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Report shows fire taxes fund nondistrict EMS

By SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA
Published June 22, 2005

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH - Critics of the Pinellas Suncoast Fire & Rescue District apparently are right.

A financial statement released Tuesday by the district shows that its taxpayers are subsidizing emergency medical services for property owners outside the district's boundaries.

According to a breakout of revenues and expenses for the current fiscal year, compiled by fire district Chief John Leahy, the balance sheet for Station 26, located outside the district boundaries in Redington Shores, is $31,549 in the red.

The district receives $474,518 from Pinellas County to provide EMS services to Redington Shores, North Redington Beach and Redington Beach. That money covers all personnel costs, but only a small portion of the $39,199 in operating expenses and equipment amortization.

The difference is paid with fire taxes collected from property owners in Belleair Beach, Belleair Shore, Indian Rocks Beach, Indian Shores and an unincorporated area on the mainland.

"This just proves what we have been saying all along," says Indian Rocks Beach Mayor Bill Ockunzzi. "Our residents do not want to be subsidizing outside communities."

But Leahy strongly defends what he says is a minimal cost, arguing that the expenditure provides real benefits for district residents that would not otherwise exist.

"Thirty-one-thousand dollars does not get us into financial trouble," Leahy said. "It gives us, at no cost to district, seven people who provide additional response within the district. You can't buy that kind of protection."

Leahy says that Indian Shores residents, who he says account for one-third of all calls answered by Station 26, benefit from a fast response time (average of 3 minutes 30 seconds).

Taxpayers throughout the district benefit, he says, because personnel and apparatus stationed in Indian Rocks Beach and on the mainland are less frequently called away from those areas to service Indian Shores.

At issue is whether the money received from the county is enough to pay all the costs associated with out-of-district services.

An intense debate was sparked last year when the fire district lost a voter referendum to raise fire taxes.

After that election, a lawsuit was filed by Indian Rocks Beach officials and residents. Critics also organized an "oversight committee" to examine the district's books and operations.

The Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court is expected to hear arguments in the latest round of the legal battle next week.

Pinellas County, representing unincorporated residents in the fire district on the oversight committee, is preparing to seek a consultant to investigate the district.

The oversight committee will meet next month with fire officials from nearby Seminole and Madeira Beach, which contract to provide fire protection services to the Redingtons.

"If Station 26 would just move to Indian Shores, it would solve a lot of the problem. It's a shame we have come to this point," says Indian Rocks Beach Commissioner Jim Palamara, who wants Seminole and Madeira Beach to assume some of the EMS and fire service costs in the Redingtons.

Meanwhile, Station 26 is about to be moved a couple hundred feet within the former Parsley's Mobile Home Park where a major redevelopment is under way. The station's new location will be directly on Gulf Boulevard at the southern end of the property. The property developers and construction company are paying the $15,000 cost of the move, Leahy says.

[Last modified June 22, 2005, 01:09:13]