Sunday, Sep. 06, 2009

Columbia-Richland fire deal may unravel

County being asked for big boost in payments

A funding dispute between Columbia and Richland County officials could end the county’s 20-year partnership with the Columbia Fire Department.

In June, the fire service agreement between the two entities expired, and Columbia officials wanted the county to pay $2.7 million more for fire coverage.

Elected officials from both governments discussed the issue privately and agreed to a one-year extension, with the county paying an additional $1.9 million.

But city officials say that’s not enough. Negotiations will reopen in January. The contract will expire June 30, 2010.

“Richland County has always been a proponent of having a unified fire service for the benefit of our entire community,” Richland County administrator Milton Pope said. “We would certainly strive to keep it that way. However, any type of plan or agreement that we agree to has to be fiscally sound for the county.”

The issue is administration.

Richland County pays for 20 fire stations and 216 firefighters, including 63 firefighter positions added in the past five years.

But the officers who supervise those county firefighters — and the logistics and training staff who support them — are mostly paid for by city taxpayers.

“The county has really beefed up their operation. But we’ve not been able to keep up the infrastructure that supports that part,” said Columbia Fire Chief Bradley Anderson, whose $104,853.26 salary is paid for by city taxpayers. “We spend close to half of our time or more working on county-related issues.”

Richland County taxpayers pay for four of the 42 fire department positions that support both city and county operations, including one of the department’s 15 battalion chiefs.

For example, Battalion 4, which is headquartered in Lower Richland, has three battalion chiefs who supervise two city-funded stations and seven county-funded stations. County taxpayers pay for one of those battalion chiefs.

Battalion 3, which is headquartered at the Sandhill Station on Sparkleberry Lane, has three battalion chiefs who supervise one city-funded station and six county-funded stations. Yet city taxpayers pay for the battalion chiefs.

Anderson’s plan, outlined in a May 8 memo to interim city manager Steve Gantt, would call for the county to fund half of those 42 salaries.

But the context of the city’s funding request has frustrated county officials.

Because of years of poor bookkeeping, city officials did not realize they were paying millions more than budgeted for employee health insurance.

Last year, all city departments had to add millions of dollars to their health care budgets, which led to a $9 million deficit in the city’s general fund.

The Columbia Fire Department had to absorb an additional $1.2 million, which it covered by reducing staffing at some fire stations and scrapping plans to build a new fire station on Broad River Road.

Some county officials see the city’s request for more money as a way to cover its own health care costs.

“I was real upset because of how much we increased it because the way and the reason we had to increase it was ... the fault of the city,” said County Councilman Kelvin Washington, a former volunteer firefighter. “It was just a sudden notice. We didn’t know it was coming.”

Gantt said that if county firefighters have a lot of overtime, the county’s portion is not enough to cover the expense.

“We’ve got to do a better job managing the money they give us,” Gantt said. “They are talking about getting into their own fire service, but they don’t know what they are getting into.”

Others say the county has done all it can. A big portion of the county’s fire service funding comes from a separate millage rate on county property taxes.

“And it still wasn’t enough,” said County Councilman Greg Pearce, whose district includes portions of the city. “We don’t have any choice but to see if we can do it more economically than they can.”

The city and county fire service agreement dates back to 1990 and has led to a significant drop in ratings by the Insurance Services Office, or ISO.

ISO ratings are based on a scale from one to 10, with 10 being the worst. Homeowners’ fire insurance policies are based in large part on this rating. The higher the rating is, the higher the premium is.

In 2006, because of the city and county’s joint department, the ISO ratings for many rural areas of the county dropped to a 4 from a 9. A study by the University of South Carolina found the changes in ISO ratings saved homeowners $5.5 million.

“The city’s in the county, and the county’s in the city,” said City Councilman Daniel Rickenmann. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t be looking at more ways to work together to consolidate services to provide a better product to our citizens.”

Reach Beam at (803) 771-8405.

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