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Broward County wants cities to take over fire services By SCOTT WYMAN, Sun-Sentinel������ Web-posted: 10:54 p.m. June 26, 2000 ���Rebuffed in its effort to set up a regional fire service, Broward County wants out of the business of fighting fires and saving lives in the small swaths of land that remain outside city limits. ���County commissioners are being asked to let cities take over fire and rescue operations in neighboring unincorporated areas within the next year. Officials in charge of the long-embattled county fire department say the work is becoming too costly because annexation has left the agency with less and less land to serve. ���The fire department would continue to oversee specialized services such as air rescue and hazardous-materials work and serve cities such as Weston that have contracts with the county. ���Some commissioners said the move to drop the unincorporated areas would boost their case for regional service in the long run. The streamlined department would be able to offer more competitive prices to cities interested in contracting with Broward for fire protection, because it wouldn't be burdened by serving far-flung pockets of the county, they said. ���County Administrator Roger Desjarlais said cities would be asked to submit contract proposals on which areas they would like to take over and services they would offer. Those negotiations would decide the fate of stations and firefighters who now serve those communities, he said. ���"The board made a good decision to market regional service to cities last year, but we couldn't bring costs down and be competitive because of annexation," Desjarlais said. "It's time we get about the business of getting a handle on the cost of providing fire-rescue. We have just run out of options." ���Walt Dix, head of the county firefighters union, declined to comment, but Hollywood Fire Chief Randy Burrough said the county was moving in the right direction. He said Hollywood would likely be interested in serving areas north of the city that it may want to annex later. ���"They are doing what logically makes sense," he said. "If there is a better way to provide fire services in the county, we should look at it. And I believe they have come to realize that the municipalities can better provide the service." ���Until the takeover is complete, residents in unincorporated areas of the county could be faced with higher tax bills for fire protection and rescue services under a proposal the commission will discuss today. ���The proposed tax schedule for those communities shows the cost for the owner of a home with $100,000 of taxable value could increase $128 this year under a worst-case scenario. A property tax of $128 would be added on top of the current special assessment of $272 to raise the price almost 50 percent. ���Last year, the county touted a vision for a huge countywide fire department that would combine all the city agencies with the county's current staff. County officials said one department could provide service at a lower cost and more efficiently. ���They argued that efforts wouldn't be duplicated, and the closest fire station would always be the one responding to a call. They estimated consolidation could cut by 30 percent the more than $250 million the county and cities spend each year on fire and rescue service, but cities universally resisted the idea. ���County officials promised their department last year that it wasn't going out of business, but the agency has been eaten away by annexation. Areas like Cresthaven, Palm-Aire Village and Golden Heights have been annexed and Southwest Ranches formed its own city, as the county moves toward a 2010 deadline set by the state Legislature for all of Broward to be incorporated. ���"As more and more areas become incorporated, we've been dividing coverage over a much smaller group of people and the cost was going up," Commissioner Lori Parrish said. "They were trying to figure out a way to provide service at the lowest possible cost." ���She said she still favors a regional approach and now would like to see the cities agree to divide the county into regions where fire protection would be led by one of the cities. ���Commissioner Kristin Jacobs also said the county's hopes of regional fire protection are far from dead. The fire department will be more cost efficient and better able to seek city contracts like the Broward Sheriff's Office does now in providing law enforcement in some towns, she said. ���"We are at a fork in the road, and we need to give the unincorporated areas a break until they are annexed," she said. "The county can't deliver regional services to little postage-stamp pockets spread out over the county. It is very costly." ���Scott Wyman can be reached at [email protected] or 954-356-4511.
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