Albert Lea residents could expect a $12 annual property tax increase if the city chooses to restore its Fire Department to full-time staffing levels.
That’s the estimate Albert Lea City Manager Chad Adams gave the City Council Monday during a special meeting set up to discuss the department and its future staffing.
The estimate is for the owner of a $100,000 home.
The meeting was set up Monday as the city is dealing with tight budget times with the loss of state funding and other revenue. City officials have been reviewing whether changes should take place to the department and earlier this year hired Florida-based consultant firm Almont Associates to examine the department.
The firm, hired for $30,000, looked at who should lead the department, the responsibilities of the firefighters and the staffing of the department.
After researching and reviewing the firm’s findings, Adams presented two options to the council for where to take the department. Both options included having a public safety director who oversees the police and fire departments, along with a deputy fire chief who would supervise three fire captains and have other additional duties. One captain position would be eliminated.
One option called for restoring full-time staffing levels and the other option called for reducing staffing by one person on each shift.
Adams said the option to reduce the staffing by one person on each shift would also require a property tax increase of about $8 annually for a $100,000 home owner, to allow for accounting changes for the cleaning of City Hall and the hiring of additional paid on-call firefighters. Equipment needs would be covered by fire interest funding.
http://www.albertleatribune.com/2012...options
