Elk Creek facing budget cuts

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Chief McLaughlin gave an update starting at 28:14 at last week's Conifer Area Council Town Hall Meeting where he goes over some of those details. Still processing the last Elk Creek Fire Dept Board of Directors Meeting about their budget.

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Timeline of Agenda:

Open Meeting, Pledge of Allegiance
@0:37 Additions or Deletions to Agenda
@1:14 Review and Approval of October Meeting Minutes
@3:26 Legal Update
@12:30 Treasurer's Report
@14:56 Suspend Normal Business, Conduct Public Hearing on 2013 Budget - Chief McLaughlin to present
@52:00 Close Special 2013 Budget Discussion Hearing, Re-open regular board meeting
@52:40 Chief's regular report
@56:28 Citizens Issues
@56:39 New Business

Video recording ends approximately 5 minutes before end of meeting.

The points of most interest:
@14:56 Suspend Normal Business, Conduct Public Hearing on 2013 Budget - Chief McLaughlin presents
@38:53 Fire Prevention portion of budget - this will be the most visible, biggest impact on the district. Need to cut $160K.
* Eliminates Fire Marshall position, will subcontract to Evergreen Fire District for needs covered by this position
* Drop other activities
* Will cause fire insurance rates to rise for community
@45:00 Vehicle Repairs/Replacement Due - status of what's due/past due and plans
@48:27 Net impact on budget - ran a deficit the previous 2 years (by over $100K each). This budget does not, it is balanced and maintains reserves. Cannot afford to bleed any longer or will cut into reserves.

Board of Directors may have to consider proposing a mill levy for next November's ballot. Cost to add to election estimated at $46,000, money set aside in budget for that should they vote to proceed.

December 13th, 2012 next meeting. 2012 budget on agenda.
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Edit to add:
We missed the October meeting so there is no video, but Chief McLaughlin was kind enough to email the agenda and a brief summary of the meeting. It's as follows. Videos of previous meetings can always be viewed on our YouTube Channel .

Elk Creek Fire Protection District
Board of Directors Regular Meeting Agenda Thursday, October 11,2012

Immediately following the Pension Board Meeting
Station 1: 11993 Blackfoot Road, Conifer, CO 80433

I. Call to Order

II. Pledge of Allegiance

III. Roll Call of Board Members

IV. Additions or Deletions to, and Approval of, the Agenda

V. Meeting Minutes
Review and approval of September 13,2012, Regular Meeting Minutes

VI. Financial Matters and Treasurer's Report
Sept 2012 Financial Report
Statement ofExpenditures

VII. 2013 Budget Discussion

VIII. 2012 Budget Amendment Discussion

IX. Fire Chief Report

X. Legal Update

XI. Citizen issues

XII. Old Business
Work/Retreat Session

XIII. New Business
Consideration of limited waiver of attorney/client privilege associated with Bill Dolan's association with the Elk Creek Fire Protection District and his FPPA disabilipension proceedings, and potential executive session pursuant to Section 24-6-402(4i(b), C.R.S. to receive legal advice regarding the same. :::::

XIV. Any other business that may be brought before the Board
XV. Adjournment


Prior to the board meeting was a meeting of the Pension Board. At that meeting, the board adopted revised bylaws for the volunteer pension program, and held a hearing on a disability request filed by Melody Mesmer, a former volunteer. At the meeting, the board denied her request for a disability pension due to ineligibility (she was not a volunteer at the time of injury).

At the regular board meeting, the board reviewed the first draft of the 2013 budget. Pertinent issues included a significant decline in ambulance revenues due to reduced number of transports, declining Medicare and Medicaid payments and an increase in uncollectible debts. The board was advised that we need to look at cutting programs and/or increasing fire contract revenue for out of district fires to balance the budget. As this was the first reading, there was no action on the budget. Following the budget review, the board voted to approve the sale of older apparatus we don’t use (a 25 year old engine, haz mat truck and 2 reserve ambulances) and authorized up to $50,000 each for the purchase of two used interface engines to replace the older engine and to be used for out of district contract firefighting. The purpose is to allow the department to assist other agencies in wildfires without leaving the district underprotected, and to help generate income to offset the declining local revenue.

The board held an executive session to discuss a request by Collins, Cockerel and Cole (our former law firm) for a waiver of attorney client privilege for matters related to former Fire Chief Bill Dolan, who has filed suit against the firm over the issues related to his fromer employment and loss of his disability pension. After the executive session, the board re-convened and approved a motion to release documents to Cole, and to replace Collins Cockerel and Cole with Toussaint, Nemer and Coaty of Evergreen.

Let me know if you have questions.

Bill McLaughlin
Fire Chief

I think there's a good chance that they will need to propose a mil levy for next November after listening to the Chief list their income, expenditures, and projections for next year. They brought in over $200,000 responding to requests for help out-of-district and while next year will likely be as busy as this one, the Chief made a good point that they can't count on that income (and they might be too busy fighting fires here to go elsewhere and make that extra money - the Chief mentioned at the Town Hall Meeting that this winter is predicted to be warm and dry, and we've been suffering a drought for many years now - the next fire season could be very ugly.). Their increasing losses are coming from their ambulance runs that aren't getting reimbursed - either from Medicare/Medicaid or from the victims who can't pay or refuse the ambulance ride to the hospital after they respond to the call - they are writing off a lot of losses in that regards and that's nothing they can control or residents can do much about either.

Their list of equipment repair/replacement that is overdue but they are holding off on sounds concerning, but they also didn't give any detailed information on how much longer they can expect to use them with proper maintenance. That would be a good question to ask at the next board meeting. They had 40 volunteers apply this year, but they can't take them all because it would cost them $70,00-$100,000 to outfit them all in gear...I myself don't want them turning away willing help when we're going to need all we can get, or using equipment/vehicles that are not being maintained/replaced when needed because they can't afford it.

And having to cut the Fire Marshall position? That hurts not just her and her family, but all of us - she conducts building inspections and event inspections to make sure the fire code is being adhered to and incidents avoided. Having to go through a different district seems like it will add to delays in these things being taken care of, although I'm curious as to why it would raise residents' insurance rates if the service is still being taken care of through outsourcing (safety discount, like having deadbolts on your doors?).

We'll be at the next meeting to videotape it as usual, but nothing beats the community showing up in person and asking their own questions and actively participating in this process. Please come if you can, it's December 13th at 6pm, Station 1 on Richmond Hill.

Just wanted to post a reminder that the Elk Creek Fire Dept BOD Meeting is this Thursday at the fire station at Richmond Hill, 6pm, 11993 Blackfoot Rd, Conifer.

I've talked to a couple of insurance agents and realtors in the area, insurance rates are already going up and some people are even losing their insurance. One agent told me they are going to start doing more inspections of properties that are up for renewal and if you have a driveway that prohibits fire truck access, or don't do any mitigation, you're likely to lose your home insurance renewal. This is going to start affecting a ton of people, and we're going to need our fire departments more and more - this drought isn't going to get fixed overnight, and future predictions are for increased dryness and warming. Now is not the time to skimp on proactive fire protection. I'm not advocating blind money dumps, or not making sure that organizations are run efficiently and audited for bad management or even corruption, but the flip side is true too - too blindly refuse to consider paying more when they need it to help the community is just as bad.

Come to the meeting and get informed. Ask questions. Get involved - it's your homes that are at stake here. If you can't make it and have questions you want asked, send them to us with Elk Creek BOD Question in the Subject line, and we'll ask for you, and you can see their answers for yourself on the video of the meeting. We'll be there videotaping it as usual, which by the way, the fire department endorsed us doing as yet another show of transparency and accountability on their part. Try to give them a little credit before claiming that they think we're idiots, or that they're just trying to grab more money from us.

Thanks.

Here is the agenda and 21 page budget. We'll have the video later today or tomorrow.