteers per department, but some of the departments could have more and some less.
--Smith said fully equipping and maintaining each of the volunteer
departments was an expense that the ESA board had to consider along with other
future expenses. Smith told the board that almost a million dollars was
required to equip the new E-911 center. Smith told the board he needed their
direction and decisions on how expenses would be met and how money would be
raised to adequately fund the operations of the ESA. The board will meet in an
extensive work session July 9 in an effort to reach those decisions.
The governing board of the Thomas
County Emergency Services Agency held a morning long workshop on Tuesday, July
9, in
--Smith said the board looked at the long-range funding options for the agency. He said, “Many different options were discussed, but no decision was made on definite plans for the future. We are diligently looking at other sources of revenue, but not in the area of property taxes.” Smith said the board also looked at personnel issues, especially volunteers in the county. Smith indicated that there might be limits on the number of volunteers in some departments. Smith also said fully equipping all volunteers in a department was discussed. He said the consensus of the board was that “every station will be equipped to the level of actively participating volunteers.” Smith also said he discussed with the board his ideas for the allocation of career firefighters among the stations in the city and the three manned stations in the county to make sure each station had personnel needed to respond to emergencies.
--A full meeting is set for July 22
at
ESA BOARD MEETING APPROVES CREDIT LINE
The Emergency Services Agency
approved an application for an additional line of credit with a local bank to
provide money for operating expenses. The ESA Board also discussed the
possibility of applying for a loan to provide for E-911 equipment. The action
came during a meeting of the ESA Board Tuesday, July 23. The board also a
shortfall in revenue from
--The Executive Director of the ESA, Jack Smith, told the board that a $1.2 million line of credit was needed to provide funds for operating expenses until the end of the year. Smith said the money was needed until property taxes came in for the ESA at the end of the year. Smith also said an about $1 million was needed for the purchase of E-911 equipment. He said local lending institutions were asked to provide separate bids on rates for the line of credit and the loan for the E-911 equipment. Smith asked the Board to approve the bid on a line of credit, but he said he took the bids on the E-911 equipment loans only to provide information to the Board, “We still have discussions to do on possible cell-phone fees and other possible sources of revenue before we take out a loan on this.” Board member Roy Campbell suggested that the line of credit be increased to be able to pay off some $300,000 already borrowed from Bank of Thomas County for operating expenses and the Board approved that increase to $1.5 million. The board approved the lowest bid that came from Thomasville National Bank for the line of credit at 3.2% interest. The bank offered an interest rate of 68% of prime for the E-911 equipment loan. The only other bank that offered bids on the credit line and the equipment loan was Commercial Bank. Smith said Bank of Thomas County said they were satisfied with the loans already made to the ESA; SunTrust and Thomas County Federal did not submit bids.
--The ESA Board approved the write-off
of $48,911.09 in debts to the
--The Board discussed ongoing
problems of addressing in the county. Smith said the developer of a subdivision
in the City of
--The ESA Board approved the
purchase of UHF and VHF radios, pagers, software for
ESA LOOKING AT FUNDING PROBLEMS
The board governing the Emergency
Services Agency met Thursday, August 22, and discussed financing for the
agency. The consensus developed that board members had to seek property tax
rates for the agency at least as much as previous years, an action that would
require public hearings by a reluctant Thomas County Commission. ESA board
members discussed other options for meeting funding needs. Among other issues
discussed, the ESA board also passed on policy limiting non-emergency ambulance
transports to
--ESA Executive Director Jack Smith
explained the situation facing the board in the next several weeks as property
tax millage rates are set. State law requires that if property taxes paid by
citizens are increased, then public hearings by the entity raising the taxes
have to be held explaining the increase. In this case, that would be the
--During discussion of the millage
rates, the Chairman of the county commission, Josh Herring, sat in on the ESA
board meeting. Herring said a county commission Finance Committee meeting
Thursday had recommended that the county’s own millage rates be “rolled back”
to avoid increasing taxes paid by property owners because of increases in
assessments and avoid public hearings. He estimated without the roll-back and
holding millage rates for county government the same as last year would mean an
additional $396,000 in revenue to the county. Herring said the county faced
some serious funding decisions in the future, “We can hold the millage rates to
the roll-back level this year without too much of a problem, but next year the
county faces cutting services or getting more revenue.” Herring indicated that
the commission would have to hold hearings for any proposal by the ESA to hold
millage rates to at least the same rates as last year’s – something Herring did
not say the county commission was anxious to do.
--ESA board member Roy Campbell, a
member of the Thomasville City Council, said during Thursday’s meeting it was “important
to know where the money will come from” to pay for a line of credit negotiated
with Commercial Bank. A representative of the bank told the board members at
their meeting that the bank was willing to make the line of credit “unsecured”
if the Thomasville City Council and the Thomas County Commission back the
credit.
--The ESA board passed a new policy
on the non-emergency ambulance transport of patients. The board said
--The ESA board passed a new policy
limiting the number of volunteers supported by each volunteer organization in
the county to twelve. The previous policy was to accept all comers to volunteer
organizations, with some having over 25 members. ESA officials said with the
cost of equipping a volunteer firefighter at over $3,000, the ESA needed a
limit on the number of volunteers.
--In other issues, the ESA board
heard that the Sunset Volunteer Fire Station was being re-activated. As soon as
that station goes into service, the ESA will ask the Insurance Service
Organization to re-evaluate the ISO fire insurance ratings for the entire
county. The building of the new
The Thomas County Board of
Commissioners postponed setting a tentative 2002 millage rate for property taxpayers
during a meeting Monday night, August 26. Commissioners decided to call a
special meeting next week to set a tentative millage after the Emergency
Services Agency recommends its millage rate. During the meeting Monday,
commissioners did decide to try to put a pay raise “of at least” two to three
percent for county employees into next year’s budget. Commissioners also
postponed approving a line of credit for the ESA.
--The county commission’s agenda
had an item to set the tentative millage for 2002, but commissioners decided to
postpone the action. County Manager Mike Stephenson told commissioners that the
ESA had not submitted its proposed millage rates and he needed those figures to
make a recommendation to the commission. The ESA board advises a millage rate
for the three fire districts in the county, but the county commission sets the
millage. In previous years the county commission has followed the
recommendations of the ESA board, but not without close review. Stephenson told
commissioner he expected the ESA board to call a special meeting this week to
set its millage recommendations.
--
--The Emergency Services Agency
approved an application for a $1.5 million line of credit from Thomasville
National Bank for operating expenses during a meeting July 23. Executive
Director Jack Smith told the ESA board the money was needed until property
taxes came in for the ESA at the end of the year. At that July meeting, Smith
discussed the possibility of applying for a separate line of credit of $1
million to provide for E-911 equipment. On August 22 the ESA board met and
discussed a line of credit negotiated with Commercial Bank for the 911
equipment. A representative of the bank told the ESA board that the bank was
willing to make the line of credit “unsecured” if the Thomasville City Council
and the Thomas County Commission backed the credit.
ESA AND
After a week of meetings in which
the Thomas County Emergency Services Agency governing board and the Thomas
County Board of Commissioners worked to set millage rates for
The board governing the Emergency
Services Agency had recommended that the millage in each of the three fire
districts in the county be increased by one full mill in order to meet a
deficit in operating expenses during an almost three-hour meeting Tuesday
morning, September 3. On Thursday, September 5, the Thomas County Board of
Commissioners set tentative millage rate for the county at a called meeting
that included setting rates for fire districts at less than recommended by the
ESA board. Roy Campbell said Jack Smith handed a letter of resignation as
Executive Director to the chairman of the ESA board, Earl Williams, before the
county commission meeting.
--The ESA board voted Tuesday to
request the county commission raise the millage in Fire District 1, which
essentially comprises the City of
--During the Tuesday meeting, ESA Executive Director Jack Smith said that starting in 1999, and every year since, the average amount of operating expenses was $4.73 million per year. However, known and anticipated revenue for 2002 will be about $1.83 million and has been about $340,000 less than that for previous years, leaving an accumulated operating deficit, so far this year, of $3.376 million. Smith said the problem was not an increase in budgeted operating expenses; he said the budget for 2002 was on track. However, Smith said collection of revenues were substantially down. Smith also said the capital construction of the ESA with new buildings and the acquisition of new equipment was paid for with the SPLOST voted on by citizens and there was no deficits in that budget.
--The vote by the ESA board on the millage recommendation was not unanimous. ESA board member and County Commissioner Bobby Brown voted no on the increase. He said after the meeting that he felt the increase was too much and that instead there were places in the ESA budget that expenses could be cut. The rest of the ESA board voted to raise the millage: Thomasville City Council member Roy Campbell made the motion to make the recommended millage raises and voted yes; Ann McCrickard the ESA board member from Boston seconded Campbell’s motion and vote yes; County Commissioner Elaine Mays voted yes; and City Council member Earl Williams voted yes.
-- All but two members of the
--On Thursday, September 5, the
Thomas County Commission set the fire district millage rates for 2002 at what
is termed the “rollback” levels, citing concerns about deficits of revenue over
expenses. Commissioners acknowledged that meant that revenue deficits for the
ESA would likely continue to build and that millage rates in 2003 would likely
have to be set at more than proposed for this year, but as Commissioner Mary Jo
Beverly said, “This is just to take a breath and see where we are.” During the
commission meeting, ESA board member Roy Campbell told the county board, “When
originally started, we based the millage too low.”
--County commissioners voted unanimously, including the two county members of the ESA board, to set the millage rates for Fire District 1 at 3.87 mills, for Fire District 2 at 2.868 mills and for Fire District 3 at 1.725 mills. These are the rates that allow for the same amount of revenue to be raised from the districts, but allowing for increases in property tax assessments. The rates set for 2001 were 4 mills for Fire District 1, 3 mills for Fire District 2 and 2 mills for Fire District 3. The ESA’s board had asked that the 2002 millage be set at 5 mills for Fire District 1, 4 mills for Fire District 2 and 3 mills for Fire District 3.
--County commissioners, including
the two on the ESA board, said they were surprised at the deficit at the ESA
and concerned. Chairman Josh Herring said with the news of the deficits at the
ESA, “The board has real concerns about tax increases.” He said, “We can’t
raise taxes if we’re going to be in debt. We need time to find out why it
happened and what we’re going to do about it.” Herring told the numerous fire,
--The motion to set the ESA’s
millage at the rollback level was made by Commissioner Beverly. Herring
seconded the motion.
--County commissioners also set a
tentative general government millage for 2002 at 6.543 mills for incorporated
areas of the county and 5.3 mills for unincorporated areas of the county. That
is not quite the rollback rate that would prevent a tax increase in the
unincorporated areas – that rate would have been 4.921 mills – but slightly
lower than the rollback rate for incorporated areas, 6.981 mills. Chairman
Herring said changes in state law calculating the insurance premium rebate
meant that the county would not get enough back from the rebate to allow the
commission to set a full rollback rate. The millage for 2001 was 7.17 mills for
incorporated areas and 5.68 for unincorporated areas. Because of the increase
in millage, the commission has to have three public hearings for citizen
comment. Those hearings are set for
--There were indications that county commissioners had at least an idea that the ESA was dealing with deficits before the ESA meeting on September 3. County Manager Mike Stephenson provided an outline for exerting more control over the ESA in a memo dated August 30 and sent to commissioners. The memo suggested ways to reign in spending by the ESA, “given the recent discovery of serious financial troubles” at the agency. In the memo, Stephenson said, “If Emergency Services is not willing to accept these conditions, then I recommend you keep their millage rate at the roll-back level and deny approval of loans.” The conditions Stephenson suggested to the commission include having the ESA provide detailed shift schedules for EMS, fire and 911 departments; no new positions created in the ESA without prior approval of the county commission; no ESA purchases of $5,000 or more without prior approval of the county commission; no pay increases of any kind implemented without prior approval of the county commission; ESA providing to the commission a listing of all employees with job titles and pay scales; the designation of interim department heads for the Fire Department and EMS until permanent appointments are made (currently the Fire Department and EMS are run on a day-to-day basis by shift supervisors and the Executive Director is the department head for each); annual budgets for the ESA departments submitted under the same format as county departments; ESA accounts will be reported using a “governmental fund method” like county departments instead of “enterprise fund methods”; SPLOST finances will be kept separate from normal operations and separate financial statements issued once a month; the Executive Director will submit an operations report in person once a month to the county commission.
--After a city council workshop meeting Wednesday, September 4, Thomasville Mayor Rick Singletary talked about the ESA’s recommendations on millage and the county commission’s possible response. He said, “The city and county have appointed two members to represent citizens on the ESA board. All four are very capable and have done a good job over the years and they should be given the chance to make their case for an increase in the millage.” The Mayor said the county commission faced a choice to “cut service or levy taxes I assume.” He said, “The timing is very bad here. With some of the county commissioners up for re-election this year, it has to have an effect on the thinking of some of them.” Asked if he thought there was a chance the ESA would be broken up, Singletary said, “It’s only speculation that there will be any breakup.” Asked about the memo from Stephenson to the commissioners about conditions for any acceptance of an increase in millage, Singletary said, “It looks like a business plan for the county to take over everything.”
--The city and county created the
ESA in 1999 with local legislation from the General Assembly to provide
consolidated fire, emergency medical service, 911 dispatching and emergency
management for the entire county by combining former city and county emergency
services under a unified structure. The ESA is governed by a board with two
members from the city council, two members from the county commission and one
member from the public. The ESA is funded by property taxes in the three fire
districts. The county commission is the only entity legally able to impose the
property tax, but an agreement with the city calls for the commission to pass
on the millage recommendations of the ESA board. The ESA has taken out loans
from financial institutions in anticipation of revenue from future property taxes.
The most recent loan – in the form of a line of credit – has been offered by a
bank on an unsecured basis if the city and county would guarantee the loans,
which they have not done yet. In 2000 the citizens of
ESA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RESIGNS; ESA BOARD MEETS BUT
POSTPONES ACTION
The Board governing the Emergency
Services Agency met starting at
--The ESA board voted to establish
committees of board members to “oversee” operations of the ESA: Fire,
--Before the ESA board went into
closed session, Mays said, “I hate to decide to split up fire ,
--Several of the board members were asked about the status of the ESA after the meeting. Earl Williams, the chairman of the ESA board, said, “We have decided to meet in a joint city-county meeting at the court house to discuss the future of this. In the meantime, the chairman, which is myself, will be on a day-to-day basis up here, making sure everything goes smoothly. If I need some other board member, I’ll call them up to help.”
--Roy Campbell was asked about the future of the ESA. He said, “The city council is fully committed to support this anyway that we have to. But I can’t speak for the county.”
--Josh Herring, the chairman of the county commission, was asked what the status of the ESA is going to be and he said, “I’ll tell you more after the meeting of the city and county workshop on Monday.” Herring said, “The main thing we did today was how to meet payroll, who’s name to put on certain documents. But after the city and county meet to figure the direction we’re going, then we’ll know more. Right now, the main thing we’re after is taking care of our employees, making sure payroll is out on time and keep the services going to the people.” Asked if the ESA has a future as it has been constituted, Herring said, “The city and county started the agency together. The city and county will meet next Monday and try to make a decision on which direction were going with it.”
--Also asked after the meeting if
the ESA will continue as an organization as it has been for the past years,
Elaine Mays said, “I think on Monday when the Board of Commissioners and the
city of
Thomas County Commissioners proposed a 3-2 county majority on the ESA board during a joint city-county workshop on Monday, September 16. Commissioners said it was in order to control the ESA’s finances. Commission Chairman Josh Herring said during the meeting, “If the county commission is responsible for taxation, then we need a majority.” Herring told the meeting that the commission felt that “in the past decisions were made that were not good. If a majority of the ESA board was made up of county commissioners, then maybe we won’t have the problems we’ve have been having.”
--At the meeting Herring said commissioners were
calling for an assessment team of outside professionals to study the service
delivery of the fire, ambulance and 911 departments of the ESA. The chairman
also proposed during the meeting that if the City of
--The joint workshop met in response to concerns about the indebtedness of the ESA as county commissioners are setting the 2002 millage rate. The commission held two public hearings Monday on the millage rate, including the millage for the three fire districts that fund the ESA, and will have another hearing on September 24 before setting the final millage rate. Commissioners say they will set the fire district rates at a level that will bring in the same amount of revenue as last year instead of the full mill increase called for by the ESA board at a meeting in August. It was news of the ESA’s debt, variously described as $1.8 million to up to $5 million, that caused the county commission to call for changes to the ESA that would have the county control its finances. Currently, the ESA governing board has two representatives from the county commission, two from the Thomasville City Council and one representative from the public chosen by the ESA board. The commission proposed Monday that the county’s representation be increased from two to three members.
--Chairman Herring said during the September 16 workshop that the county was not alleging any malfeasance or misappropriation of funds, just “mismanagement.” The commissioners felt that problems with the ESA would be alleviated with control by the county. “Money is the problem,” according to Herring, “and the county feels that they need more say-so in the management of the ESA. If the county levies the tax, then we want to have a say in how the money is spent.” Herring said, “The county commission wants to be sure we get the services we pay for.” He said the current delivery of fire, ambulance and dispatching services were working, “but accountability is not working.” Herring proposed that if the city would levy property taxes in the city to fund the ESA’s city services, then the county commission could raise taxes in the rest of the county; then the ESA’s board could remain as currently constituted. Herring proposed the city and county “pro-rate” the taxes, but said he could not define how that would happen, “That’s something that would have to be worked out with the city.” Elaine Mays, county commissioner and a member of the ESA board, said, “There has been a problem and the kindest thing we can say is that it is a management problem. There has not been any misappropriation but there has been a management problem.” Mays said ESA department heads had not seen or worked with a budget. She said the county and city could take the proposals by the county to change the structure of the ESA “and work with this.” Mays also said it looked like ultimately, “it looks like we’re going to have to come up on millage or borrow more money.” Mays said employees of the ESA needed to be reassured that “their jobs need to continue – tomorrow is just another workday. Disbanding the ESA is not a good idea.” Herring also said that millage rates for the ESA would likely have to be increased next year “maybe two to two-and-a-half mills to get the ESA out of debt,” but the commission did not want to raise millage this year until “we have a handle on what’s going wrong.”
--City council members responded by saying they felt that management was the problem with the current difficulties of the ESA, but that the structure of the ESA did not need to be changed. Earl Williams, city council member and a member of the ESA board, said, “We thought this was the one thing the city and county could do together. Maybe it was a mistake not letting the ESA have taxing power. Everyone wants first class service and that’s what we tried to do. We have the equipment and personnel to do the job. We have to do the job ourselves and it is expensive.” Williams and other council members said they believed the current ESA structure did not need to be changed to deal with the current problems, “We want equal control or no control.” Mayor Rick Singletary and Council Member David Lewis expressed concerns about the county “micromanaging” the ESA. Singletary said if the ESA acceded to the county’s demand for detailed control of operations before a new director is hired, “Then the county would be one-hundred percent in control. What would the ESA do?” Herring said the ESA would be in charge of day-to-day operations, but the county would be in control of the finances and needed to have on-going control. The Mayor said that before the ESA was formed, the city worked to build its fire department to a Class 3 status, “That’s about the best that we can have for a town our size. What guarantee can we have that the city keeps that status?” Council member Camille Payne said both the city and county set up the ESA equally and the city needed to be part of the management of the organization. Payne advocated having the ESA “be responsible for their own business and the county could say yea or nay on the major issues.” Payne said, “I think the ESA could work with the county commission instead of being dictated to. If the ESA had been funded properly, then we wouldn’t be having this problem.” Roy Campbell, city council member and member of the ESA board, said despite the multi-million dollar debt, “The money was well spent. The trouble is in 1998 the property tax coming to the ESA was two-point-seven million dollars and it is still two-point-seven million dollars. We have been underfunded from the beginning.”
--The council members and commissioners acknowledged the need for at least an interim director for the supervision of the ESA on a day-to-day basis, but could not agree on who that would be. It was decided that Roy Campbell and Elaine Mays would continue to spend as much time as needed at the ESA offices running things until a decision could be made on a director.
Thomasville City Council members heard Josh Herring, the chairman of the Thomas County Board of Commissioners, say he was “disappointed” with the city council and was personally inclined to recommend to the county board that the Emergency Services Agency be disbanded. Herring made the remarks towards the end of a two-and-a-half hour city council workshop on Wednesday, September 18. The county chairman said he attended the regularly scheduled city workshop meeting to hear the city’s reaction to proposals made by the commission to control deficit spending by the ESA. What the chairman heard was city council members saying they did not approve of the proposal for the county to have a majority 3-2 membership on the ESA governing board.
--During the city council workshop
Herring, along with County Commissioners Karl Abrams and I.L. Mullins, both
residents of
--Thomas County Manager Mike Stephenson told the city council during the workshop, that, “We need to go ahead and look at raising taxes. The county commission has not talked about breaking up the ESA – that talk has come from the city council. The issue that drives concerns of county commissioners is the increasing of property taxes.” Stephenson wanted to know how the city would prepare citizens for an increase in taxes. He also wanted to know how the county can be guaranteed that they will never be put in a position where they will face a decision to raise millage drastically, “What kind of process will be in place to keep that from happening again.”
--Much of the city council workshop
on September 18 was taken by discussions among the council members about the
ESA issue. Mayor Rick Singletary said at the opening of the meeting, “There is
really only one issue to discuss and that is the county’s request to take over
a majority of the ESA board.” During a joint city-county workshop meeting
Monday, September 16, the county proposed that the ESA governing board have an
additional representative member from the count commission added to make the
membership 3 county members, 2 from the
--City Council member Earl Williams, who is also one of the city members of the ESA board, said, “The agreement with the Governor [setting up the ESA] called for equal participation and we’ll have to go back to legislation [to change the board]. I’m not in favor of a majority by the county on the board.” Speaking about county commissioner’s displeasure at citizens expressing objections to them about tax increases, Williams said, “The county has got to learn how to take the shaking fingers. I want the best - first class - and we are doing it for the people’s own good.”
--The other city council member on
the ESA board is Roy Campbell. He said Wednesday he was not in favor of a 3-2
county majority on the ESA board. He said, “If the county approves a budget,
then the city should approve the budget. We all share responsibility in this.
We have found the whole revenue structure was not set up right. To get the
revenue we need to deal with the deficit, we would have to cut personnel by
twenty-percent and we can’t do that.”
--City Council member David Lewis said he “would like to know how a third county commissioner would change the situation.” He said the city council could agree in principle on a 3-2 county majority on the ESA board, “but then what would they need the city council for.” Lewis said, “The county should take back the 3-2 proposal unless they can submit empirical data that shows the county commission can do the job better. . . The county can feel they can do a better job if they are in charge – we can’t accept it.” He said he was concerned about the current low morale of ESA personnel. Lewis said there had already been one person who lost their job at the ESA, and more people “shouldn’t have to worry about their jobs. Let’s have the county withdraw their 3-2 proposal and we would have the climate calm down. We need to have these personnel focused on doing the best they can on their jobs instead of worrying about if they are going to have their jobs.” Lewis said, “Given the true numbers on the debt, we don’t need change in the structure but we need to do something about the numbers. If the true numbers had been presented, then maybe the manifesto [presented at Monday’s joint meeting] didn’t need to be presented. I think the county will be reasonable – we don’t need a 3-2 majority but deal with the numbers. . . If the county withdrew the 3-2 proposal, then we can go on.” Lewis asked Commission Chairman Herring if the council agreed to all the demands of the county, including the 3-2 county majority, would the county commission still have to pass property taxes to pay the ESA debt. Herring responded by saying taxes would likely have to be raised, “but we need operational control.”
--City Council member Camille Payne
said, “We went into this as a joint endeavor and the primary reason was to
provide better fire protection in outlying areas of the county. We also wanted
to have fire and
--Also at the Wednesday meeting was Scott Sterling, a candidate for County Commission District 7 in the November election. He said he was concerned that “since all this broke, the ESA, city council and the county commission looks bad. When some said they didn’t know, then people said they should have known.” He said, “If the county has the authority to approve the ESA’s budget and millage, then they did not need the 3-2 vote on the ESA board.”
The Thomas County Board of Commissioners did not discuss the Emergency Services Agency during their regular meeting Monday night, September 23, but the Thomasville City Council did discuss the Agency and its future, deciding to send a letter to the county outlining the city’s opposition to calls by the county to control the ESA. The city council met Monday night in a regular meeting at a location separate from the county commission.
--During a workshop before the meeting, council members discussed a letter that will be sent to the county commission outlining the city’s response to a call by the county for various changes in the structure and operations of the ESA. Among those changes called for by the county is adding one more representative from the county on the ESA governing board to make the makeup three members from the county, two from the city and one public member. County commissioners told the city council in meetings last week that the 3-2 board, along with other reforms, would insure that the county would control the operations of the ESA and make sure that what the county has called “financial irregularities” would not happen again. Commissioners have been upset with calls by the ESA board for a full millage increase in property taxes to pay for the ESA and have been concerned with deficits in the ESA’s revenues versus expenses.
--In the letter to be sent to the county commission, the city council calls for the county commission to keep the membership of the ESA board as it is currently constituted – two members from the city council, two from the county commission and one public member. The council also calls for keeping the terms of the ESA board members at two years, not as a limit, but as a way for members to stay on the ESA board to develop continuity. The city council did not propose any new funding structure for the ESA; some county commissioners have said they might be willing to forgo the call or a 3-2 split on the ESA board if the city would fund the ESA with a property tax levied by the city council while the county commission levied property taxes in the rest of the county for funding the ESA. The city council did accept county suggestions that an outside assessment team study the ESA to report to the city and county on their findings and the council said it was a good idea that both the city and county managers be present at all meetings of the ESA board.
The City of
--In the letter from the city
signed by Mayor Rick Singletary, the first paragraph said, “In order to attract
industry, enhance economic development and improve the quality of life in
County Manager Mike Stephenson called local media
to meet at his Friday morning, September 27. There he gave the press an outline
of the debt obligations of the Emergency Services Agency as compiled by the
county’s auditor, Darrell Mills, of Simmons and Simmons. The bottom line was
that the operating debt to carry over to the year 2003 is $2,732,451. The
information handed out by the
--The information provided by the County Manager showed that the estimated total revenue to the ESA (not including SPLOST funds) by the end of 2002 will be $4,306,434; this is short by $872,382 of the revenue budgeted for 2002 of $5,178,816. The handout had an estimated total of expenses of the ESA by the end of 2002 at $4,940,901; this is short by $2,904 of the expenses budgeted for 2002 of $4,937,997. Estimated revenues short of estimated expenses (less principal payments on operating loans of $43,456), or estimated cash shortfall from operations, is $677,923. The outline had property tax revenue for 2002 from the three fire districts using rollback rates estimated at $2,628,657.
--Mills has net loan proceeds to be
taken in 2002 at $1,748,206. The total cash available (minus the cash shortfall
from operations) is listed as $1,070,283. The operating debt on
--As of August 31, 2002, loans to
be paid by property taxes and other revenue, including the lines of credit,
loans secured by two ambulances and loans for three fire trucks, total
$4,084,701. The lines of credit are the only loans that have to be paid by
--Included with the handout on the
numbers outlining the ESA operating debt projections, was a letter from Mills
to Earl Williams, Chairman of the ESA board. The letter said in Mill’s review
of the sales tax expenditures by the ESA, Mills found one noncompliance of
government auditing standards: the ESA used $42,500 of sales tax money for
salaries on
ESA APPOINTS INTERIM
CHIEFS
The members of the Emergency Services Agency board announced their appointments of interim Fire Chief and interim EMS Director this Wednesday morning, October 9. Serving as interim fire chief until a permanent appointment can be made was Ronald Roberts, one of the three Battalion Chiefs in charge of shifts on the fire service. Appointed as interim EMS Director until a permanent director is appointed was Derick Ogletree, one of the three shift supervisors currently at the EMS. The ESA board’s unanimous decision on the appointments came during a meeting Tuesday, October 8, where the members also discussed the appointment of an interim Executive Director for the agency.
--The ESA board voted to offer the jobs to “existing personnel at no increase in compensation.” The board decided on the two appointments during a closed session and offered the jobs later in the day. The board also voted to hire an interim Executive Director of the ESA as soon as possible and named ESA board members Bobby Brown and Ann McCrickard as a committee to bring a short list of names to the board for consideration. During the meeting Tuesday, the board briefly discussed what kind of permanent Director for the ESA was needed; a consensus was that with the fire service, EMS and 911 under the supervision of professionals, what was needed for the ESA Director was someone with the ability to run the ESA with “who is a financial person.”
--In discussions during the meeting, ESA board members said since they still faced the possibility of the ending of the ESA, it would be difficult to find someone to be an interim director. Board member Roy Campbell said, “It will be hard to hire an interim director when there is still talk about breaking up.” Campbell said by the end of the year he hoped that “the status of the ESA will be clearer and we can hire a permanent director, but we still need a interim director.” County Manager Mike Stephenson attended the meeting and said it would be difficult to build a budget for the ESA without an agreement on “new revenues.” City Manager Tom Barry at the meeting said the ESA needed to go ahead and plan for the continued delivery of services “until something different is decided.” Board member Elaine Mays, who is also a county commissioner, said the county “has to decide how much control they want of the ESA. If the county wants total control then there is no reason to have an ESA board. Let’s put it on the table and see what the county wants.” Mays said, “Roy and I don’t want to remain [on the board] if every decision we make will make someone aggravated on the county board.”
--Thomasville Police David Huckstep also attended the meeting and said he hoped the city and county supported the ESA and did not allow it to break up, “It’s an emergency situation and the city and county need to be meeting every day until a consensus is reached on the status of the Emergency Services Agency.”
--Also at the ESA board meeting Tuesday was Sheriff Carlton Powell and County Commissioner Moses Gross.
The Thomas County Board of Commissioners had a regular meeting Tuesday, October 8. There was no public discussion of the Emergency Services Agency controversy except when a citizen, Ted Green of Libby Lane, asked if his fire protection was going to change. During the time of the meeting where citizens could address the commission, Green told County Commission Chairman Josh Herring that he had heard “talk” that county volunteer firefighters would soon be providing fire protection to his residence. Green said he currently depended on career firefighters from Thomasville fire stations to respond to his place which is just outside the city limits; Green said he was concerned that response time for volunteers would be too long to any fire at his home. Herring told Green, “No one has decided on any change in fire protection for you. There has been no change in the status of the ESA.” Herring also told Green that “We’ll keep fire services for you the same as we have whether the ESA is disbanded or not.” Commissioner Bobby Brown, one of the two members of the county commission on the ESA board, told Green, “We had a meeting today [October 8] we’re not going to disband it.”
The Thomasville City Council met in a regular workshop Wednesday, October 9, and most of the discussion was on the Emergency Services Agency. The council decided to urge the ESA governing board to present a budget for 2003 to the city council and county commission for both bodies to vote on by mid-November. Mayor Rick Singletary said, “I’m uncomfortable where things are now. The City has responded to the issue and the county has not. I don’t feel like we can keep it hanging out there . . . We need to have the public realize there is an effort to keep the ESA together and if the city and county approve a budget, then they will get that.” The Mayor said, “The county had presented a written list of points to deal with the ESA issue and we have sent a written response. Except for rejecting the call for restructuring the ESA board to give control to the county, we have substantially met all the other demands. It’s time for the county to respond.”
--Council member and ESA board member Roy Campbell said the ESA was working with all its departments and would have it ready by October 17. A consensus on the council was to be able to vote on approval of the ESA budget by November 15 and there was hope that the county commission would do the same. Mayor Singletary said he was “really, really pleased” the ESA was going ahead with the budget process and present it to the county, “The county is going to have to come to the party and be part of the progress on this.” Council member Camille Payne said she trusted the ESA board to come up with a good budget, saying there should be “no problem with a budget, unless the county doesn’t adequately fund the budget.”
--Campbell reviewed the recent ESA meeting with the council where interim fire and EMS supervisors were appointed. He also reviewed the financial problems of the ESA with the council, saying the agency was “basically under-funded in revenue.” Campbell said with the current ESA budget of about $4.9 million, there would likely be a shortfall of about $609,000. Council member David Lewis said it looked like to him that the shortfall was a “structural deficit” and because it had accumulated over the two-and-a-half years of the ESA, “that’s where the accumulated debt of the agency came from.” Campbell said he and fellow ESA board member, and county commissioner, Elaine Mays had been working to provide day-to-day supervision of the ESA and had done what they could to “cut expenses here and there.” However, Campbell said a major part of the expenses was personnel costs and it had become clear that there were serious shortages in personnel, “especially in fire and EMS.”
--There was some discussion among council members of different ways to structure the operations of the ESA. Mayor Singletary said, “We need to brainstorm some management proposals.” One suggestion was to have the city manager oversee the operations of the fire service and the county manager oversee the operations of the EMS and 911; the suggestion was that operations could be supervised by someone familiar with government operations and the ESA director’s position could be reduced to a financial officer. Another suggestion was to have fire and EMS combined to operate under one chief and another chief for 911.
The Thomasville City Council came to a consensus during a workshop meeting Thursday, October 17, to negotiate with the Thomas County Board of Commissioners to end the Emergency Services Agency. Council members will send a letter to the county calling for those negotiations. During the meeting, the five members of the council, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, decided that the effort to have an agency run jointly by the city council and the Thomas County Board of Commissioners was not working. In the words of Mayor Rick Singletary, “The current status quo is just not going to work. We can do a better job of being responsible for what we take over.” Also attending the meeting was County Commissioner and ESA board member Elaine Mays.
--Most of the discussion at the workshop was on fire protection. Mayor Singletary said, “We need to operate this without stress, agony and pain. We should let the county operate their own fire department and we operate our own. It’s more than management and more than money – it’s all on how to reconcile two different management styles . . . If we divide up the ESA, it will also help the city and county work together in other areas.” Singletary said, “This is the first time we’ve tried something where the city and county jointly tried to run things. On paper it sounded good, but the reality is that it has been challenging. It seems a large body of people, the thirteen of us [5 city council and 8 county commissioners], doesn’t work together as well as a smaller group. Also the differences between us makes it hard . . . I feel that we’re at a point where we need to make budgets and time is of the essence. The real issue is who is going to be in charge of this; the county says it wants to be and the city says no – we have an accountability issue.” The Mayor said one problem was that the city had responded in writing to a written county call for a 3-2 county majority of the ESA board and other points, but that the county had not answered the city council’s response. In that written response, Mayor Singletary said the city council had told the county they could agree with much of what the county board had proposed, but could not agree to a 3-2 county majority on the ESA board. When Singletary said that the county commission was apparently still insisting on the 3-2 board, Elaine Mays said the county commission was willing to yield on that point and even willing to discuss other points in an effort to negotiate the issue. However, Mayor Singletary said there was still a lack of any formal response yet on the issue from the county.
--Council member Roy Campbell, who is also on the ESA board, said he still wanted to see the ESA stay constituted, but would go along with the rest of the council in the consensus to break it up. Campbell said, “We never got the revenue we thought we were going to get to maintain the ESA . . . From the get-go we have had a 600-thousand dollar shortfall. I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water, but if we’re going to break it up, then we need to do it quick.”
--Council member Earl Williams, who is chairman of the ESA board, said, “I’ve run a good race. We had a task of impossibility because we’ve dealt with people whose mind set is of a hundred years ago.”
--Council member David Lewis said, “When you take the high road, you rise above the problem, but also you rise above the solution. We, the city, didn’t want to run the ESA, didn’t try to micromanage, but the county did. It reasonable that the ESA should finish a budget, but if we’re going to break up the ESA, then we need to do it quickly.”
--Council member Camille Payne said, “I feel the ESA was a good idea. It was and is a workable solution. The thirteen members of the boards governing Thomasville and Thomas County should accept the ESA’s recommendations. Who’s in charge? The ESA board is in charge. The thirteen meddled when they shouldn’t have.”
CHAIRMAN HERRING COMMENTS ON
BREAKUP OF ESA
The chairman of the Thomas County Commission, Josh Herring, says it is a “mutual agreement” that the city and county have decided to disband the Emergency Services Agency. In an interview Friday, October 18, Herring said breaking up the joint organization charged with providing emergency fire, medical and dispatching services to the county was “the best way to go.” Herring also said citizens in the county outside the city limits of Thomasville will still be able to get the good emergency service under the auspices of the county as they have under the ESA. He said, “The city council and the county commission are going to probably adopt a resolution to disband it at their next meetings.” That will be Monday, October 22, for the county and Monday, October 28, for the city.
--Herring said Friday, “The city will take the fire suppression back over and the county will take dispatching, EMS and volunteers back over.” The commission chairman said he hoped the transition would be complete by December 31, 2002, “We would like to work as quickly as we could for both the city and county to be able to complete our budgets.” Herring said agreements had to be worked out where contracts could be established where “the city would cover fire district 1, 2 and the unincorporated areas. There are also contractual agreements to be made for the county to do dispatching for the city.” As far as equipment Herring said that had already been acquired and distributed, “That is probably the easiest part of all.”
--Herring was asked if the county was going to maintain the same level of fire service to areas of the county outside the city as they enjoyed under the ESA. He said, “We’re going forward just like we had indicated to the people earlier, with three manned fire stations – Coolidge, Boston and Ochlocknee. Our goal is to get the unicorporated areas of the county to an ISO rating of 6. Right now we are at a 9. All this shouldn’t interfere with that at all.” The Chairman said, “As far as I know, moving the stations to 24 hours, 7 days a week, was what we intended to do and that was the purpose of spending the money of the SPLOST was to build the stations and man them with a first responder or EMT at a minimum and one fire suppressionist where we could respond to emergency calls either in fire or medical.”
--Asked if anyone was likely to lose their jobs, Herring said, “No, but we won’t know anything until we know who goes where and what positions are needed. There may be some of the fire suppressionists who will need to come over to the county because we are going to have to hire some firemen. I don’t think the city is going to need the number of firefighters that are there now. It depends on how many firefighters the city of Thomasville need to maintain their ISO rating and man their stations.”
COUNTY COMMISSION VOTES
TO DISBAND ESA
The Thomas County Board of Commissioners voted to disband the Emergency Services Agency during a meeting Monday, October 21. The vote came on a motion by commissioner Elaine Mays, who is also a member of the ESA board, and on a second by Moses Gross. The vote was 7-0; Commissioner Richard Smith was not present. The board voted to have the breakup effective by December 31, 2002, but still to be decided are the details of who gets what as far as equipment, personnel and debt. Also to be decided are the details of an agreement for the City of Thomasville to provide fire protection for areas of the county immediately outside the city’s limits. The action by the county came after a workshop meeting by the Thomasville city council on Thursday, October 17, where council members came to a consensus that the joint-city-county ESA was not working and should be disbanded. The city council still has to take formal action on the move at a meeting Monday, October 28.
--The chairman of the county commission, Josh Herring, said after the meeting Monday night, “We had no choice. The city agreed at a workshop last week to disband the Emergency Services Agency.” Herring said the several citizens who were at the meeting expressing concerns about the kind of service they could expect were told they would be getting the same service as they previously enjoyed, “We had a number one EMS prior to the ESA and we had it again this year. We have trained people and we’ve got equipment. There is some concern about response time and ISO ratings, but we want to assure the public that we are going to have good response time and rood ratings.” Herring also said, “People are concerned about splitting up the SPLOST. Well, the county commission can’t be praised for anything we’ve done lately, the city council can’t and certainly the ESA can’t, but the people of Thomas County can praise themselves for having better service and equipment by voting in the SPLOST that they did. We’ve got the equipment, we’ve got the personnel on hand and they are highly trained. We will work out the details of the separation, we’ll put management in place and never look back – we go right ahead.” Herring said the commission has not formed a committee to negotiate with the city on the division of ESA resources.
--Commissioner Mays said after the meeting, “I sat through the meeting with the city council on Thursday. I think based on what I was hearing, I didn’t feel like there was any room for a lot of negotiation. I think that as long as we’re going to do this, the best thing to do is to go ahead and get it done and let us start building our fire department and decide what is going to happen with 911 and get everybody settled.” Mays said, “The people who work there [the ESA] since 1999 have had years of turmoil. This is not the time to continue it. If we have to do it, then let’s do it and get on with it.” Asked if the two governments could agree on a division of the ESA resources and responsibilities by December 31, 2002, Mays said, “We’re going to try real hard. I’m not sure we can have everything settled, but we can certainly start negotiations and see if we can split the items out that need to be out and go from there.” Mays was asked what the commitment was from the county commission to those people in the outlying areas of the county as to the quality of fire and ambulance service in the future. She said, “I have no doubt in my mind that we will have everything as good as it has been in the past. That sounds like a tremendous job, but I really believe we will do everything in our power to keep people protected, provide them with the service that they deserve and I think our volunteers and the other staff will work just as hard as they ever have.”
--County Commissioner Bobby Brown is the other commissioner on the Emergency Services Agency board. He said Monday night, “I think it’s really sad we’re breaking it up, but I kind of expected the city to do that. I felt we really needed to try to work it out and keep it together.” Brown said, “We’re going to try to keep the ISO ratings like we have them now and we are going to do what is necessary to make it the same. We’ll have the same good service. However, I’m not sure we can accomplish it all by December 31, but we’re going to make some steps real quick.”
THOMASVILLE CITY COUNCIL CONSIDERS ITS OWN
DISPATCHING
The Thomasville City Council had a workshop meeting Wednesday afternoon, October 23, and council members discussed the breakup of the Emergency Service Agency. Most of the discussion about the ESA issue by the Council was centered on the possibility of the city establishing a 911 call-center of its own to dispatch police and other services. The city council and county commission have recently called for the disbanding of the ESA, citing on-going disputes about control over the agency. In addition to fire and ambulance service, the other major department of the ESA is the dispatching of 911 calls from the city and county. Previous to the establishment of the ESA, 911 dispatching was a county government function and recent discussions about the breakup of the ESA have focused on those functions returning to county control. However, at the council meeting Wednesday, there was discussion of the city doing its own dispatching using personnel and equipment associated with the city’s Energy Control facility of the Utility Department. Still, it was apparent that the council was a long way from a final decision to do its own dispatching. Mayor Rick Singletary said, “A lot has to happen between now and December 31 [when the ESA breakup is targeted to be final] and that’s frightening to me. It’s going to be a challenge.” The Mayor said, “They’re moving forward with their thing and we’re moving forward with our own . . . We can come up with a proposal verses the county’s proposal for a 911 center, but for the time being, we need to maintain the status quo.” City Manager Tom Berry said there were “economies of scale that may make it beneficial to have an energy control center and 911 center together, but also, it’s not a good idea to have split centers between the city and county.” Several council members said they did not see why the city or its police department “needed to pay anything for dispatch” because if the county ran dispatching and used tax money raised from everyone in the county, then anything paid by the city would be “double-taxation.” Since the Energy Control Center fall under the supervision of Assistant City Manager Steve Sykes, he was tasked to examine the possibility of the ECC take over dispatching for the city and report his findings to the council.
CITY AND COUNTY PLEASED WITH
ESA TALKS
Thomasville and Thomas County officials say they are pleased with the start of the talks negotiating the dissolution of the Emergency Services Agency. County Commission Chairman Josh Herring, Thomasville Mayor Rick Singletary and the respective managers of each government meet Wednesday, October 30, and as Singletary said the next day, “We had a very productive meeting. We’re moving along well.” Herring also said Thursday, “We’ve tentatively reached an agreement . . . I think it was a good meeting.” Both said the managers would finalize the numbers agreed on during the meeting and then the mayor and Chairman would meet one more time before taking the agreement to each board for approval. Each also said it was possible that the ESA could be disbanded by December 31, 2002. Herring said, “Come the first of the year, we hope the citizens won’t even notice the split.”
--Mayor Singletary said Thursday, “We essentially agreed to what had been proposed already, that the city would charge for fire service to the areas just outside the city based on the tax digest. It will probably cost citizens in Fire District One just outside the city limits 4 mills per year for city fire protection and 3 mills per year for citizens in Fire District Two.” The Mayor said the county had agreed that 911 would be operated by the county and handle all emergency service calls, including those for city police and fire service. There would be no charge or fees paid by the city for the dispatch service. Singletary said, “Dispatch serves all the citizens in the county, which includes those who live inside the City of Thomasville.” Singletary said, “Josh and I will decide on the terms to divide the equipment of the ESA.”
--County Commission Chairman Josh Herring said Thursday, “We mainly talked about Fire Districts One and Two, trying to keep the protection like it is.” Herring said, “Instead of a fee for fire protection in Fire District One and Two, the Mayor wanted to tie it in to a certain millage rate and I don’t have a problem with that. Fire District One in the unincorporated areas of the county will pay the same as Fire District One in incorporated areas because they get the same benefits in ISO ratings and insurance. What we have to find out now is how much revenue would be generated off the digest.” The Commission Chairman said the amount of money that would be needed to pay for fire protection in Fire District One and Two would be “speculation” on his part, but “I’m thinking somewhere between 600-and-700 thousand dollars a year.” Herring said Mayor Singletary agreed to “some kind of funding for depreciation and capital outlays.” Herring said the city and county needed to agree on a way to pay for future equipment and building needs, “I think there should be a percentage of that [fire] budget that would be put into some type of reserve fund.”
CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSES
ESA
The Thomasville City Council discussed the Emergency Services Agency break-up during a workshop meeting on Wednesday, November 6. Mayor Rick Singletary said he and County Commission Chairman Josh Herring were to meet Thursday, November 7, along with their respective managers, to discuss the issue. Council members said they were adamant that city citizens were not going to pay for the county’s fire protection outside the city’s limits and that a user board for 911 dispatching be established.
--City Manager Tom Berry said the city was currently in the process of establishing a budget for the fire department once the ESA is disbanded. The city and county have agreed that the city will provide fire protection for a limited area just outside the city limits for a negotiated fee. Mayor Singletary said he and the Commission Chairman had already agreed that the county would set millage rates for property owners in two zones to pay for the city fire protection. Zone 1 would be just outside the city limits in areas that have city-supplied water service and Zone 2 would be just beyond Zone 1 where there was not any water service. Council members said the county would have to set millage rates in fire Zone 1 that paid for the city’s costs to provide fire protection in the zone. Council members said the cost for the city’s protection in Fire Zone 1 would be the same as it would cost for the city to provide fire protection inside the city. Council members indicated that the millage rate for fire Zone 2 could be one mill less than the rate for Fire Zone 1.
--Council members expressed concerns about maintaining the quality of 911 dispatching services once the county took it over after the disbanding of the ESA. The county has offered to provide dispatching for all emergency services in the county, including city police and fire, and pay for it out of general millage revenue that all citizens in the county pay. Council members told Berry to establish a set of standards expected from dispatching services. Council members said a new user board needed to be established to insure “good quality of services for dispatch users” under the standards. Council members said they were willing to operate their own dispatching service if needed, however Police Chief David Huckstep at the meeting said he preferred one agency do dispatching for city police. Huckstep said he preferred the city use its resources to provide dispatching for the entire county, but council members said it was clear that the county government was intent on running dispatch services.
According to Thomas County and City of Thomasville officials, things are on track for the disbanding of the Emergency Service Agency by the end of the year. County Commission Chairman Josh Herring and Thomasville Mayor Rick Singletary met Thursday, November 7, and agreed on a funding procedure for having the city provide fire protection for a portion of the county. There was also agreement on the supervision of the 911 dispatch center. The two government leaders said each of their respective managers – who also attended the meeting – would write a joint resolution for each government to pass at separate meetings on November 25, based on the agreement reached Thursday. By then, according to the government leaders, both will have finished writing up their budgets and both will have a good idea about the costs involved in fire, EMS and dispatching services. With the passing of the joint resolution, the ESA will be disbanded on December 31, 2002, and emergency services will be transferred to the city and county. Herring said once the division of the ESA was complete, “Service would be better because the city will do what they do best and the county will do what it does best.”
--Both Herring and Singletary said they agreed that the City of Thomasville would determine what it would cost to operate the city’s fire department inside the city’s limits and in an area just outside the city’s limits that has hydrant-supplied water, Fire Zone 1. The city would then set a property tax millage rate for citizens to pay for the fire protection service. Herring said he would then ask the county commission to set the same millage rate for Fire Zone 1 and use that revenue to pay the city for the zone’s fire protection. The Mayor and Chairman also agreed that property owners in Fire Zone 2 – in the immediate area just outside Fire Zone 1 and that does not have hydrant supplied water – would pay one mill of tax less than property owners in Fire Zone 1. City Manager Tom Berry said Herring indicated during the meeting that he was willing to have the city determine what the county would set as the fire zone taxes because the city council was an elected body and would be setting the same rate for city citizens to whom they were accountable. Berry said the city’s fire tax would be the only property tax that would be imposed in the city, but since the monies collected would not be available until the end of 2003, then it was likely that the city – and possibly the county – would have to take out a tax anticipation loan to develop the working funds for fire protection in 2003.
--The Mayor and Chairman also agreed to establish a user board for 911 dispatching consisting of the uses of the system, police, Sheriff’s Office, Fire Department and ambulance service. The board would not supervise the dispatching department, but insure that an established set of standards were followed by the department. Herring said, “I think it is a good idea. There should be a protocol that they go by where they can be doing their job and doing it right.”
Mike Stephenson, Thomas County
Manager, said Tuesday, November 12, that county commissioners will postpone
having hearings on setting the 2003 budget until the first week of December.
Stephenson said, “We’re still working on various aspects of the budget so we
can present it to commissioners for their review.” Commissioners had hoped to
have budget hearings beginning November 18 and lasting two or three days.
However, Stephenson said with the anticipated disbanding of the Emergency
Services Agency, the county was going to have to establish a budget for fire
protection in the county, have an ambulance service and 911 dispatching.
Stephenson said, “It’s just taking a little longer than anticipated to develop
those budgets.” The
The City of
--Cole is 50 and joined the city fire department in 1975, working his way
up to the Fire Chief’s position in 1999, just before the ESA was formed. In March
2001 he rejoined the city as its risk management director; the ESA’s fire
service operated under the day-to-day supervision of its three Battalion
Commanders on each shift with fire administration by the ESA Executive Director
Jack Smith. After it was decided the ESA was to be disbanded, one of the
Battalion Commanders, Ronald Roberts, was appointed interm-Fire Chief.
--Earlier in the week, before
making the announcement of the new Fire Chief, City Manager Tom Berry said
Monday, November 11, that
Fire personnel with the soon-to-be-disbanded Emergency Services Agency
found out Wednesday, November 20, who would be working with the City of
--Cole said there will be three shift commandeers in the city fire
department: Gary Dollar, Ronald Roberts and Bobby Hart. Dollar will replace
shift commander Larry Griffin who has already retired from the city. The effective
date for the new employment with the city is
--Cole said the city has scaled back its operations to fit its decreased
responsibilities after the first of the year. Cole said there will be no city
fire trucks responding to fires outside the limited area just outside the city
limits that the county will contract with the city to provide. The Fire Chief
also said the city fire department will not be providing personnel to man
ambulances for the county once the county takes over the ambulance service,
however, the county will have ambulances serving out of Fire Station 2 on
--Later in the day, Thomas County Manager Mike Stephenson said of the 20
ESA firefighters not hired by the city, “We will hire at least six of them, but
we can’t take the full amount.”
The ending of the Emergency Services Agency has hit a problem. During a meeting Monday night, November 25, the Thomasville City Council passed a resolution negotiated between the city and county attorneys that finalizes the details of the disbanding of the ESA. However, during a separate meeting Monday night, the Thomas County Board of Commissioners decided in a closed session to not sign the resolution before them. Commissioners did not say what the problem was with the resolution, but there are indications that commissioners are not happy with the funding of future fire protection in areas just outside the city.
--The city council approved the
resolution on the ending of the ESA negotiated between the city’s Mayor and the
county’s Chairman and finalized by the City Attorney and the
-- Despite the city council’s approval of the resolution, the county commission meeting the same night did not approve the resolution, saying they had more changes they wanted in it. After the county commission meeting, the chairman of the commission, Josh Herring, said, “In going into executive session, talking with council on it, there were a couple of things that seemed to be questions with the commissioners and we just wanted council to get back and talk with his counterpart on the city side to see if we could get those issues worked out.” Asked what particular issues had to be worked out, Herring said, “Since we did turn it over to the attorney, kind of like a client-attorney relationship, I’d rather for them to work that out and we’ll know probably by the middle of the week.” Immediately after the executive session ended Monday night for the county board, but before the end of the meeting, Herring said, “The executive session lasted an hour-and-a-half but we are not going to take any action at tonight’s meeting on what we discussed. We just had a couple of items that needed clarification. We had the first part of the executive session discussing a personnel matter, but most of the time we discussed legal matters with our attorney about the funding for fire protection.”
--Going into the meetings Monday night, both Herring and Thomasville Mayor Rick Singletary said they had reached an understanding about the details of the disbanding of the Emergency Services Agency that they would take to their respective boards. The agreement included a method of funding fire protection from what will be the Thomasville Fire Department after the first of 2003 that would have the city council decide what millage rate they would impose on city citizens to operate the fire department and the county commission would impose the same rate on county citizens in Fire Zone 1 just outside the city limits. An area just outside Fire Zone 1 would have city fire protection for one mill less than the millage for Fire Zone 1.
--The state law governing open
meetings of governments in
--To see the complete joint resolution, click here.
COMMISSION PASSES
ESA BREAKUP RESOLUTION
At the beginning of their budget hearings on Monday, December 2,
Thomas County Commissioners passed the resolution detailing the breakup of the
Emergency Services Agency; the Thomasville City Council passed the same
resolution November 25. Before
commissioners passed the resolution, they held an hour-and-a-half closed
meeting discussing the ending of the ESA and the resolution. Commission
Chairman Josh Herring said the closed meeting was authorized under the state’s
Open Meetings Law because the commissioners discussed “legal matters” with
their attorney. Once the meeting was over, commissioners voted to pass the
resolution unanimously.
--The resolution establishes the funding for the city to provide fire
protection to Fire Zones 1 and 2 just outside the city. The document says “The
city will ensure a level of protection that maintains the current Insurance
Services Office rating currently in effect.” It is anticipated that the city’s
budget to provide those services is $2.2 million for calendar year 2003 and the
anticipated millage to meet that goal is 3.5 mills for the city and Fire Zone 1
and 2.5 mills for Fire Zone 2. The
--The resolution says, “Pending final resolution of issues involving
distribution of real property and equipment currently owned by the ESA, each
item of fire related equipment will remain at its current location and will be
utilized to meet the service demands contemplated by this resolution.”
According to County Manager Stephenson, the issues that remain between the
county and city on equipment include the disposal of cars and trucks of the
ESA. Stephenson says the county is asking for the tanker-pumper currently at
Fire Station 2 and wants the Rescue Truck at Fire Station 1 to go to all calls
county-wide. City Manager Tom
The two major governments in the county marked up their budgets for
2003 in hearings during the week. The Thomasville City Council and the Thomas
County Board of Commissioners finished separate public hearings on Wednesday,
December 4, to review the proposed budgets by their respective managers. After
waiting for the public to have a chance to review the proposals and make
comments at another public hearing, each governing body will adopt the budget
in a meeting before the first of next year.
--For the City of
--Among the budgets reviewed by Thomas County Commissioners at their
Wednesday budget hearing were the various sections of the Emergency Services
Department. The county’s Fire Department will have 11 full-time fire personnel on
its payroll for 2003, along with funding for provisioning 12 volunteers at each
of the county’s 13 volunteer fire departments. County Manager Mike Stephenson
said Wednesday that 8 of the full-time personnel have been offered positions
with the county’s department and have said they will take the positions, while
3 more positions will be offered to personnel next week. Fire Coordinator Chris
Jones said the 2003 operating budget will have his position, 1 training
officer, 2 driver-engineers and 7 firefighters. The total operating budget
proposed for the Fire Department that will serve the county outside the City of
--The total budget for the county’s Emergency Services is proposed at
$3,600,405. The proposed operating budget for E-911 is $771,300. The
--In the City of
The Emergency Service Agency board
of directors met Thursday, December 12, for one of the last meetings it will
have. Board members took formal action to officially terminate its employees at
the end of the year as the Agency is being disbanded and its functions going
back to the City of
--The ESA was formed in 1999 as an
effort to provide consolidated fire, ambulance and 911 dispatching services for
the whole county, by combining the resources of the city and county. The ESA
was governed by a board consisting of city council members and county
commissioners along with one member of the public. Throughout its history,
disputes over funding and operational control of the ESA had caused a steady
turmoil in the ESA leadership and strains in the relationship between the city
and county governments. Eventually, those strains became so bad that the two
governments decided to disband the ESA. Despite the problems in the leadership,
citizens in the county passed a Special Local Option Sales Tax to provide
funding for new equipment and buildings for the ESA. With the SPLOST, new fire
trucks and equipment was bought, new buildings were built and other
improvements were made to emergency services in the city and county. That
SPLOST will last until the end of June, 2003, and the city and county will
split the last of its funding after the first of the year.
--At Thursday’s meeting, the ESA
board heard that there will be about $122,000 in operational bills coming to
the ESA that are to be paid before the end of 2002. After those bills are paid
and payroll is paid to
--The ESA board had an executive
session at the meeting Thursday where they talked about the termination of the
ESA’s employees and the issues surrounding that.
--After the executive session, the
board voted to give paid leave to the nine firefighters who were not offered
jobs with the city or county after the first of the year. Board members said
they made that decision to allow those personnel the time to seek new jobs. The
nine can come to work in the fire protection service until the end of the year,
if they wish, or they can take the time off with pay. There are normally 20
firefighters that are supposed to be on duty during a 24-hour shift. For today,
Friday, December 13, the fire service has 8 personnel short.
Thomas County Commissioners are
considering building their own fire department to provide fire protection in
the current Fire Zones 1 and 2. To that end, they are considering hiring a
consultant to tell them what they need to have the same fire rating those zones
currently have, an Insurance Service Organization rating of three. Several
commissioners discussed the hiring of the consultant during the first meeting
of a new committee of the county board, the Emergency Services Committee, on
Wednesday, December 18. The chairman of that committee is Moses Gross and the
members are Elaine Mays and Bobby Brown, the same two commission
representatives on the Emergency Services Agency board. Also attending the
committee meeting were Commission Chairman Josh Herring and Commissioner Mary
Jo Beverly. Discussions during the meeting also focused on how the county will
be covered by the new fire department in Fire Zone 3 and the distribution of
equipment of the old ESA.
--As of now, once the Emergency
Services Agency is disorganized on January 1, 2003, the City of Thomasville
will provide fire protection to Zones 1 and 2, which is just outside the city’s
limits and out about five miles into the county, using the city’s fire
equipment. The county had planned to provide $610,000 year for that service,
the amount the city said would cost for the year’s operation of fire protection
service in Zones 1 and 2. Commissioners did not specifically discuss during the
committee meeting Wednesday why they wanted to build a fire department to
replace the service that would be provided by the City of Thomasville’s newly
reconstituted Fire Department, but there have been several indications from
commissioners that they were unhappy with the arraignment worked out in
negotiations between Chairman Herring and Thomasville Mayor Rick Singletary
setting up the city-provided protection to Fire Zones 1 and 2. Those
negotiations resulted in a joint agreement signed recently by both governments.
The consultant considered by the county is Joe Lynch of Pinson, Alabama. If
hired by the county for a fee of $5,000, Lynch would outline the personnel,
organization and equipment needed to provide ISO Class Three fire protection
for Zones 1 and 2. He would also tell the commission what it would take to
upgrade the ISO rating for Fire Zone 3, the rest of the county outside the
other two zones. Commissioners will likely consider hiring the consultant in a
called meeting sometime before the end of the year. There are no regularly
scheduled commission meetings for the rest of the year.
--The county’s Fire Coordinator,
Chris Jones, told the committee he had finished organizing the county’s fire
department to provide fire protection in Fire Zone 3. Beginning January 1,
2003, using all nine full-time firefighters hired by the county, there will be
one person 24/7 at each of three fire stations in the county – Boston, Coolidge
and Ochlocknee. They will respond to fire and medical calls with a fire engine
along with volunteers or ambulances. Working a 24-hour shift with one day on
and two days off, the nine personnel will be just the amount needed to provide
the coverage for the three fire stations. Asked about replacements for any of
the nine who cannot come to work, Jones said part-time certified firefighters
and certified volunteers would provide the replacements.
--There was some discussion about the
distribution of equipment of the old ESA after the first of the year.
Commissioners and emergency service staff said they needed the pumper-tanker
currently in service with the city at fire station three on Remington Avenue,
but commissioners heard that city officials say they need the pumper-tanker to
provide service to Fire Zone 2 which does not have hydrant service. There was
also some discussion about when and where the rescue truck is being sent on
traffic crash calls. Commissioners said they were under the impression that the
truck would be sent on all calls in the county, but recent incidents have
indicated the truck is not being sent as a matter of course. Fire Chief Cole
said Thursday, December 19, that the City of Thomasville offered to operate the
rescue truck for all calls in the county, but that the county would have to pay
part of the personnel to man the truck. Cole said, “When the rescue truck is on
a call in outlying areas of the county, the two personnel with it are
effectively unavailable for any fire calls anywhere else. We need to have the
personnel that would be with the rescue truck be in addition to all the other
firefighters we need to provide fire service for the city and county fire
zones.” Cole said until the matter could be resolved, the supervisor on duty
would make a determination if the rescue truck needed to be sent on a call.
City and county staff are due for a meeting Monday, December 23, to talk about
the distribution issues. Both city and county officials say difficulties in
coming to an agreement on the equipment distribution issues mean that there
will likely be arbitration of the issue as called for in the state legislation
that originally set up the ESA.
FIRE DEPARTMENT SHORTHANDED
The personnel to man fire-rescue equipment
in Thomas County is in short supply as the year comes to an end. On Wednesday,
December 18, full-time fire personnel on shift were at the lowest number it
ever has been since it was decided the Emergency Services Agency would be
disbanded; there were 13 firefighters on duty, including supervisors. Until the
first of the year, when the ESA will be gone, the full compliment of full-time
fire-rescue personnel on a shift is supposed to be 20, which includes two
firefighters in the station at Coolidge and supervisors. After the first of the
year, there will be 13 firefighters on a normal shift, but that is only to
cover the city and the fire zones just outside the city.
--On Wednesday, there were 5
firefighters on duty at Fire Station 1 downtown Thomasville, including the
Battalion Chief; at the station there is one fire engine, one rescue truck, the
ladder truck and a utility truck for carrying equipment. At Fire Station 2 on
South Pinetree Boulevard on Wednesday there were 3 firefighters on duty; at the
station is one fire engine. At Fire Station 3 on Remington Avenue, on Wednesday
there were 4 firefighters on duty; at the station is one engine and one
pumper-tanker. At Coolidge on Wednesday, there was one firefighter on duty for
the one fire engine there.
--After the first of the year, when
the City of Thomasville will run the city fire department, Fire Chief Joe Cole
says there will be 13 personnel on duty per shift. In Fire Station 1 there will
be 6 firefighters at the station, with one of the firefighters either joining
the other firefighter in the rescue truck or joining with the three others on
the fire engine. The Battalion Chief will also work out of Fire Station 1. For
Fire Station 2, there will be 3 firefighters for the one truck there. For Fire Station
3, there will be 2 firefighters for each of the two fire engines there. If the
ladder truck is needed, then the supervisor on duty would pull personnel from
other positions and man that truck.
--Last week nine of the firefighters who did not get jobs with the city or county were told they could take paid leave to look for other jobs, or they could come to work at the fire stations. This past Monday, December 16, the nine were told by supervisors they were not to come to work at all.
Talks began Monday, December 23, between the City of Thomasville and
Thomas County on the distribution of equipment of the Emergency Services
Agency, but there was no resolution by the end of the meeting. However, county
officials did tell city officials that they intended to expand fire protection
from unincorporated areas of the county to the areas immediately around the
city. City Manager Tom Berry said Monday night after the meeting, “They said
they were going to use a consultant to tell them how much it was going to cost,
but it was clear to me they intend to go ahead with it.”
--The meeting between the two governments included the chairman of the
new Emergency Services Committee of the county commission, Moses Gross, the chairman
of the county commission, Josh Herring, Commissioners Bobby Brown and Elaine
Mays, County Manager Mike Stephenson, and fire, E-911 and EMS department heads.
Representing the city were city council members Roy Campbell and Earl Williams
and City Manager Tom Berry. Under the current agreement between the city and
county, the city is to provide fire protection in Fire Zones 1 and 2, just
outside the city limits. The agreement calls for the county to pay the city
$610,000 a year for the protection.
--The discussions about the distribution of the ESA’s equipment
centered around fire trucks. The county indicated they wanted two fire engines
while city officials said the county could have the one fire engine currently
assigned to Fire Station 3 and used to go into the county for fire calls, but
the other fire engine was needed by the city for fire calls in Fire Zone 2
where there was no hydrant water supply. The city also said they needed one
pickup and one car. County officials said the city could use the new ladder
truck for fire calls, otherwise, it seemed that the $700,000 ladder truck was
“a tremendous expense” to be used only for the few tall structures in the city.
No resolution was reached during the Monday meeting and both sides said it was
likely that the situation would be resolved in arbitration. Meanwhile, under
the agreement already signed by both governments, all equipment “stays where
they are” until arbitration.
--During the meeting, Moses Gross said it was “likely” that by January
1, 2004, the county would provide full-time fire protection for Fire Zones 1
and 2 with its own fire department. Chairman Josh Herring said during the
meeting that for the money the county was paying the city for protection in
Zones 1 and 2, “we are not getting the near the service.” City Manager Berry
said during the meeting that the city was structuring and budgeting to provide
the fire protection in Zones 1 and 2 as agreed, but it was unfair to the city’s
firemen to have to have them go through another adjustment in personnel
allocation that might require cutbacks. About the recent breakup of the ESA
where there were firefighters who lost their jobs because the city and county
could not hire them, Berry said, “I don’t want to go through this again. They
went though pure hell.”
ESA BOARD MEETS FOR THE LAST TIME IN 2002
The board that has governed the
Emergency Services Agency since 1999 will still meet for the next 12 months
despite the agency being disbanded and its functions turned over the City of
--Board members said Monday that there were several legal and financial issues that required the ESA board to continue to meet in 2003. The ESA has several lawsuits filed against it from employees, former employees and other citizens. There is also considerable debt that needs to be resolved. If the Thomasville City Council and Thomas County Commission reappoints its representatives to the board, the membership will continue to be Earl Williams and Roy Campbell from the City and Bobby Brown and Elaine Mays from the county. The ESA board will also decide later if Ann McCrickart will continue to be the fifth “public” member of the board. All serve without pay.
--At Monday’s meeting, the board
voted to pay $1,513,540 borrowed from Thomasville National Bank and a balloon
payment note from the Bank of Thomas County of $112,700, both due
--The board also discussed
insurance matters on its equipment until arbitration can resolve final
ownership issues. There was also an executive session to discuss a lawsuit by a
private citizen against the ESA.
GRAND JURY REPORTS ON THE DEMISE OF THE ESA AND
CALL FOR ITS REVIVAL
Calling the “constant bickering and inflated EGO'S” of city and county officials a primary reason for the breakup of the Emergency Services Agency, the Grand Jury of Thomas County in its 2003 term released a report Thursday, October 2, 2003, that said “underfunding and management” caused a massive debt in the agency that doomed it during its four year existence. Still, the Grand Jury said “placing all emergency services under one roof was a noble experiment” that should be revived, after “a public dialogue to bring the animosity, pride and ego of all governmental leaders under control.” The Grand Jury said there were “unresolved issues surrounding the operation of the ESA which were not fully addressed by this task force during this term of the court” and that a future Grand Jury continue the investigation.
--In a cover letter to the convening Superior Court judge, the Honorable Harry J. Altman, the Grand Jury said, “Throughout the proceedings, the members of the Grand Jury were very concerned with the seemingly lack of cooperation between the different government entities in and around Thomas County. It is felt that this inability of the Thomas County government and elected officials to work with the City of Thomasville government and elected officials, and vice versa, has resulted in local government not being able to optimize the access to state and federal programs and related funds. The redundancy of duplication of services at all levels is also felt to often result in less than optimal services and results in inefficiencies of operations, Elected officials at all levels should continue to alleviate barriers, avoid duplication and make government operations more cost effective.”
For a look at the entire report of the Grand Jury on the ESA, click here.
--Saying the Grand Jury was not looking for criminal wrongdoing in their investigations, the report said, “The primary mission of the Grand Jury Task Force to look into the workings of the Thomas County Emergency Services Board was to present to the taxpayers of this county some idea as to what went wrong in the agency and why it happened.” The report said, “Confusion, suspicion, bickering, mistrust, doubt and the withholding of information have all contributed to a very unstable atmosphere between the city and county, a situation which does not bode well for the citizens in general, the business community and the scores of groups in the county who are trying their best to make our community a model for all to see.”
--The Foreman of the Grand Jury was Ken Beverly. The committee in charge of the investigation of the ESA and writing the report was chaired by Lloyd Eckburg and also consisted of James Cantrell, Charles Carter, Marvin Golden, Darby Hall and Dan Stewart.
--In its report, the Grand Jury said “those involved in guiding this effort to fruition were visionaries and understood the future benefits that could and would accrue to taxpayers and citizen users of the services under such an arrangement.” However, “It must be said loud and clear that the [SPLOST] tax referendum had nothing to do with the debt which has been accumulated during the past three years. Underfunding and management oversight are the reasons for the debt.” The Grand Jury said the failure of the ESA was in it’s genesis, “A simple explanation for the demise of the ESA was a longtime nemesis of so many new ventures. It was underfunded from the beginning for operational expenses. In fact, ESA was more Nonfunded than Underfunded. Nobody thought to prepare a business plan with hardnosed expertise as to how to project costs for services that previously had not existed.” The report said, “Prudent business practice dictates when a business contemplates an expansion, such as a new addition or program, it is unwise to undertake such action until full knowledge is known about the financial demands to be made on that action for a considerable period of time into the future.” A major part of the reason that the financial problems were a surprise to many was that “The public never received timely financial data concerning the ESA. This fact alone may be a major cause of a tardy acknowledgement of the financial chaos within the ESA.”
--The Grand Jury said the ESA’s problems did not have to happen, “Without placing blame on any individual or entity, and notwithstanding the fact the ESA might or might not have had a funding problem, the Grand Jury finds it inconceivable that someone early on did not understand the importance of determining what effect the addition of 19 new emergency vehicles and several new buildings and additional personnel would have on the bottom line of Thomas County taxpayers.” The report said, “A strong director of operations probably would have spotted the need to project income and expenses far in advance of ESA's discovery of lack of money.” The report said, “Early on the city manager and county administrator were actively involved in the monthly ESA Board meetings” but for three years towards the end of the ESA existence, “they never attended a meeting. The Grand Jury believes these two men have valuable expertise and knowledge and could have served a more useful purpose in spotting ‘red flags’ as they occurred.”
--The Grand Jury said, ‘constant bickering and inflated EGO'S on the part of all official players in the city, county and ESA bodies contributed heavily to the inevitable breakup of ESA which has caused irreparable harm to the community in any effort to restart ESA up in the immediate future.” The report said, “Capital expenditures had no direct immediate effect on the financial woes of the ESA as those expenditures were paid for from SPLOST. However, when vehicles were accepted and put into service their maintenance and service to the community began to cause great pressure on the budget. Only two new fire trucks were paid for from non-SPLOST revenue and they were purchased prior to the advent of ESA . . . If proper budgeting and planning had been exercised from the beginning there would have been a lesser amount of money needed to cover costs of the operation.” The Grand Jury said, “Needless to say some of the money necessary for operations may not have had to be spent due to the possible postponement of projects and services which may not have been funded in the first place.”
--The Grand Jury report said currently the emergency services in the county operated by the county and city could be better, “The system of a divided emergency response function now separately operated by the City of Thomasville and Thomas County will cost more than a combined agency and the overall service to all citizens will be reduced . . . If two systems are going to continue to operate, the public should demand that both systems work in harmony with one another at all times.” However, to bring a better system in place, “We recommend a public dialogue to bring the animosity, pride and ego of all governmental leaders under control.” The Grand Jury recommends that the ESA be revived, “We strongly recommend that every effort be exercised to resurrect the ESA into a fully functioning body, with the aid of an Arbiter, to include all emergency services in the county using the lessons of the past as a springboard for a new start to serve the needs of all of the citizens of Thomas County.
--The Grand Jury also recommended that future Grand Juries continue the investigations into the ESA, “We believe there are unresolved issues surrounding the operation of the ESA which were not fully addressed by this task force during this term of the court. We strongly urge and recommend that the next Grand Jury continue the work of this court and reappoint a continuing task force on the ESA.”