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St. Charles city takes on county fire commission

Raymond Castile

Of the Suburban Journals

O'Fallon Mo Journal



ST. CHARLES COUNTY



A bill pending in Jefferson City could exempt the St. Charles Fire Department from merging with a future countywide fire district, though officials disagree on its constitutionality.



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...House Bill 444, introduced in February by state Rep. Joe Smith, R-14th District. The bill would prohibit St. Charles County government from taking action to integrate St. Charles city's fire service into a countywide fire protection entity without first obtaining the municipality's approval.



"If the county wants to consolidate another political subdivision, they should consult that subdivision first," Smith said.



The bill would also reduce the terms of fire district board members to four years from the current six years. It would restrict board members from being paid for more than one meeting per week. Current law does not impose such restrictions.



Smith said the bill's current language would require county officials to "plead their case" to the city before consolidating fire districts. The mayor and city council would then vote on whether to participate in the county's plan.



"We could amend the bill so that it would require a vote of the people," Smith said. "The bill is stuck in committee right now."



Smith said he included the municipal language at the behest of St. Charles administrators and city lobbyist Don Kissell.



"The lobbyist said the city wants to stop the county from taking over," Smith said. "If the county does this for fire protection, the next thing you know, they will take over everything down the line."



Creating a single countywide fire district would require a public vote to change the county charter.



"This simple charter amendment they are asking for would change the entire relationship between county government and municipalities," Riddler said. "It will not stop with fire districts. It would allow the county to take over municipal police, park systems, anything they want."



The St. Charles County Fire Protection and Emergency Services Commission is studying the pros and cons of consolidating into one entity the county's 11 fire districts and ambulance district.



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The department's response time is about four minutes, the lowest in the county, Riddler said.



"Merging with other districts gives our citizens nothing," Riddler said. "Under the county plan, our citizens would get worse service and pay more taxes. Our taxpayers have already invested in the best equipment, the best training and the best vehicles. We can't get any better than we already are."



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County Executive Joe Ortwerth on Feb. 15 told the fire district commission that House Bill 444 would have no effect if it passes. The legislation cannot repeal, rescind or reverse the authority that the Missouri Constitution gives to St. Charles County through its charter, Ortwerth said.



The only way the legislation could pass and have any operative effect on the charter is if it were introduced as a joint resolution to change the state constitution and a constitutional amendment was then voted on by all the people in Missouri, Ortwerth told the commission during its Feb. 15 meeting.



During the same meeting, County Counselor Joann Leykam said the state constitution allowed county charters to provide for the exercising of legislative power over the services of any municipality or political subdivision except school districts.



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St. Charles County Commission discusses consolidating fire, ambulance districts

Raymond Castile

Of the Suburban Journals

O'Fallon Mo Journal



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"There is nobody complaining about the service they are getting. Some people are saying that the money allegedly is not being spent wisely, but no one is saying we are spending too much money on fire service."



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"If we decide it makes sense to consolidate fire districts, why doesn't it make sense to consolidate police departments and water or sewer districts? Where does it stop?" Smith said.



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"There is already accountability for fire districts," Smith said. "They have open meetings. The public and media are welcome. There is accountability through the state auditor and attorney general. Instead of those individuals investigating allegations, they have backed off. Maybe our time would be better spent in Jefferson City, getting them to do their job."



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Measuring the time between when dispatch first calls the firefighters and when the first truck arrives at the scene, the districts reported the following average response times:

• Augusta ? 14 minutes, 14 seconds
  
  Central County ? 5 minutes, 15 seconds
  
  Cottleville ? 5 minutes, 14 seconds
  
  Lake Saint Louis ? 5 minutes, 1 second
  
  New Melle ? 11 minutes, 40 seconds
  
  O'Fallon ? 4 minutes, 51 seconds
  
  Orchard Farm ? 10 minutes, 3 seconds
  
  Portage des Sioux ? 8 minutes, 26 seconds
  
  St. Charles City ? 4 minutes, 19 seconds
  
  Wentzville ? 6 minutes, 5 seconds
  
  West Alton ? 9 minutes, 36 seconds.

The average countywide response time was 7 minutes, 42 seconds.



The commissioners also examined two maps showing how many stations would be required to achieve average response times of 6 minutes and 4 minutes throughout St. Charles County.



Based solely on drive time within the speed limit from one point to another, it would require 88 stations to achieve a 4-minute countywide response time and 43 stations to achieve a 6-minute response time.



Smith said the maps were useful in suggesting the number of stations that might be required, but not the locations.



Commission Chairman John Hanneke, a former member of the St. Charles Fire Protection District board of directors, said the maps were of no use because they were not created by fire service professionals.



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The commission's deadline to form a recommendation is June 30, but Ortwerth and Foust have said that deadline will probably be extended.

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Seminar on fire district mergers lauded

By Susan Weich

Of the Post-Dispatch

04/26/2005



Session on merger of fire districts praised

Oregon chief urges caution



A seminar outlining the pros and cons of merging fire protection agencies provided valuable insight into St. Charles County's study of the issue, say two members of the county fire commission who attended the conference.



Jeffrey D. Johnson, fire chief of Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, the largest consolidated fire district in the United States, led the discussion Friday in Shrewsbury. Johnson's district comprises 215 miles and covers nine cities in three Oregon counties.



About 90 firefighters, fire chiefs and city officials from St. Louis and St. Charles counties attended the talk, which was sponsored by the Greater St. Louis Area Fire Chiefs Association.



Johnson was one of the chiefs quoted in articles about fire protection districts in a series that appeared in the Post-Dispatch last August. The newspaper's investigation found firefighter pay that topped $100,000, costly perks for fire board directors and union manipulation of these board members.



A merger of fire services in Johnson's district cut the tax rate for residents by more than 50 percent, improved the department's insurance rating and balanced the influence of the firefighters union on district operations.



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Johnson recommended that two or three contiguous agencies merge, rather than an entire county. Once the merger is successful, a district can consider growing again. Adding too many dissimilar agencies all at once would be a recipe for disaster, Johnson said.



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Both Smith and Kluesner pointed out the work that went into the 1998 merger of the St. Charles Fire Protection District and the St. Peters Fire Department into what is now Central County Fire & Rescue. The planning alone for that merger took two years, district officials say.



Kluesner said she believes Tualatin Valley is a success story not only because it merged one agency at a time but because it was completely voluntary.



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Fire agencies in St. Charles County already are consolidated in many areas, including dispatching, training and specialized rescue teams.



"The question is: Is it feasible, financially, operationally and everything else to merge fire service in this county?" he said.



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Fire merger is backed for balance

By Susan Weich

Of the Post-Dispatch

05/26/2005



Residents call for way to offset union power

Consolidation backed to balance clout



Several residents told members of a commission studying a potential merger of fire service in St. Charles County that consolidation is the only way to balance taxpayer interests and firefighter union influence on fire boards.



Most of the discussion centered around the Cottleville Fire Protection District, which came under fire in 2003 when it demoted then-Chief Bob Watts and replaced him with Vince Schramm, who at the time was a member of the executive board of the firefighters union. Shortly afterward, voters rejected a tax increase aimed at getting the district out of debt, which critics partly attributed to 100 percent pay raises given to firefighters.



Sixteen of the approximately 60 residents who attended Tuesday's meeting made statements to the St. Charles County Fire Protection and Emergency Services Study Commission.



Charlie Thompson, who was a Cottleville board member from 1999 until April, said things in his district got out of control because the board had the attitude that the residents would bail them out. When that didn't happen, the firefighters had to take a $6,500 cut.



"There's nothing wrong with the fire service; it's the handling of the money and the boards. The boards are the problem," Thompson said.



Mike Morris, a St. Charles firefighter and union representative, said that firefighters throughout the county did what they had to do to make a living wage.



"We did what the democratic process says that we all in this room have a right to do," he said. "We have a right to stand up for ourselves and our beliefs, and we have a right to get elected to change the things that are wrong."



Morris said a countywide department with a fire-integrated emergency medical service would be a benefit, giving residents "double the bang for their buck."



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The speaker who got the only applause of the evening, however, was not a resident of the county, but Aaron Hilmer, the newly elected chairman of the Mehlville Fire Protection District.



Hilmer detailed for commissioners what he called misuse of taxpayer money, including a $950-a-year clothing allowance for office employees and 34 days a year in sick and personal days - perks that caused him to run for the board.



Hilmer said that he and another reform candidate had taken back control of the board from the employees and had lessened benefits paid to firefighters. Next month they plan to make firefighters pay part of their medical benefits, which are fully funded now for them and their dependents, he said.



"I hope that you will serve the public from your actions in a way that will protect them and not the special interests that are ruling the fire districts now," he said.



The next meeting of the fire commission will be at 5 p.m. June 7 in the County Council Chambers, 100 North Third Street, St. Charles.



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