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Money woes and procedural gaffes at fire district

By Meg Olson

Is the fire department broke?
The numbers are foggy, but no matter which ones you look at, the Point Roberts fire department is losing money and dipping into reserves to balance the budget. Commissioners are also taking a number of legally dubious steps to sell one fire station to fix another.

“We have a balanced budget but to do that we did have to pull $50,000 out of reserves, your invested funds,” said North Whatcom Fire and Rescue Services (NWFRS) finance director at the December 12 commissioner’s meeting. On top of the operating deficit in 2003, McLelland reported the district went $27,000 over in their operational budget in 2002, which will further deplete the district’s funds. He predicted the ending fund balance in the general expense fund, which since 1997 has hovered around $250,000 at year end, will finish 1993 closer to $180,000.

Commissioner Don Frantz said the 2002 shortfall was due to expenses they could not have anticipated. “The reason is a little overage due to catastrophic failures for apparatus,” he said. The district spent $17,500 more than anticipated on apparatus repairs through NWFRS in 2002. They also spent $49,000 on replacing 12 breathing units, $12,000 more than budgeted. The cost of the breathing units was transferred to the capital budget, which led to the final shortfall of $27,000. However, McLelland said, capital and operational expenses all came out of the same account – general expense.

Overall, the district spent $58,000 more than they had budgeted for in 2002, putting them 24 percent overbudget, and $110,000 more than they collected in taxes.

Commissioners received a letter of concern from battalion chief Bill Skinner expressing concerns about fire district management, ranging from using reserves and interest to fund operations to unclear policies and procedures under NWFRS.

“The vision was a good one but it needed a plan to make it work and we still don’t have one,” he said in a later interview. “We don’t have the funding to sustain our end of the partnership.” Skinner said commissioners had approved changes associated with increased staffing and consolidation into NWFRS without making sure they had the money to pay for it. “The commissioners have known for two years they would have to raise taxes,” he said. “They put the cart before the horse and spent the money before getting things set up.”

In 2003, the budget commissioners approved anticipated spending $274,000, $27,000 less than 2002. They voted to take the one-percent increase in total taxes collected allowed by law without voter approval, which is anticipated to be around $192,000.

Income from the fireman’s bingo is anticipated to decrease from $14,000 to $11,000 due to a rent reduction as a portion of the Bingo hall is turned into the Wellness Clinic. The 2003 budget also includes $18,000 in rent from the clinic on the revenue side, but $18,000 in expenditures on leasehold improvements related to the clinic.

One of the items in the 2003 budget is money for a special election in which commissioners plan to go to the voters and ask for the Point Roberts tax rate to be lifted more than one percent. Frantz said they wanted to see the Point Roberts tax rate, closer to parity with what taxpayers in the rest of the areas covered by NWFRS pay. In 2002 taxpayers in Point Roberts paid 77 cents per thousand dollars of assessed valuation while taxpayers in Blaine and Birch Bay, fire district 13, paid $1.27 and taxpayers in Lynden’s district 3 paid $1.35.

In order to pursue renovations of the Benson Road fire without further burdening the budget, commissioners are selling the old fire station on Gulf Road. “The fact is the biggest challenge remains funds and as time goes on we remain more

challenged,” commissioner Jesse Lofquist said. “The most practical and real approach was to use funds from the Julius station to renovate the Benson Road station.”

While Frantz and Lofquist recall declaring the station surplus at one of their meetings they cannot recall which one. October meeting minutes list no report on the Julius Station. November minutes report a discussion of progress in renovation plans for the Benson station with chief Mike Campbell. They concluded “we cannot sell the (Julius) station at this time.”
From November 25 to December 3 the fire district advertised three times for bids on the station “as is, where is” in the Bellingham Herald. Bids were to close December 4 but three more ads were run from December 9 to 11 extending the date to December 11.

Frantz said the decision to extend the bidding period was made after a letter of concern was received from the water district expressing concerns about the legality of the pathway being followed in selling the property and asking for more time to prepare a bid. The decision to extend the bidding period to December 11 was not made at a public meeting Frantz said, but after a telephone consultation between recording secretary Davea Fisher and the commissioners. That action would appear to violate the intent of the state Open Meetings Act that “their actions be taken openly and their deliberations be conducted openly.” The act also states that any action taken by the board at a meeting not in compliance with the act’s rules for public disclosure “shall be null and void.”

While there appears to be no specific provisions for sale of surplus property by a fire district in state code, there are general requirements under which sale of property from one government agency to another requires a public hearing if the value of the property is more than $50,000. The fire station is assessed at $100,275.

Sale of surplus property by other districts, such as a water or school district requires that the district sell the property at 90 percent of fair market value as determined by a recent appraisal and notice of the sale must be published for two consecutive weeks.

At their December 12 meeting commissioners went into executive session for over a half hour to open three bids they received for the Julius station. “They have some correspondence they haven’t reviewed yet,” said Davea Fisher before commissioners went behind closed doors to open the bids. “We haven’t reviewed the bids,” Frantz adding no action would be taken. The state Open Meetings Act lists ten reasons a governing body can take a matter behind closed doors. Reviewing offers to purchase real estate is not one of them.

Two of the three bidders on the property were at the meeting and neither was satisfied with the process. “Because we didn’t know we had to put together our bid very quickly. I question you then extending the bidding period,” said Irene Waters of the parks and recreation district, who put in a bid of $65,000. Dan Bourks represented the water district, the highest bidder at $90,099. “Can we bring the auditor in on this and make everyone happy?” he suggested. Arthur Wilkowski of Point Recycling and Refuse was the third highest bidder at $56,101.

“At this point the board will go into contract negotiations on the ifs ands or buts of the sale of the building,” Frantz said, moving on to other business. “We may have to lease it back. State law allows the sale of public property if a governmental agency determines it is not and will not be needed.”
In a later interview Lofquist said the decision to pursue discussions with the water district about leaving equipment in the building until renovation to the Benson station are complete was made in the December 12 executive session.

The fire district ended its year with a special meeting December 22, to appoint a replacement for commissioner John Fisher who, with secretary Davea Fisher, resigned at the December 12 meeting citing health reasons. Meeting announcements were posted for 48 hours prior to the meeting on local bulletin boards but parties of record, such as the All Point Bulletin, did not receive notification. At that meeting Davea Fisher was appointed to the vacant seat for two months. Lofquist was named chair of the fire commission. Frantz, now on holiday in California, is scheduled to return in March when they will select a permanent replacement for John Fisher..

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