When someone tells me “You have two options,” the back of my head gets prickly. There are almost ALWAYS more than two options. It might require doing something that hasn’t been tried before, it might even mean a misstep, but other options are almost always available for those brave enough to risk it.

Today Brooksville City Council is considering options on Fire Department services – maintaining their own service or consolidating with the county. I’d like to throw out another option I presented when a member of City Council in July 2017. It was partially implemented but a series of obstacles impeded progress and staffing losses have caused a loss of institutional knowledge of what the goal was and how we planned to get there.

In the meeting, I called for alternative operations and funding in seven city service areas. Some were adopted and some were dismissed with, “we’ve never done it that way before” or “that’s something they do in the North” or “Staff is supposed to propose changes, not Council.” Thankfully, I think today’s voters are more open to thinking outside the box to maintain or upgrade services they want.

The biggest loss in the proposal was my request for a law enforcement MSTU. I wanted to be able to better control costs, while maintaining our own police agency. While some clamored that consolidation would save us money, I believed you can NEVER guarantee saving money when you give up the right to set the price! That fear has been proven correct as the Hernando County Sheriff Department (HCSO) has consistently raised their budget yearly, at times in the double digits. And while City Council restricted how much raise the rates each year for the extra deputies, Council has no authority on the overall budget. So prices have gone up and up each year while services immediately diminished.

This is not meant to be disparaging of HCSO. The Major who presented the offer to Council told us services would be reduced. He used a car analogy (and I’m not interested in cars) but it was something about going from a Ferrari to a Ford. They offer a different level of service and as a city resident, I still think we made the wrong choice.

Let’s not repeat the mistake.

The recent fire at UPS/Red Mule is being used as an example of why we need to consolidate with County fire. But as you can see if you read my report below, Brooksville Fire Department (BFD) and ANY fire department, is more about emergency services than fire. In 2016 ,BFD responded to:

1. Twelve (12) structure fires
2. Four (4) vehicle fires
3. Thirteen (13) grass fires
4. Two thousand three hundred and eighty-five non-fire service calls (2385)

I realize this data is nine years old but am confident the percentages haven’t changed much. Do you really need to double or triple your fire staff to fight 12 fires a year? That’s why many communities have Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) or supplement paid firefighters with volunteers. The paid staff handle the daily accidents and nursing home calls and medical emergencies, while MOUs are used to bring all the local firemen together to handle the occasional fire.

The bigger issue, which I brought up then, is that BFD isn’t ALS certified. The majority of Council agreed with me on that and we implemented a plan to become ALS certified. We added money to the budget to hire people with the correct certifications and hired a wonderful leader, Chief Snowberger, to lead the efforts. Unfortunately, an uncertain political climate led to too much staff transition. Who wants to go to work everyday not knowing if your job is about to be eliminated? When we decided to maintain BFD in 2018, Councilman Battista wisely said he would never consider eliminating the department again because of the work climate it created. Most of us agreed with him. But now only one council member remains from that time so those promises have been forgotten.

Another item not really being discussed is the long-term obligations that remain when you shut down a department. I was in a meeting at City Hall last month and the Brooksville Police Department (BPD) Pension Board was also having a meeting. They have to meet until every retired BPD officer has passed. Same would be true of BFD. Pensions still need to be paid. Pension funds are rarely fully funded and depend on yearly tax revenue to make them whole. Should Hernando County residents be responsible for paying retirement for people who never worked for them?

As I close, I want to say I respect all Council Members who are being brave enough to ask the hard questions and propose solutions. Even solutions I am personally opposed to. It’s much easier to kick the can down the road and criticize solutions than make them. But kicking the can leads to the demolition of Tom Varn Park’s playground and paving over brick streets. I don’t know anyone who wants those kind of leaders. Good politicians will brave criticism to come up with answers. And I think those are the leaders we have in place right now.

So be brave Brooksville City Council members. Let’s not repeat the mistake of 2018 and eliminate a city department. Don’t give up our agency to determine the best way to govern Brooksville. Get creative – look at how other communities have solved the sorts of problems you’re facing today. You’ve got this.