Daisy Mountain Fire Department deals with budget crunch

MARC BUCKHOUT ~ MANAGING EDITOR ~ 6/8/2011

The Daisy Mountain Fire Department gave area residents a look at the budget challenges facing the department for the upcoming fiscal year at a presentation on June 1 at the Anthem Community Center.
In a presentation by board member Wyatt Wong, the department, under the leadership of new fire chief, Mark Nichols, is looking at a budget of $11.7 million for the 2011-2012 year. Board members and staff have spent the last two months, a total of four meetings, in coming up with their proposed budget, as the current budget year draws to a close June 30.
If that budget is approved it would mark the fourth straight year the department, which serves Anthem, New River, Desert Hills and Tramonto, has decreased its budget from a high of just shy of $13 million in 2007-2008 to $12.2 million last year.
The primary challenge comes from the withering housing market, which has vastly diminished the tax revenue the department takes in through property taxes.
In the last five-years the district’s assed value has gone from $600 million to a projected $343 million for 2011-2012, a drop of 22.5 percent in the last year alone.
“Obviously we know a lot of people are hurting from the economy, but the difficult thing for us is we still have to meet our citizens’ needs,” Wong said. “We can’t cut our services in half even though the value of homes has plummeted while the number of foreclosures has gone up.”
In evaluating the tax levy on homes in the district the department said the average home in Anthem, which held its value slightly better, will see a slight increase in taxes while the average home in New River and Desert Hills, which slumped more severely, will see a modest decrease in its tax.
An Anthem home with a net assessed value of $185,300 this year, is valued at $161,800 for the upcoming year, a decrease of 12.68 percent. That customer will pay an increase of $33.27 for fire service in the coming year, an increase of slightly less than $2 a month.
In Desert Hills, a home which was valued at $356,000 this past year, is valued at $276,000 for the upcoming year, a 22.42 percent decrease. That home owner will see their tax drop by approximately $40 for the year.
New River is similar to Desert Hills. A home valued at $269,700 this past year is worth $200,500 today, a decrease of 25.66 percent. That property owner will see a $39.31 reduction in their tax for the upcoming year.
In proposing a budget, some $500,000 less than a year ago, Daisy Mountain is reorganizing its personnel structure, most notably by eliminating an assistant chief position.
Nichols, who started with the department April 1, was expected to hire an assistant chief, but the department has decided to delegate those responsibilities among several current staffers in an attempt to save money.
Anthem council board member Ron Jerich questioned whether the elimination of an assistant fire chief would be temporary or permanent.
“It would appear the growth in the district will be pretty stagnant in the immediate future. Why would we need to bring back the assistant chief position back,” he said?
The department reiterated the management setup was new and would have to be evaluated.
The department plans to extensively cut allowances for overtime, dropping it by 25 percent by reorganizing vacation schedules so that the department can avoid being overly shorthanded at any given time. Department employees also will go a third straight year without raises.
Other cost saving measures included everything from getting staff trained and certified in performing safety tests on department equipment rather than bringing in outside groups to perform the tests, purchasing uniform equipment so as to allow for purchasing replacement parts in bulk, having a recently purchased truck on display at a trade show in exchange for a discounted rate, all the way to having the department test a new line of laundry detergent in order to receive free detergent for a year.
Department Administrative Services employee Candice Tatum said the budget has been cut to the bone.
“We’ve shaved everything,” she said. “We’re on the edges everywhere.”
While the budget will be tight, board president Brian Moore said that the work of the late Tom Healy, the department’s long-time fire chief who died in 2010 after an extensive battle with cancer, kept the department from being in far worse shape.
“We had unbelievable challenges when I started with this board, but Chief Healy’s background as a general contractor allowed us to build four stand-alone fire stations,” Moore said. “Those generally run $200 per square foot. We built at $72 because of his expertise. We have very little debt compared to other facilities and that’s helped us get
through these times. He really left us in a phenomenal position with great facilities.
The next Daisy Mountain Fire Board meeting is set for 7 p.m. June 27 at the Fire District Administration Facility, located at 43814 N. New River Road. For information call 623-465-7400 or go to daisymountainfire.org.