Misconceptions of West Manatee Fire & Rescue Ad Valorem Referendum
Misconception #1: The Fire District receives local government funding. In fact, we do not. 100% of our funding comes from the annual fire assessment from each property within our district. We do not receive any sales tax money, therefore, the ½ cent sales tax voted down during the last election would not have contributed to the Fire District’s budget at all. None of millage rate charged by the cities within our district go to support your fire department. We are not financially supported by the island cities or the county. WMFR’s proposed ad valorem would only cost the taxpayer and additional $50. per $100,000 of taxable value.
Misconception #2: The ad valorem would provide pay raises for existing employees. False. Revenue raised would support the hiring of additional firefighters. WMFR has a comparable rate of pay with other local departments. A large pay increase is not being considered.
Misconception #3: Upon passage of the ad valorem the district would immediately raise the rate to it’s cap. Again False. Our desire is to add approximately 12 additional firefighters. The 1/2 mil proposed would provide funding for those 12 firefighters including salaries, personal protective equipment, uniforms, insurance, pension, and other related expenses.
Misconception #4: Without the proposed ad valorem, the service provided by the district would remain as it always has. False. The State of Florida has recently adopted and mandated the Florida Firefighter Occupational Health and Safety Act. Contained in this rule is the adoption of OSHA 29CFR1910.134 or commonly called the “two-in two-out “ rule which requires fire services to implement a rapid intervention team (RIT) of at least two firefighters, who must be in place and dedicated to the safety of fire crews before they can enter a burning structure. This means we can no longer enter burning buildings before having two firefighters outside, ready to rescue the firefighters going into the structure. We currently try to maintain a minimum of 3 firefighters per truck. Three firefighters do not comply with the two-in two-out rule, so we must wait sometimes up to six or seven minutes for the 2nd fire truck to arrive and position it’s personnel.
Misconception #5: We could supplement our manpower with volunteers in order to comply with the two-in two-out. We already use volunteers to maintain our current level of manning. We currently have 15 active volunteers who are used to cover manpower shortages caused by vacation, sickness, injury, technical schools, etc. When not filling in for a career person, these volunteers are utilized to increase the manning on each of the fire trucks. But, as these are volunteers this is an inconsistent manning practice and we seldom have 4 firefighters on an Engine even with the help of our volunteers.
The firefighters of our district are committed to providing you the best service possible. What level of service do you want when it is YOUR emergency we are responding to?
For more information contact: Captain Ernie Cave
