Speaking Out: County, city fire department debate about budget, not quality of service
In the near future, citizens of Boone County and Columbia will be hearing about contract negotiations regarding fire services. As the City of Columbia expands by smart growth, unbridled growth or hokey-pokey growth, the demand for fire protection services changes.
By agreement, the City of Columbia pays the Boone County Fire Protection District for services in areas where the city is expanding. This strategy provides a continued source of revenue for the BCFD, allows for an orderly transition and lets the Columbia Fire Department adjust to new boundaries and responsibilities.
The debate and issues regarding this arrangement have intensified as Columbia has accelerated its growth laterally. The cost in the city budget to the BCFD has accelerated with that growth. Everybody has been protected; the government has done its job, and this is an organizational and budget discussion, not one of quality of effort.
I can talk about this subject. I was a firefighter. For seven years, I worked in Richmond Heights, Ohio for a hybrid department as a part-time professional firefighter. I worked and trained with union firefighters. I drove and operated an aerial tower, two pumpers and an ambulance with my fellow firefighters. Most of the firefighters were at my wedding. My father-in-law was assistant fire chief for the City of Cleveland. Needless to say, we were a firefighter family while we lived in Cleveland. They say that once you fight fires, it’s in your blood.
I am watching this issue and am concerned that what will get lost in the debate of politicians, union representatives, territorial advocates and other assorted experts is the fact that we have two superior fire departments serving our community. They operate with different methodologies, but have both excelled in making those methodologies best meet the majority of interests for the largest portion of their citizenry. Consider these points:
The majority of calls for both departments are medical, not fire. Over 60 percent of both departments’ activities involve some form of medical response or rescue, which in both cases is backed up by ambulances and the professional staff at local hospitals. Both departments are highly trained. Both departments can do extractions. Both departments are professional.
There is a mutual aid agreement between the two departments. When CFD gets overwhelmed, they turn to the BCFD for assistance. The same is true in the opposite direction when the circumstances require. All the firefighters will admit that, when on the scene, they are partners working to protect each others’ backs and making certain that the lives of the citizens of our community are protected. And they do it well.
It’s those nuances that make us better as a community. I have an office in a three-story building in south Columbia. Should there be a fire, CFD brings superior attributes. They have more buildings over three stories high. They have ladder trucks. They train in this scenario more often. But if that building were to fall and people were trapped, I want BCFD’s Task Force. This is what they do. They find trapped people. They do it all over the country. We’re lucky to have them. Between the two departments we, as residents, get the best.
The methods are slightly different, too. Columbia opts for a full-time professional force. With the risks involved and the boundaries of the city, it is appropriate. Multiple hospitals, a university campus, a stadium that seats 65,000, and arenas that have capacities larger than some cities demand it. The sheer concentration of people being placed at risk justifies the additional expenditures for the full-time, well-equipped and well-trained professional workforce.
Where the densities are less concentrated, the opposite becomes true. A spread-out, well-equipped, independent,and professionally-trained workforce becomes a higher priority. To meet this need, BCFD employs resident firefighters at the stations to move equipment where independent professional responders, who volunteer their time, are immediately available at the scene.
According to its budget, CFD has 109 skilled firefighters operating seven stations at an annual budget of $14 million and will cover close to 9,000 incidents. BCFD will operate with 400 personnel, mostly volunteers, covering 532 square miles from 14 fire stations at an operating budget of $3.9 million and will handle over 4,000 incidents.
They share the dispatching duties through the Joint Communications Center, and the goal is the same: get trained personnel to the incident as quickly as possible.
Hopefully, the debate will be kept where it belongs: a discussion of budget, response time and orderly transition between two taxing authorities.
David Shorr
David Shorr practices law at Lathrop & Gage in Jefferson City and Columbia. The views expressed in this column are Shorr’s and do not reflect the views of Lathrop & Gage. He can be reached at (573) 761-5005 or [email protected]