BELLEAIR BLUFFS – The City Commission June 15 approved ballot language for an upcoming referendum vote on whether to allow outsourcing of fire services.
The wording asks citizens whether Belleair Bluffs should contract with a third party to provide fire services in order to avoid raising taxes within the city.
That provision is misleading and could be challenged in court, former Commissioner David Shimkus contends. He distributed figures at the meeting purporting to show, in his words, “There is no reason to raise taxes if the fire department stays.”
The department used in Shimkus’ calculations is slimmed down in capabilities from its current 12-person with advanced life support size. His numbers show a 9-person basic life support department with a fire chief would cost “roughly $800,000.” By law, he said, the county is required to pay $512,000 of that cost for the unincorporated area, leaving about $288,000 to be picked up by the city. That is nearly the same amount that the city currently pays to maintain the department, he said.
Shimkus accused the commission of “reaching the foregone conclusion to go to Largo (for fire services) and then deciding how to get that done.”
The option he is proposing to keep the department needs to be considered, Shimkus maintains.
The likelihood of a court challenge to the referendum wording was disputed by City Attorney Thomas Trask.
“We cannot run the same fire department we have now on the same funds that we currently have,” Trask said. “There would be an absolute requirement that we would have to raise taxes.”
On that basis, Trask declared the possibility of a successful legal challenge to the referendum wording to be “fairly slim.”
Commissioner Hunt Brand also challenged Shimkus’ argument.
“The commission has done a lot of looking at options (to keep the department), and all require reducing the fire department to a level less than it is now,” he said.
Brand stressed he did not want a “bare minimum department.”
The commission approved on first reading the recommended referendum wording by a 5-0 vote. The question will be “Shall the City of Belleair Bluffs contract with a third party for the provision of primary fire services in order to avoid raising taxes within the City?”
The city will hold a town hall meeting at city hall on Tuesday, June 30, at 6 p.m. to discuss the fire department issue and answer citizen questions.
Settlement recommended for aggrieved fire lieutenant
The city is offering to resolve a grievance filed by the local firefighters union over disciplinary penalties imposed on Lt. Chuck Barlet by rescinding Barlet’s 10-shift, unpaid suspension. That action would cost approximately $3,000 in back pay for Barlet, Trask said in a comment made after the meeting. Also rescinded is a 23-month probation Barlet was placed on following the suspension.
The commission decided not to pay Barlet for any projected overtime connected to the suspension, on the advice of the city’s legal staff. That payment also had been a part of the union’s proposed settlement. Trask said the expected overtime pay was difficult to calculate.
The commission voted 3-1 in favor of the settlement recommended by the attorneys. Commissioner Joseph Barclay recused himself, and Commissioner Suzy Sofer was opposed. Sofer said after the meeting that she thought the firefighters union and the city had worked out a mutual settlement agreement “and that was not the case.”
“I did not feel comfortable voting for (the proposed settlement) if not all parties are agreeing to it,” she said.
Former Commissioner Robert Russo said after the meeting that he was opposed to giving any compensation to Barlet.
“We are paying someone who ought to have been fired,” Russo said.
