By Susan K. Lamb Riverbend News
The Suwannee County Commission met on Wednesday, July 28, at Live Oak City Hall for a nearly five-hour workshop on next year’s tax assessments for county fire and solid waste. Although no final decisions were made on the exact numbers at these initial workshops, decisions were made on how high and low the assessments could go in the future. One thing is clear, assessments will rise for Suwannee County Fire Rescue and solid waste.
The meeting opened with Suwannee County Manager Randy Harris telling the board “We’re way behind the eight ball” on updating assessments. Harris said every five years is normal to look at local assessments and although it is no fault of the commissioners sitting on the board today, that had not been done. He added even more bad news the board already knew…all costs for running the county have increased.
Harris introduced Jeff Rackley of GSG, a Tallahassee group previously hired to come and look at the current taxes and assessments to give the board an idea of where Suwannee County should be on fire and solid waste assessments.
Rackley, the GSG senior project manager in Tallahassee, said Suwannee County Fire has not had an assessment for a while. Rackley said he would not speak about the rescue portion of Fire Rescue now but maybe later if the county desires.
“You can’t make up the rates for fire, you have to have some study and it just has to make sense to the average person,” Rackley said. He added the assessment has to be fair and reasonable, can’t be arbitrary, can’t be a made-up rate and has to be based on info available. Rackley said Suwannee County can’t charge landowners for fire services and most counties do not charge certain others, but can if they desire. But, he said, the general fund then has to make up for exempting certain people.
Rackley said his group worked to find out what fire type service the county is providing in order to consider what the assessments should be. In Fire Rescue, it makes different types of runs. GSG suggested to base the new rates for fire calls at $297 per dwelling, which is a five-year average.
Rackley said to provide the money required to bring the county fire department up to par as Fire Rescue Chief Eddie Hand is suggesting, the county is considering an increase of 2.8 percent over the next several years. Current rates haven’t been updated in several years, he stated. “You can go down, but not up (above the maximum rate set July 28) come Tuesday, Sept. 7 when people will show up to talk about this rate,” Rackley said.
Chief Hand said there has never been any plans forward on replacement of equipment. He’s trying to fix that by including it in each year’s budget now and in the future. In future budgets, Hand plans to replace equipment, purchase a ladder truck at $1 million to be able to answer possible calls to Dowling Park’s six story buildings and Binderholz’s lumber yard and raise his employees’ starting pay to $15.50 per hour in order to keep them from being drawn away by larger cities nearby. He told the board he’s lost many new paramedics and EMTs who would not work in Suwannee County due to the county’s low pay for these highly trained medical and fire employees. His current budget for Fire Rescue is $10,540,960 with the proposed budget for 2021-22 now at $12,428,363 with the commission’s assessment changes. That could change based on the final assessment decisions.
Hand said Commissioner Clyde Fleming brought up that 2013 was the last time Suwannee County adjusted its assessment rates. Fire has never been fully funded at a full rate, Hand said. “I don’t know how any unit can operate on budgets they had seven years ago. Costs go up, just annual raises for the 65 employees we have is $190,000 annually. The budget increased if we didn’t do anything,” he said. “Just our operating expenses, we currently have a $225,000 deficient and that doesn’t allow for any replacement or fixing any equipment, just operating.” Hand said GSG has recommended more of a 50/50 split in where the funding comes from than the current 27/73. “I wasn’t a chief back then, I don’t know why it ever got changed, but GSG told me it should have been 50/50 all the time,” Hand stated.
Hand said when there is a life or death emergency he sometimes approves transfers of patients from Lake City Medical to larger hospitals as a courtesy if Suwannee Fire Rescue is available. Most people in this area use doctors in Lake City, as well as the Lake City Medical ER and hospital. Hand said he turns down around 15 requests per week to take these emergency patients to other hospitals but does send an ambulance when possible. “We’re the busiest rural service in this area by a long shot,” Hand said. For those desperate transfers, it is a service that is a life and death matter.
Of all the billable runs, the county currently collects about 50 percent of that money. Some people can’t pay, some companies won’t pay, but Hand said his new billing company has made great progress getting the money. Commissioner Don Hale asked if there’s any way to go after people who don’t pay. Hand said that’s a board decision. Commissioner Travis Land said the bad debt is likely because the county is not chasing the debtor hard enough, but felt it was not the best way to go to chase down a person who can’t pay.
Rackley reminded the board they should keep in mind this is an annual decision on assessments the board can rise and lower as needed. To meet the needs of Fire Rescue, he said it likely will take an increase of nearly three percent over several years as these rates haven’t been updated in several years.
After hearing comments from the audience, the board set the lowest Fire Rescue assessment the county can go at $120 and the maximum assessment for the next year at $336. This is not the final numbers. According to state law, the board cannot assess lower or higher than these numbers that were decided on at this workshop. There are more opportunities to make the final decision on exactly what the new assessment will be. Those dates are Tuesday, Aug. 3, at the board’s regular 5 p.m. meeting and budget workshops Wednesday, Aug. 4 and Thursday, Aug. 5 beginning at 9 a.m., all in the Judicial Annex.
Hand told the board he appreciates its willingness to work with him. “I feel like we have a great board who is willing to work together. I am willing to work with you. We’ve got a great staff who are working really hard,” he said. “I strive for our guys to be professional. Part of this is we’ve been a paid department for a long time, but we’re trying to become a professional department…and we’re getting there.”
The board thanked the chief and his department for all they do for the citizens of Suwannee County.
The video of the July 28, 2021 meeting can be found by going online to Suwannee Media and clicking on July 28, 2021. All county commission meetings are usually online at this YouTube site one day after the meeting.