Tax Crusader Questions Fire Purchase

Tax crusader Linda Hayward wants to know why the county is raiding its workers' compensation fund to pay for fire district purchases, including two power ambulance stretchers totaling $18,872.

Hayward went before county commissioners last week at their land use hearing and asked why purchases were made out of the fund.

There was no debate. Instead, the matter is scheduled to be brought up at the Feb. 24 commission business meeting.

Hernando County Fire Rescue Assistant Fire Chief Frank DeFrancesco said the stretcher purchase was justified because they will cut down on the number of back injuries suffered by firefighters and paramedics.

County Chief Mike Nickerson also defended the purchase, saying in an e-mail obtained by Hernando Today that the worker compensation fund was an "obvious funding source."

"First, it included funds paid by the HCFR," Nickerson said. "Second, it was the fund that would reap any immediate saving caused by prevented worker compensation injuries."

Nickerson also said the fund had recently realized "a small savings" over the budgeted amount for state workers' comp fees, which slightly exceeded the cost of the two stretchers.

Nickerson said the acquisition of the power stretchers out of the workers' comp fund was an example of "proactive leadership."

"It's cheaper to prevent workers' compensation injuries than have doctors treat them," he said.

Nickerson said he paid for the department's previous four stretchers from the HCFR-EMS impact fee account. However, as he indicated in the e-mail, that account went dry.

This time, he said he wanted to "cut through the red tape" and use the money from the workers' comp fund - that his department pays into - to buy the remaining two stretchers.

"We could have waited and budgeted for next year, but we were worried about additional back injuries and wasting taxpayer money by letting those injuries occur," Nickerson said Thursday.

But Hayward is not buying Nickerson's argument.

She believes Nickerson should have waited until the impact fee account built back up and purchased the equipment through normal channels, instead of going through workers' compensation, which she doesn't believe was designed for that purpose.

"My opinion is they circumvented the purchasing procedure," Hayward said.

The workers' compensation division in the last few years "has become proactive instead of reactive with the departments," Jerry Haines, HR workers' compensation and safety coordinator, said in an e-mail.

Haines said the county had only one workers' compensation settlement in fiscal year 2007-08 and that was for $5,000.

By comparison, there were nine in fiscal year 2000-01, totaling $231,800, he said.

Circuit Court Clerk Karen Nicolai said she had not researched this particular case. However, she knows the HR department has taken the proactive route in recent years.

"If it would keep down the claims in workers' compensation, it sounds like a reasonable expense," she said.