Brooksville Officials Wary Of Consolidation Of Fire Services

BROOKSVILLE - Chief Tim Mossgrove said he is pleased with what the county's fire study released Wednesday emphasizes about the Brooksville Fire Department.

The study lists the kind of facts that Mossgrove and his 18 full-time and five reserve employees are proud of, such as low response times for all but the farthest reaches of the city and a low "fail rate," or those calls when the city has to call the county for help.

"We came out better in my opinion than most people thought we would," Mossgrove said.

The county paid $128,000 for the study and invited Brooksville to take part as a stakeholder, which Mossgrove said the city happily did.

But he and city council members still may ultimately have to grapple with this controversial question: would they be willing to turn over control of fire services to a countywide department?

The study, by Emergency Services Consulting Inc. (ESCI), spelled out three options, the preferred one being the creation of an independent special fire district - including the City of Brooksville - to be governed by an appointed board of fire commissioners with equal representation of all areas served.

In a 574-page report, the consultant recommends dissolving the Spring Hill and county fire departments and unifying them in a single district to be funded either through an ad valorem property tax, fire protection assessment fees or a combination of both.

ESCI estimates the consolidation would save the county $500,000 annually through the elimination of redundancy in administration costs, support services, planning and other areas. The report stresses that the "closest and most appropriate" firefighting vehicles be dispatched to any incident, regardless of location, in order to maximize public safety. That means dropping jurisdictional borders.

Phillip Kouwe, ESCI project manager and senior vice president, said the county doesn't have to go along with the consolidation recommendation.

"(But) it's going to be the smoothest and, according to our financial analysis, the cheapest," Kouwe told Hernando Today upon the release of the report.

Mossgrove, Mayor David Pugh and other council members reached Thursday said they are wary of such an option. One council member said she wouldn't even consider it at this point.

Pugh said he tends to agree with many city residents who have expressed skepticism in the past when the consolidation of police and fire services has come up.

"Those are departments the citizens have said they want to stay," Pugh said. "I'm not going to close the door on anything, but I also know that when you lose departments, you lose control, and there are some services you just can't risk losing control over."

"He couldn't have said it any better," Mossgrove said when a reporter relayed that comment.

There are advantages to having a small, efficient department with a relatively small service area, Mossgrove said.

Brooksville Fire Department has a 92 percent delivery rate, meaning the department can handle 92 out of 100 calls without relying on another agency to help.

Response times are three minutes for most parts of the city.

Mossgrove wonders how tampering with the department could affect those statistics.

"Does (consolidation) make you more vulnerable to instability," Mossgrove said. "Common sense tells you it does."

Council member Lara Bradburn, like Pugh and Mossgrove, acknowledged that there could be some cost savings to taxpayers through consolidation, but that the success that Brooksville's department has enjoyed is likely worth the cost.

"Could it be more cost efficient if you looked at the county in its entirety? Perhaps," Bradburn said. "But the city of Brooksville has historically offered the best response times and superior service and that is one of the things that makes Brookville attractive. Why dilute it?"

Bradburn said the council has shown that it's willing to save taxpayers money to avoid duplication of services and would continue to do so.

"I think it's important that Brooksville strives to preserve its own fire department," Bradburn continued, "which is Brooksville's choice."

Councilman Joe Bernardini said arguing that service levels might suffer under consolidation could be construed as "a scare tactic."

Fire departments throughout the county have to meet the same standards, he said. If the same level of service can be achieved through consolidation while saving city taxpayers significant money, "it's definitely an option," he said.

Even given the fact that city residents are county taxpayers, no such decision could be made, he said, without "crunching numbers" to find out just how much savings to city residents would be.

Bernardini, however, said his hunch is that such savings can be achieved through agreements between the city and county to avoid duplication of services while still retaining Brooksville's department.

In fact, the county's consultant stressed that, in lieu of total consolidation, an "extensive interlocal agreement" should be a top priority. The report concluded that Brooksville's response capabilities could extend beyond the city limits in some areas.

That's something Mossgrove and his predecessors have known for years, he said. He pointed out that work has been underway for 18 months to draft a mutual service aid agreement with the county. He hopes to have a draft ready for city council review by next month.

The city council also is expected to review an agreement as early as next month that would have the dispatch center at the Hernando County Sheriff's Office take over dispatch duties for the city's police and fire departments, Mossgrove said.

Mossgrove said he would be happy to provide facts and research for a council to decide how to answer the question of consolidation.

But he also acknowledged that, beyond the question of response times and budgets, there is the intrinsic value of identity that a city fire department provides, and it's something that must also be considered.

"I would hope (council members) would say, 'Do we want to give up that identity or not," Mossgrove said. "The council sitting at the time makes that decision, and I can't speak for them."