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Facing a serious financial shortfall, the El Dorado County Fire Protection District board of directors voted to accept a revised budget at its Oct. 18 meeting.
Acting Fire Chief Mike Hardy reported that the district was $1.6 million in the red this year. In addition, the Joint Powers Authority ambulance service has a budget shortfall. To cover the deficits in both programs, $2.2 million was moved out of trust funds and capital improvement funds.
“It’s mind blowing to have this kind of a deficit,” said board member Tom Mahach.
Hardy said he would also be coming back at a future meeting with a plan for $1.1 million in operating budget savings for the next fiscal year. The fire district has an annual budget of approximately $10 million.
To rectify the problem, Courtial said they are in negotiations with the union. Tentative plans include reducing the number of administrative staff in addition to requiring employees to pay 9 percent of their PERS contribution and 20 percent of their health benefits.
“But all of this is still being negotiated,” said Courtial. ”This is one of the toughest things we’ve had to do.”
Board member Michael Dennis said the budget problems came to their attention several months ago when Joe Harn, El Dorado County auditor-controller, warned them that their budget figures didn’t add up and they needed a balanced budget.
The board said that in the past money had been put into hiring firefighting staff rather than professional accounting staff.
Earlier in the meeting, Capt. Paul Dutch, who is a firefighter with Station 17, read a prepared statement to the board in which he said he favored demotions rather than people being laid off. Dutch offered himself as the first person to make the sacrifice, saying he was willing to be demoted from captain back to engineer. At this he received a standing ovation from members of the audience and the board and a tearful hug from Courtial.
In other actions, the board approved promoting Hardy from acting chief to interim Chief.
As the interim chief, it was proposed that Hardy receive a 10 percent increase in salary. Some board members initially expressed reluctance to grant an increase. However, after discussing his additional duties, the board voted to grant him the 10 percent increase effectively immediately.
Contact Dawn Hodson at 530-344-5071 or dhodson@mtdemocrat.net. Follow @DHodsonMtDemo on Twitter.
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Phillip VeerkampOctober 23, 2012 - 8:27 pm
After reading that, "The board said that in the past money had been put into hiring firefighting staff rather than professional accounting staff", I can't help but wonder whether or not the accountant rose up through the ranks and was offered a desk job after suffering severe smoke inhilation injury incident . . . Gomer?
Phillip VeerkampOctober 23, 2012 - 8:31 pm
OOPS! Sorry, Gomer. You're law not fire.
Mike HarrisonOctober 24, 2012 - 8:40 am
There are several issues here, the Fire Chiefs in these districts all make 100k + salaries, thier main responsibility is to prepare and manage budgets and all of these fire districts have been in the paper with similar issues. I wonder...do any of these Fire Chiefs making over 100k a year have a degree in business or finance? As a retired FF from the bay it does seem silly this county has 14 different fire departments with 14 different chiefs managing money instead of one chief and one department. How many Fire Chiefs do we need as tax payers my vote is for more Firefighters and Paramedics.
Janer WilsonOctober 24, 2012 - 9:41 am
Could not of said it better than that!! Why is our county fire so top heavy??
WowOctober 24, 2012 - 10:17 am
Really?? You have a Captain taking a voluntary demotion and an acting chief taking a pay increase with a 2.2 million dollar shortfall??? Hats off to you Mr. Dutch your new chief could use your example and refuse the 10% increase. These guys running the show are asleep at the wheel.
Karl ElzeOctober 24, 2012 - 3:54 pm
The 14 Independent FD are that way for a reason. Because they felt they could provide better service to their communities than was being offered by consolidating. Even if all the departments were to consolidate into one Fire Department, Thats no guarentee that you would solve their money issues and provide better service to the communities involved. In some cases the services to some of these district would go down not up. Plus, you can't force "Independent Districts" to consolidate. Personally, I lived in El Dorado County for 22 years, and it almost seems to me that the FDs ran better before all this consolidations took place, just my opinion, than they do now.
GeorgeOctober 24, 2012 - 4:32 pm
Stupid, stupid, stupid! Who is balancing the checkbook? What, they forget to deduct the amount after they transfer to another account? My teenager understands how to balance her finances better than these clowns. No wonder we are in the red!
Evelyn VeerkampOctober 25, 2012 - 9:48 am
I hate to see our fire services imperiled. If Board President Ed Courtial is correct, the problem arose largely because of a debit/credit entry failure. Any competent bookkeeper knows better; it's hard to imagine that the remedy lies in hiring highly degreed accounting staff. How about 1) holding accountable the person(s) who made the error; 2) ensuring that basic bookkeeping is done only by someone with a great worth ethic; 3) demanding monthly statements (to ensure major slips don't go undetected until Joe Harn steps in); and, 4) DEMAND that all Board members be financially literate and responsible. That's where the buck stops.