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Health & Fitness

Where's The Fire?

The 2013 General Assembly session is now history, but it was a year in which a good deal of attention was directed toward fire districts in the state.

East Greenwich got enabling legislation allowing it to acquire the East Greenwich Fire District, and Cumberland got the nod to merge its four fire districts into one. A great deal of time was spent working to keep the Central Coventry Fire District (CCFD) operating after a period in which its operating budget increased from $4.2 million to $6.6 million in just over three years, leading to dismissal of its Board and the appointment of a Special Master to direct the affairs of the District in receivership.

The issues related to fire district operation do no disappear with consolidation into one district or into a Town Fire Department. Looking at Coventry overall prior to the CCFD receivership, the town “boasted” five of the top 11 most expensive fire districts in the state, with the highest being the Coventry Fire District at $2.80, and the almost-all-volunteer Western Coventry Fire District the lowest (in Coventry) at $1.42.

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But East Greenwich is nothing to emulate. As of the end of 2012, is was the sixth most expensive fire district in the state, at a tax rate of $2.10 per thousand. The fire tax rate in EG was about six percent higher than the average of the top 15 districts in the state, about 31% higher than the top 30 districts, and 63% higher than the statewide average for all 44 fire districts. Some analysis of towns of 10,000-20,000 population using 2010 data suggests that on a per capita basis, East Greenwich was the most expensive in the state, at $292; the next highest is Smithfield, at $207.

One downside of EGFD consolidation is that we will lose the ability to compare. But my hope is that the Town Council, Town Manager and our Fire Chief will continue to examine fire and safety operations in East Greenwich. Simply because we have succeeded in bringing fire and safety operations under the wing of town government does not render them efficient.

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Virtually everything achieved from this merger is valuable, especially from a governance and accountability perspective. The Town Council deserves great credit for taking this initiative. And there is no question, to its lasting credit, that firefighters’ Local 3288 support played a big role in making it happen. But it seems quite reasonable to ask if all the costs of running a fire department or fire district are cast in stone.

We budget for fire; we spend for emergency services. Typically, 70% of calls to fire departments are emergency calls, with a pumper or ladder truck going along for the ride. But we have seen that there are savings to be had. There are six ambulances manned by with two-person firefighter/EMT staffs serving Providence neighborhoods; in East Greenwich, we have three. In Central Coventry, covering a population of 14,000, there are two.

Minimum staffing requirements bear re-visiting. North Kingstown is looking at this; why shouldn’t East Greenwich?

Benefit levels (which in particular seem to be something fire districts gave away quite easily in negotiations over time) can be reexamined, with an effort to bring them in line with private industry levels.  Every city and town is re-examining benefit levels; why shouldn’t East Greenwich?

And there is growing evidence that privatization of some services can result in significant cost savings without impact on quality or professionalism. A number of New England communities (and several in RI) have reduced their emergency services costs significantly with the help of some privatized services. And emergency services to a significant degree are supported by insurance company reimbursements; reimbursements in East Greenwich were $500,000 in 2012, and even higher in 2011.  Central Coventry Fire District officials were told by a private firm that emergency services could be provided with two ambulances staffed 24/7 at a net cost to the district of $1 million annually. Could East Greenwich benefit from considering this?

One key responsibility of government, at every level, is to manage resources – not just feed the status quo. My comments here are not to suggest anything other than we need to review fire department investment and spending just as we do the rest of government. Now, with the old East Greenwich Fire District now part of town government, this is the perfect time to do it.

The recent economic unpleasantness didn’t affect us much in East Greenwich. We continued to spend, and few complained. And to be sure, given the nature of our population, we could probably afford it better than most communities in Rhode Island. I would have preferred to see us on a stricter diet, just to make the point that we, too, were affected.  Nonetheless, and despite the fact that our Town Council and Town Manager have done remarkably good jobs of managing available resources, we must not get fixated on the concept that “just” a 3% tax every year is a good thing.

A review of our structural spending would be a useful exercise, and the new Fire Department would be a perfect place to start.

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