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The new chief of the Wake Forest Fire
Department, Jerry Swift, was a bit
miffed when Town Manager Mark Williams
told him he could attend the town
board’s annual planning retreat next
weekend but, because the fire department
is an independent contractor and not
part of town government, he “was not
going to have much of a chance to
speak.” Instead, Williams told Swift to
create a list of items he would talk
about to the town board.
“We’re the number-one public
safety agency in this town,” Swift said
during Tuesday night’s board meeting.
“To me we should be playing a huge part
in the future of this town. We’re
bigger, we’re growing. If a natural
disaster blows through this town
tomorrow, this agency will by the number
one agency, clearing roads, fighting
fires, doing rescues.”
The four items on Swift’s
list for the retreat are:
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20 additional personnel including a
deputy chief, a training chief and
the specialty company to staff the
new ladder truck.
-
A step pay plan for paid staff
-
Plans for the three new firehouses
Swift recommends
-
Absorption into the town government
Swift did not attach any
kind of
One reason not to treat the
fire department like a town department –
police, for instance – Commissioner
Frank Drake said, is to insulate the
town from potential liability. It was
the reason the town stopped the practice
of having a voting member on the fire
department’s board. Drake attends as an
ex-officio member.
And, Drake said, the town
commissioners will look at the items
Swift wants only in terms of cost and
the tax rate. “From their point of view,
it’s just more money.”
The town now dedicates 10
cents of the 54-cent property tax rate
for the fire department – about $1.7
million – which makes up 82 percent of
the department’s budget. The rest of its
operating and capital funds come from
Wake County because the department
contracts with it for fire protection in
the fire district outside the town
limits.
Fire board member Thomas
Walters, a former town commissioner,
said Swift’s time to make the town
commissioners aware of all the
department’s needs is at the budget work
session in the spring. “That is your
time to be there to justify the request.
You’ll be right there with every other
outside agency.”
Swift referred to one reason
the fire board is considering becoming
part of the town: the many personnel
details. “We need a human relations
director.” In addition, the board
members may tire of too many meetings.
“The town is going to say,
get your people,” Drake said. If the
department does become part of the town
government, Drake said it was his
opinion it should have an advisory
board. “You are professionals. You know
your business better than any
administrative hack. Right now you run
your own boat; all we do is put gas in
the tank.”
Richard Stinnett asked if it
would be useful for the fire board to
sit down with the town commissioners in
a work session, and the consensus
appeared to be to ask for such an
informal meeting.
A large part of the meeting
was a discussion with the board’s
accountant, Ryan Nemitz with the R.
Howard Mitchell firm, about the way
bills and checks are handled.
Don Griesedieck’s concern
was insufficient funds in some accounts
at times. “In the last three months
we’ve been charged for five not
sufficient funds.” Griesedieck said the
bank, SunTrust, has covered the checks,
charged the fire department and then
credited the charges.
Nemitz said former chief
David Williams Jr. had tried to keep as
little as possible in checking to
maintain as much as possible in savings
to maximize the interest. Nemitz has
continued that practice, having money
transferred only when needed.
The board agreed to set up a
sweep account, in which the department
will specify how much money will be in
the checking account at the end of the
day – Ricky Wright said he keeps his at
zero – and either transfers money in or
out of savings to achieve that required
balance.
Griesedieck noted that the
checking account and certificates of
deposit are still in the name of the
Wake Forest Rural Fire Department. That
department disbanded and reorganized in
1983 as an independent corporation to
contract with the town and the county.
The town disbanded its fire department
at that time – the rural and town
departments had existed with identical
rosters in side-by-side firehouses at
the corner of South White Street and
East Elm Avenue. The rural department’s
building is now the Williams-Walters
Building, and the town’s building houses
the Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce.
The board went into a short
closed session to discuss land for the
next firehouses. They are planning three
new stations, possibly on Forestville
Road, on Stadium Drive and on Wait
Avenue.
The fire department will
hold a budget retreat Saturday, Jan. 27,
at the Wake Forest Masonic Lodge, and
the board will meet Thursday, Feb. 8, at
6 p.m. to discuss the budget. The fire
board’s next regular meeting is Tuesday,
Jan. 30, at 7 p.m. |
