Politics & Government

A Rundown of Major Fire Expenditures in 2010 and 2011

King County Fire District No. 28 Chief Joe Clow provided the following figures representing the major expenses the District faced in pre-annexation in 2010 and post-annexation in 2011.

King County Fire District No. 28 Chief Joe Clow and District Commissioner Dave Hannity both acknowledge that taxpayers' concerns over how public funds are being spent are understandable, but the District is being responsible.

"We take it very seriously," said Hannity. "It's a lot of money at stake. We don't squander taxpayer money. We want the fire department to be the best it can be with the best equipment. Then they'll be able to take care of you and that's what we're all about."

"It's been a pretty steep learning curve," said Clow of the budgetary issues. After the annexation, "we had to take over more of the budget than we thought we did."

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The District was under the impression the city of Enumclaw would take care of financials in the beginning with 2011 being a transition year, Clow said. However, fire officials were told in November 2010 that would not be the case. The District had eight weeks to take over a pretty major function of government including payroll and benefits, Clow said and in the first year, it faced some one-time start-up expenditures that were unexpected.

Below is a report provided by Clow outlining the major expenses in the last two years:

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Category 2010 2011 Personal Services $27,887.65 $1,958,793.80 Services $961,294.09 $282,037.38 Supplies $42,356.19 $28,115.91 Fees, Taxes, Insurance, Assn Dues
$83,730.60 $61,030.50 Capital $89,338.50 $459.004.95 Special Rescue $10,703.96 $3,463,02 Total $1,215,311 $2,792,445.60

Personal Services: This category includes all salary, wages and benefits for members of KCFD#28. The District had expenses for 1 part-time employee, 3 commissioners and 1 volunteer firefighter in 2010. The District took over payroll in 2011 which includes 19 full-time positions, 3 commissioners and 40 volunteers.

Services: This is all services provided for, or purchased by, the fire department for communications, IT, administrative services, repair and maintenance contracts and miscellaneous contracted services.

Supplies: This is spending for replacement parts, office supplies, EMS supplies and other consumables used by the department.

Fees, Taxes, Insurance and Association Dues: This pays taxes and fees for department property, services and vehicles. This category also includes election expenses and insurance premiums for property, vehicles and liability owned or assumed by the fire department.

Capital: This includes money spent on large (capital) expenditures including the purchase, relocation and installation of the sleeping quarters at the Cumberland station, a new aid unit and the Roosevelt Avenue property purchase in 2011.

Special Rescue: This is all expenses incurred for providing a specialized rescue team for mountain and wild land area rescue operations.

Financial Projection Through 2016

Clow said the District can remain solvent at least through 2016 and cover smaller capital expenses without any lid lifts and assuming conservative growth.

It has 19 full time positions including 12 firefighters, 3 captains and four administrative staff, in addition to 40 volunteer firefighters. This does allow for five people to be assigned per shift (minimum of four required). Expenses for wages and benefits in 2012 are estimated at $2,027,484.

This year, there is $55,000 planned for purchasing firefighter protective gear, portable radios and IT upgrades, $10,000 to upgrade existing utility trucks and $10,000 for facilities upgrades at the headquarters station.

From 2013 through 2016, the District plans to keep expenditures to $45,000 per year for equipment, save for an additional $10,000 in 2013 to upgrade the Cumberland station facilities.

Any major facility improvements or new buildings would have to be funded through capital bond issues which voters would have to approve.

Sidebar: Levy Rate Primer

Though Clow has indicated the District this year, that has not quelled critics who were still upset about the current District levy rate of $1.09 per $1,000 assessed value, an increase from 2011's roughly 89 cents per $1,000 AV.

The big difference was the annexation. Tom Brown, assistant levy coordinator for King County Department of Assessments explained in an email to Clow that the levy rate is the last figure that is determined when adding up what each year's property taxes would look like.

Brown used the formula:

Levy Rate = Levy Amount/Regular Assessed Value

To illustrate that in 2011, the District levied $885,961 and had a total assessed value of $1,008,383,563. The levy rate in 2011 came out to 0.87859.

In 2012, with new construction as well as increased assessed value due to the annexation, the District could levy $2,067,752 over a total assessed value of $1,893,433,463, making it's levy rate this year 1.09206.

The Levy Amount is dictated by factors including the previous year's Levy Amount, new construction and total assessed value. Moving forward, if , the denominator in the above formula gets smaller, creating a higher Levy Rate.

Hazel Gantz, also at the Assessor's office, said that prior to 2012, the District could only levy $1 per $1,000 AV maximum because it did not have a full-time employee on staff. After the annexation and transfer of payroll, its maximum statutory rate increased to $1.50 per $1,000 AV since it now had more than one full-time employee.

The District this year is one of seven fire districts in King County that has not reached the statutory maximum rate, according to the Assessor's Office. There are 27 fire districts in the county.


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