Bethel firefighters plan to take control concerns to county
Bethel firefighters are taking their concerns to the county, in search of relief from what many say is an oversight group overstepping its role.
The Bethel Volunteer Fire Department met for more than two hours May 5, spending much of that time hashing out a plan for dealing with the Bethel Rural Fire District board. Volunteers pitched hiring an attorney, petitioning to remove board members, asking for a study on similar departments – all as volunteers say they should run day-to-day operations of the department.
“They’re supposed to hold the reins on us,” volunteer and former York County Councilman Perry Johnston said, “but unfortunately we’re having to hold the reins on them.”
Volunteers invited the fire district board, set up to oversee money collected from a special use tax, to Thursday’s meeting to answer questions. None of the four tax board members showed. So volunteers will request a meeting with the county manager and staff, the county attorney and perhaps County Council members, too.
The fire department sent a press release April 25 to the Lake Wylie Pilot urging residents to come to its meeting to learn more about the current state of the relationship between the department and tax board. A main issue for volunteers is spending. They say the tax board wants to purchase the latest and greatest when less expensive equipment will do. Items range from furniture for the new station on Oakridge Road to a grass truck, which volunteers requested at about four times less than what the tax board approved.
The biggest spending issue involves personnel. Firefighters bristled when they heard the tax board is looking to hire a deputy chief this summer and transition the role to full-time chief for 2017. Volunteers say the almost $120,000 toward salary and a new vehicle for a paid chief, plus related hiring expenses, would be better spent hiring part-time positions for night coverage.
Firefighters say their issue is less about current volunteer Chief Don Love being replaced than it is the bang taxpayers would get for their buck.
“Why do we want to spend taxpayer dollars on something we’ve been doing well without?” Johnston said.
Firefighter Tim Sievers said the department has improved since its founding 50 years ago in 1966, with insurance ratings dropping several times in recent years. All with chiefs serving for no salary from taxpayers.
“Please explain the rationale for the tax board even to consider that move,” Sievers said.
Several firefighters were bothered no one from the tax board showed up to answer questions. Firefighter Shawn Donahue called it “total and utter disrespect to the taxpayers.”
He sees the move toward a paid chief as “ill-thought out, short-sightedness.” He also wonders what it will do for volunteer morale not only at Bethel, but in neighboring districts relying on volunteers.
“That affects the other districts also,” Donahue said.
Still, several members stressed a need for unity. They say the issues aren’t between volunteer and paid firefighters at Bethel, despite paid personnel answering to the tax board and volunteers to their chief.
“We’re all one whether we’re volunteer or paid, because we do the same job and protect the same community,” Love said.
Who is in charge?
Volunteers and the tax board have different roles, but those roles are intertwined. The department, with Love as chief, petitioned the community in 2008 and 2009 to create the tax district. Community donations and county support flatlined as call volume and new structures increased.
“We had to do something to stay in operation,” Love said.
Voters approved the special tax district in 2009, which came designed to have a five-member board of local residents. It started with firefighters on it, but doesn’t have any now. Since the tax district arrived volunteers and the board have worked together, securing new equipment and a new fire station.
Yet in recent months, volunteers say, the tax board has become more hands-on. Love said if he had known volunteers would have to cede control of their department to the board, he would have thought twice about creating the tax district.
“If I’d have known where we’d be today, I’d never have done it,” Love told the tax board at its May 4 meeting.
At that meeting Wednesday, Margaret Blackwell said the board is working for the district and volunteers.
“We are spending money on the volunteers,” she said. “We buy for everybody - paid staff and volunteers.”
She reiterated the board will be hiring a chief to start Jan. 1 saying the position will be posted, and there will be an interview process.
“It’s been discussed for many years and time to move forward,” she said.
Board member Todd Meek said some volunteers have been outspoken to hire a chief.
“I feel we need to establish some leadership,” he said.
Blackwell said it has to do with consistency, accountability and responsibility as the department has seen three chiefs in 18 months.
“It’s not an us against you all,” she said. “We don’t need that at all.”
Also at that meeting Blackwell was elected chair and new member Ed Lindsey as vice chair.
Moving forward
County Council has authority over the tax board, and also over some volunteer funding. Volunteers want county staff or Council to look into local fire operation soon, since a summer hiring would start the ball rolling toward a full-time chief next year.
Firefighters say there is better use of tax money than the new chief position, at least right now.
“It would be better to hire part-time firefighters,” volunteer firefighter Joe Costello told the board.
Plus, many say they want to elect their own from volunteer membership if they are going to follow that person into dangerous situations.
“If I have to run into a burning building, if I have to crawl into a burning building or walk in into a burning building, I don’t want the decisions made by an unqualified, untrained person,” Costello said.
Editor Catherine Muccigrosso contributed to this story.
John Marks: 803-831-8166
Tax district and volunteer facts
Infusion of money from the Bethel Rural Fire District has merged volunteers with the tax district in several areas.
According to the 2009 ordinance creating the group, the fire tax board is appointed by York County Council. Terms run four years. Board members receive no pay.
The board is empowered to buy firefighting equipment, choose where to keep that equipment, employ firefighters and set compensation, set and supervise training, maintain trucks and other equipment, set rules for equipment use, construct fire stations or buildings, purchase or lease property through the county and enter into contracts for improved fire service.
The board makes an annual millage recommendation and budget to Council and can spend, within those rules, whatever money the tax accrues.
Yet the ordinance never names the volunteer department, or volunteers in general. So state or county money apart from the tax district collection is spent at the department’s discretion.
The tax district paid for three full-time and six part-time day shift firefighters. It paid for one fire station. One of the 12 Bethel trucks belongs to the tax district, while the tax district and county split another.
Bethel owns two stations in operation, and the original station right beside the new one on Oakridge. Trucks moved out of that old station when the new one opened. Volunteers have four trucks and partner with the county, but not the tax district, on six more. The department has between 50 and 60 volunteers.
So while the tax board and volunteers say the day will come when Lake Wylie needs a paid department, both agree today isn’t it. The tax board would lose two stations, more than half of the trucks and all but nine paid firefighters without volunteers. Volunteers would be out their new station and most equipment purchased since 2009 without the tax board.
This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Bethel firefighters plan to take control concerns to county."