WARNING: Readers may detect opinion by author in article.
Alexander Mayor Crystal Herrmann was needed to break a tie vote, allowing the city to purchase a new firetruck. The discussion and resulting vote to purchase the truck came during a Special Meeting held Monday June 5.
The meeting was called by council members Angela Griffin, Gina Thomas Littlejohn and Mitchell W. Smith, all of whom were present. Also present were council members Joy Gray and Joe Pollard. Absent were Tony Staton, Harold Timmerman and Juanita Wilson.
Purchase of the 2023 E-One Rescue Pumper, at a cost of $582,607.00, will be made possible through a 10-year loan with Government Capital Corporation. The interest rate is 4.9-percent with annual payments of $75,434.47. The first payment isn't due until June of 2024. The truck is a demo being sold by Banner Fire.
In his presentation to the council, Fire Chief Ryan McCormick explained how the city can finance the new truck by selling the two oldest firetrucks and putting that money towards the first payment. Then by using ACT 833 funding, which the fire department receives annually from the State, and by not having to repair the older firetrucks will provide the additional revenue needed to make the annual payment. Also, the new truck comes with a 7-year maintenance plan.
"Between 2020 and 2022, we spent $252,000.00 on general maintenance of our firetrucks," McCormick said. "Just last year, we spent $135,000, ... on just maintenance and trying to keep our firetrucks moving."
McCormick was hired this past May as fire chief. These amounts are based on maintenance records he has reviewed.
"The city of Alexander Fire Department receives (ACT) 833 money every year and adds up to $26,754.00," McCormick said. "If you subtract that from the $74,000 payment a year, that adds basically $48,680 left for what we owe off of the fire department."
McCormick expects that additional funding to come from revenue not spent on repairing the other firetrucks no longer in the fleet.
ACT 833 funds are distributed annually by the State of Arkansas to be used by fire departments for the purchase of equipment. The $26,754.00 is the estimated amount in the city's 2023 budget based on past ACT 833 receipts.
Most of the funding for the fire department is derived from two one-cent city sales taxes. Both were approved by voters with spending limitations. The first one-cent goes entirely to the fire department. The second one-cent tax requires the parks and recreation department receive two-eighths of one-cent, while the police and fire departments share the remaining six-eighths. The fire department receives one-eighth while the police department receives the remaining five-eighths. The estimated total revenue for the fire department this year is $968,909.00.
The department currently has four firetrucks. The truck used to respond to all calls first is Engine-1, a 2003 Pierce Engine with 115,171 miles. The remaining trucks used as backup are Engine-2, a 1988 Pierce Engine with 51,266 miles; Engine-3, a 2000 Pierce Engine with 75,882 miles and the Ladder Truck, a 1994 Pierce with 100,843 miles.
McCormick said the plan is to make the new truck the primary response vehicle and what is now Engine-1 the secondary truck. The two oldest trucks will be sold. That still leaves the city with a three-truck fleet.
McCormick explained some of the guidelines provided by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Some of the guidelines include the optimal age of fleet vehicles.
"In our NFPA guidelines, a municipality, which is who we are, is supposed to be replaced, a fire engine, is supposed to be replaced every 10 years," McCormick said. "
To emphasize how the aging fleet is causing response time issues, McCormick relayed a recent incident when none of the trucks would start to respond to an emergency call.
"We had one recently where we had a citizen in Alexander that was not breathing and none of our firetrucks started," McCormick said. "We had to go in with our personal vehicle and drive to their scene to start doing CPR and to resuscitate."
Explaining the reason for the special meeting McCormick said, "It just came off the demo line and it's up for purchase. It's time-sensitive. When I say it's time-sensitive, we have our name on the drawing board for that vehicle until tomorrow morning (June 6)."
McCormick explained that because this is a demo firetruck (ie. it's already built) Alexander won't have to wait the normal two years for delivery. And, Alexander isn't the only city wanting this truck.
"They (Banner Fire) were aggressively allowing us to keep holding that for the city of Alexander until we could meet today," McCormick said. "That was the only reason that we had my call ... to meet today."
Since January 3, the Alexander accounting software has been unable to produce monthly finance reports. Because of that, the council has tabled almost every spending request until there is a definite accounting of the city's current financial situation. While there was no disagreement Alexander needs a new firetruck, Council Member Joy Gray wanted to know what had changed.
"[W]e've put all these other things on the table because we didn't know about the money, we didn't know about the money, we didn't know about the money," Gray said. "And then now we have this and it's like, oh my god, you have to buy this today. Whereas when we had other stuff, we had to table everything because people hadn't seen the budget. I still haven't seen the budget. I still don't know how much money any department has right now."
"And then today, which I'm not arguing that we don't need a firetruck, we probably do need a firetruck," Gray continued. "But then if I don't make this choice right this very minute, I don't ... we can't have any more firetrucks for two years. That just feels very high pressure and unreasonable for me."
McCormick also noted how this offers Alexander the opportunity to get back into compliance with ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standards. The ISO rating of a fire department is one of the criteria that determines home insurance rates.
McCormick said his focus is, "Getting us back into (ISO) compliance, keeping us safe. Getting us back into having a reliable, dependable firetruck that starts."
"My concern, I guess, would be I'm more concerned with the city not being able to have reliable vehicles," Council Member Angela Griffin said. "For me, and I can only speak for myself, it takes more precedent so the citizens can have reliable vehicles. I'm looking here, 1988 engine 2, that's 35 years old. Engine 3, 2000, that's 23 years old."
"And then our most recent one that we're using is a 20 year vehicle," Griffin continued. "You're waiting two more years and we're already having issues waiting to see if the vehicle starts to take a chance on waiting. And I don't want the city to be put in a liability suit."
After everyone agreed Alexander needs a new firetruck, Gray brought up the issue of Amendment 78 of the Arkansas Constitution. Amendment 78 limits a city or county to taking on any type of debt for more than five years.
"For the purpose of acquiring, constructing, installing or renting real property or tangible personal property having an expected useful life of more than one (1) year, municipalities and counties may incur short-term financing obligations maturing over a period of, or having a term, not to exceed five (5) years," the Amendment states.
Also included is a definition of “Short-term financing obligation.” "[A] debt, a note, an installment purchase agreement, a lease, a lease-purchase contract, or any other similar agreement, whether secured or unsecured; provided, that the obligation shall mature over a period of, or have a term, not to exceed five (5) years."
Speaking to Police Chief McCormick Gray said, "I know you and I discussed at one point you could not, a city could not take out a loan that was going to be more than five years, but the legislature has passed an Amendment 68 [78] of last year."
"And we have the documentation in hand," McCormick said.
We requested a copy of the "Documentation" that shows how the Arkansas House and Senate amended the State Constitution without bringing it to a vote of the electorate. As of this writing we have not received it. We are also waiting for a comment from the Arkansas Municipal League, which promotes and interprets laws involving Arkansas municipalities.
We did find Senate Joint Resolution 14, which does propose a change to Amendment 78. However, it ultimately died in committee.
According to information provided on the Arkansas Legislative website, SJR-14 was sponsored by Senator Kim Hammer (R), Senate District 16. It was filed 2/8/2023. On that same day SJR-14 was, "Read first time, rules suspended, read second time, referred to State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs-Senate." On 5/1/2023, "Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment."
The title of SJR-14 is, "AN AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION TO AMEND ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT 78, § 2, TO ALLOW ADDITIONAL OPTIONS FOR THE FINANCING OF FIRE EQUIPMENT."
Paragraph two states, "That the following is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the State of Arkansas, and upon being submitted to the electors of the state for approval or rejection at the next general election for Representatives and Senators, if a majority of the electors voting thereon at the election adopt the amendment, the amendment shall become a part of the Constitution of the State of Arkansas."
The only section in SJR-14 is Section 1. It does not, however, state any specific changes such as increasing the five year limit of a loan to ten.
"SECTION 1. The purpose of this joint resolution is to amend Arkansas Constitution, Amendment 78, § 2, to allow additional options for the financing of fire equipment."
The annual Legislative Audit is about to begin. The auditors do not take kindly to violations of State financing laws, much less the State Constitution.
As to the final vote; Griffin, Littlejohn, Gray, and Pollard voted "Yes." Smith voted "No." With Staton, Timmerman and Wilson absent they too counted as "No" votes. That left Mayor Herrmann who voted "Yes" breaking the tie.
No comments:
Post a Comment