At the end of a long, contentious road is a balanced city budget, a tax hike and the end of the city Fire Department. The county will prove service.
By CHASE SQUIRES
Published September 26, 2003
DADE CITY - Just as summer ended this week, so did the city's heated budget debates, as city commissioners agreed on a spending plan Thursday and sealed the deal with Pasco County to take over fire protection.
Issues surrounding a once-looming $1.4-million budget shortfall and the cost of running a city Fire Department were hammered out during the course of three difficult months.
"Things are looking good down the road," Commissioner Lowell Harris said. "It was painful."
Commissioners unanimously approved the contract with Pasco County to begin providing fire protection, at the same time dissolving the city's Fire Department, at 8 a.m. Oct. 5.
Then they approved a balanced $7.9-million budget that includes a roughly 21 percent tax increase, from $7.40 per $1,000 of taxable property value to $9 per $1,000 of value.
With the Fire Department eliminated in favor of a $317,000 bill for county protection next year, the city's tab for public safety drops from $3.1-million in the current year to $2.4-million in the fiscal year that begins Wednesday.
Once one-time costs of dissolving the Fire Department are paid, the cost of public safety will decrease dramatically in future years, City Manager Harold Sample said.
The task of reaching the balanced budget, amid rising costs and a drop in the city's total taxable value, was arduous and involved tense, standing-room-only meetings, hours of negotiation and petition drives to preserve the Fire Department.
Commissioners said they had to acknowledge that the cost of operating a department for a city of four square miles was overwhelming. But working with the county, the city placed 15 of its firefighters with Pasco County Fire Rescue, absorbed Fire Department administrative staff to other city positions and hired the department's two captains to head a trimmed fire inspection and planning team that will also handle code enforcement.
One firefighter has accepted a job with the Zephyrhills Fire Department, and Fire Chief Bob Cabot will retire rather than accept an administrative position with the city. Cabot is pursuing the vacant police chief post in Zephyrhills. Another firefighter also retired.
Commissioner Hutch Brock noted that Pasco County Administrator John Gallagher, Assistant Administrator Dan Johnson and County Attorney Bob Sumner attended Thursday's meeting, and said the new spirit of cooperation between the city and county bodes well for the future.
"We're not going to let you down," Gallagher told commissioners. "We're going to take good care of you."
