"Agreement Must be Linked"
Mayor James Ireton Jr., today, linked the loss of the Salisbury SAFER Grant firefighters to the ongoing debate about the long-expired Fire Service Agreement between Wicomico County and the City of Salisbury. As of Friday, November 28, 2014, the SAFER officers’ (12) grant expired. This grant was never meant to hire firefighters for permanent position status.
The Salisbury City Council met this afternoon to discuss the SAFER Grant officers. It is Mayor Ireton’s hope that the Council considers the underlying cause of why more fire service personal aren’t hired: the lack of a Fire Service Agreement with Wicomico County. The Salisbury Fire Department currently services 56.58% of Wicomico County which is outside City limits by responding to 63% of all fire calls, and 67% of all EMS calls which originate in the County. This service amounts to $2.2 million in cost. That money is not paid back to the city.
The City will extend a request that Wicomico County address this financial disparity on Friday, January 2, 2015, the first working day of the New Year. Below is a list of what Mayor Ireton believes benefits city taxpayers.
• A new Fire Service Agreement that pays Salisbury to the full extent of what service is provided to Wicomico County residents.
• No movement of funds from other city departments to pay for extending the SAFER Grant officers.
• No use of surplus funds to pay to extend the SAFER Grant. Taxpayers have already paid for a service for the county which is not being paid back. Asking them to pay again is hitting taxpayers unfairly – TWICE.
• A new Fire Service Agreement that pays Salisbury to the full extent of what service is provided to Wicomico County residents.
• No movement of funds from other city departments to pay for extending the SAFER Grant officers.
• No use of surplus funds to pay to extend the SAFER Grant. Taxpayers have already paid for a service for the county which is not being paid back. Asking them to pay again is hitting taxpayers unfairly – TWICE.
“Last week we activated 2 frozen positions in our fire service, we have hired to permanent status 11 SAFER Grant officers, and we extended the life of the grant for 6 weeks to keep our grant officers longer. We are applying for the SAFER grant again in the hopes of being granted an award in 2015. The fair and equitable response to extending SAFER Grant officers into permanent status is for our fire leadership, including myself, the Salisbury City Council, our 3 volunteer fire companies, our local IAFF union, and the public to call on Wicomico County leaders to fix this tax burden inequity in 2015,” said Mayor Ireton.
28 comments:
I am sure this will bring out the critics-- who usually live outside the city limits -- as a taxpayer living in the City-- (who would never vote for JI)
it should be noted this is the 1st time I remember him representing his constituency instead of his patrons
I live well outside of the Salisbury city limits but still in Wicomico County. I think the solution is simple. Let the fire companies that surround Salisbury respond up to the city limits. They already receive funding from the county through yearly appropriations. That will cut the costs of the city and the people in the county won't gain another expense. It's not fair to people on the out lying edges of the county to pay for services they don't receive from the city of Salisbury.
Anonymous said...
I live well outside of the Salisbury city limits but still in Wicomico County. I think the solution is simple. Let the fire companies that surround Salisbury respond up to the city limits. They already receive funding from the county through yearly appropriations. That will cut the costs of the city and the people in the county won't gain another expense. It's not fair to people on the out lying edges of the county to pay for services they don't receive from the city of Salisbury.
December 2, 2014 at 9:16 AM
I have to agree. Cut out all the B.S. fire truck responses chasing the ambulances and problem solved. There are not many fire calls in the County that the surrounding stations can't handle. If it's an actual house fire you will get a 3 station response from the surrounding volunteer fire companies. Since Salisbury doesn't want to respond to the calls without getting paid more money then add the next due volunteer fire company in the county. Problem solved.
Anonymous said...
I am sure this will bring out the critics-- who usually live outside the city limits -- as a taxpayer living in the City-- (who would never vote for JI)
it should be noted this is the 1st time I remember him representing his constituency instead of his patrons
December 2, 2014 at 8:46 AM
No Jim Ireton is not representing his constituents. It is another dog and pony show. He wants the citizens to attack the County Executive and the County Council and shame them into paying the City more money for their responses into the county.
The fuel and wear and tear burned up by fire trucks chasing ambulances could probably fund the 11 positions!
Hey Jimbo guess what! The County already pays the City of Salisbury for responding out in the County. Every station gets the "grant" money from the County every October at the Annual County Firemens Association Banguet. You people get paid for 3 stations and the "Special rescue team" or whatever you call it. I have an idea since all the other fire departments gets only 1 check maybe the county should only give you guys one check. After all it is only one department and not three departments. Isn't that what the wannabe fire chief always claims? One department means only one check like the rest of the departments in the county.
The three volunteer companies already get county funding. Which is the same as all Fire companies in Wicomico County. The city of Salisbury has a ambulance in service that gets the same appropriation as the county Fire Departments get. The City of Salisbury gets Special ops funding that is the leveling up funding.
• A new Fire Service Agreement that pays Salisbury to the full extent of what service is provided to Wicomico County residents.
So what services are you claiming that the fire department provides to Wicomico County residents? I don't think that chasing an ambulance with a fire truck is a fair assessment of services provided. First of all the fire trucks have no business self dispatching themselves on ambulance calls just so the fire department can charge more money on the ambulance bill.
Did you know that self dispatching a fire truck on an ambulance call is a major liability? Hurt one of my family members and I am coming after you and everything you own.
Time for the deadbeat county to pay what they owe the city!
so will the city of Salisbury start reimbursing wicomico county because they house criminals from within Salisbury at the COUNTY detention center. if the city wants to open that door than let's start reimbursing each other for everything that's done!!
OK, Wicomico County can pay Salisbury for this Fire agreement.
How about the City pays the State's Atty for legal services rendered? About 80% of cases heard and prosecuted are City cases. The charge for this is much in excess of 2.3 million
This has nothing to do with the fire service agreement between the city and the county as the mayor wants to spin it as. With a change in EMS billing 600,000 dollars can be brought back into the city for services not being billed for. I believe the mayor and council are aware of this although they chose not to go with this. A portion of this would provide the money to pay for the 12 positions. The rest would go to city coffers or could be used to purchase equiptment or update firehouses for the volunteers. The mayor wants to make this a political issue where the firefighters and the citizens are the pawns in the game between him, the council and the county.
916, The mayor may like it if the city fire crews dont respond to the "county" areas. Look at the bigger picture. How will the citizens feel if a cardiac arrest is dispatched at Parkside Highschool, (county property) and Fruitland or Parsonsburg is dispatched to the call when across the street there is an ambulance and a fire crew?
Right behind station one is county. Do you want county fire and EMS going right by station one to handle a call? It would be an eight to ten minute response, when station one could be there in less than a minute. The City needs to annex from the bypass in.
I wonder if common sense could ever prevail and just do away with Salisbury and Fruitland city governments, save lots of tax dollars.
10:22 - time for the city to quit wasting money by sending out the entire force for every call...then whining about it!
I agree that isn't a good situation. However the city can use the appropriations they already receive from the county to cover the costs of the small "county areas" that are scattered throughout the city. I'm saying set one big limit around the city near the city limits and let the surrounding fire companies respond up to that limit taking some of the burden and expense off of the city.
9:16 am
how is that fireboat working?
AS always, let's not look to see if it's (the cost) needed, let's pass the blame on who should fund it. we made out fine without the 12! Once it grows, it never dies! Wake up folks, and open your wallets, fire departments gone wild!
The SFD has inflated their calls to justify more $, now loose shoes Liarton is covering his "butt", at the expense of whoever he can find. NO-ONE can justify the ambulance chasing million dollar trucks and crews. NO-ONE!
That's right, a million dollar boat, 12 million dollar firehouse, next one on the way, and they want us to believe they spend wisely! He we go again.
Lets not forget that Rick Pollitt did nothing to address this outrageous situation during his 8 years as County Exec. And he refused to give Salisbury property owners a break on their County taxes.
Bye-bye Slick Rick -- Good Riddance.
Why is the city laying off these employees right before Christmas when there are over 20 empty police positions that will never get filled that could be used to fund the fire positions?
Anonymous said...
Time for the deadbeat county to pay what they owe the city!
December 2, 2014 at 10:22 AM
The County owes nothing to the city Mr. Farmin. Get a real job.
Anonymous said...
916, The mayor may like it if the city fire crews dont respond to the "county" areas. Look at the bigger picture. How will the citizens feel if a cardiac arrest is dispatched at Parkside Highschool, (county property) and Fruitland or Parsonsburg is dispatched to the call when across the street there is an ambulance and a fire crew?
December 2, 2014 at 10:44 AM
There are AED's at all the schools with adequately trained personnel. There is also a deputy trained as a first responder at the high schools and middle schools so try another scare tactic bozo.
Hey 4:32,
That is not going to get them to the hospital where they really need to be. If something happened to your family member, you would be the first to say not enough was done.
The city has been given plenty of options to increase funding and had ignored them. Raising EMS billing and having a city fire marshal/ inspector. both would have brought in close to a million dollars.
Nobody wants to talk about the elephant in the room. The real issue here is the decreased participation of the volunteers for calls. Just listen to a scanner and you will hear re-alerts and failures of stations 1 and 2 time and again. The engine from 16 with paid firefighters handle those calls as well as their response district. The outlying volunteer companies have made it clear that they cannot handle their current districts as well as those that have been served by Salisbury for 50 plus years. A solution needs to be found to provide the best service possible for the citizens.
The volunteers in the city have been run off the last two years. This has been done so that the Fire Chief can justify the 12 paid men. They have made the appication process screwed up again. Station 16 is taking all of the applications before than can even reach the other stations. The Fire Chief has changed and made the requirements for someone to even ride the fire truck so strict is terrible. For a volunteer to ride the fire apparatus they must now have fire 1 class, EMT-B, FADO and hazmat. They will take them over a year to get all of that. You loosed interest of people before they start. I understand training. I want trained firemen. I question the making emt mandatory. Why not first responder. Some people dont want to be medical providers. They dont care though. The chiefs office will spend no money or make any investment into retention of current volunteers or recruiting volunteers. Its a shame. I hear what goes on with in this department. I have the training to be in this department but if the chief, the council or the mayor's office wont do anything to promote volunteers I wont join that department. The volunteers are muted with their identity.
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