2 sides need to cool off in fire district dispute

By TIMES EDITORIAL
Published July 29, 2007

The latest scrap between Hernando County government and the Spring Hill Fire Rescue District was gratuitous. The legal staffs of the County Commission and the clerk of the circuit court set off a chain of events that created confusion and panic about the fire district's very existence and also aggravated an already tense relationship between entities that desperately need to rise above their differences.

It is unclear whether the County Commission's lawyers acted carelessly or purposely when they notified the clerk's attorney that the fire district may be operating without authorization from the state Department of Community Affairs. That out-of-the-blue notification prompted the clerk to temporarily restrict the district's ability to pay its bills and its employees. After a week of litigious declarations, denials and denunciations, the trio of government agencies avoided going to court - for now - but not before frittering away the public's precious time and resources.

As murky as those legal waters are, however, several factors have become abundantly clear since this most recent fracas surfaced:

- A court needs to address the core question of whether Spring Hill Fire Rescue is dependent or independent and who has the authority to grant or deny that status. The Florida Supreme Court partially addressed this issue in 1993, and it took no action to dismantle the hybrid system of municipal service and taxing agreements between Spring Hill and Hernando County. If circumstances have changed, the structure needs to be updated or eliminated.

- The County Commission should not attempt any further action that would upset the status quo of the Spring Hill fire district until it has the final report from a consultant who was hired in 2006 to prepare a fire service master plan for the entire county. The consultant's findings will be complete by the end of this year. It would be irresponsible and wasteful - the report is costing the public about $100,000 - to make any substantial move without benefit of the objective, big-picture information expected in that study.

The commission has used waiting on that report as an excuse not to take action on the struggling volunteer fire department at High Point; that reasoning also should apply to Spring Hill Fire Rescue. The report also should have recommendations about how Hernando County Fire Rescue can operate more efficiently, which would be good news to the people in that district whose rates are going up in October -- again.

- Commissioner Diane Rowden's ideas about the Spring Hill fire district continue to morph with indeterminate intent. A few months ago she said she thought the fire commission should be abolished. When the time came to back up that stance, she backed down, making an impassioned speech before 200 fire district supporters to "let the people of Spring Hill decide" their fate via a referendum.

Now, at a meeting last week, she urged her colleagues to forgo the ballot question and unilaterally grant the fire district full independence, which would deny voters the opportunity to make an informed choice. Fortunately, her politically expedient detour was blocked by commissioners whose views on this subject are less fickle.

In order for the County Commission to act with sincerity and authority on any issues dealing with Spring Hill Fire Rescue, it cannot afford to lose any more credibility, as it did with this needless legal spat.

Both sides should stand down until the public has received the impartial facts it needs to make informed decisions. There is plenty of time to digest that data, obtain answers to the legal questions and still place a referendum on the November 2008 ballot, if that is what the commission decides.

[Last modified July 29, 2007, 07:13:59]