Emergency Services director points to multiple factors necessitating increase
Given a wide array of increased expenses — along with the need to keep pursuing higher staffing levels on fire engines — the Sarasota County Emergency Services director has proposed a 10% increase in fire assessment rates for the 2027 fiscal year.
The chart above shows the changes and details about average rates.
Those increases will follow a 13% uptick in the assessments for this fiscal year, as noted in a slide presented to the County Commission in March.
However, Rich Collins, director of the Emergency Services Department, has told the county commissioners that the millage rate for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) will remain 0.73 mills in FY 2027, the same as it is this fiscal year. Last year, staff had projected it would rise to 0.81 mills in FY 2027, a chart shows. One mill represents $1,000 of the value of a parcel.
Collins has pointed out that the county has a Fire Fund and an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Fund, with most costs split 50/50 between them. However, revenue cannot be transferred from one of those funds to the other, he has stressed.
County staff will hold public information meetings this week about the proposed increases. The 45-minute sessions have been planned as follows:
The 45-minute presentations will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the locations and dates below:
- Tuesday, Aug. 18 — Fire Station 2, which stands at 2070 Waldemere St. in Sarasota.
- Thursday, Aug. 20 — The University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Extension Sarasota County facility located in the Green Building standing at 6600 Clark Road in Sarasota.
During a March 25 budget workshop, Collins explained that the assessments are based on a formula. A county webpage provides details about the assessments, including the following information:
The total adopted Emergency Services budget for this fiscal year is $178,618,264; for FY 2027, as of June 17, it was put at $195,615,184, which is higher by 9.5% than the current one, a slide shows.
The board members are expected to vote on the new rates during their Sept. 9 formal public hearing on the proposed county budget for the 2027 fiscal year, if staff follows the same schedule it has employed in years past. The final budget hearing is planned for Sept. 23.
During the commission’s March 25 workshop, Collins discussed the various factors that have necessitated the increases in the fire assessment rates and the EMS millage rate. For example, he talked about the fact that the Fire Department this year is in its third year of a five-year plan to increase staffing from two to three persons on all of the fire engines. For FY 2027, Collins pointed out, that will mean 17 new full-time employees. However, the additional personnel will not be hired until April 2027.
Collins also noted that the daily minimum staffing for the Fire Department is 133 persons. Sixteen of the engines with advanced life support systems (ALS) for critically ill patients — including those suffering strokes — already have three persons assigned to them, a slide showed, while seven ALS engines continue to operate with two firefighters-medics.
That slide also noted that the county has 25 ALS rescue units and 25 fire stations in operation.
During their June 17 budget workshop, the commissioners also agreed to allow staff to proceed with the design work for new Fire Stations 7 and 27, among other projects. The commissioners have talked on multiple occasions this year about their concerns that if a state property tax referendum on the Nov. 3 General Election ballot passes, the estimated $87-million decrease in county revenue by the 2029 fiscal year will necessitate their having to find savings through a variety of means, including halting plans for construction of projects that are not already underway.
During Collins’ March 25 presentation to the board, Commissioner Teresa Mast noted of Station 7, “That’s a critical [need] for my district,” which is District 1. It encompasses much of the rural, northeastern section of the county.
Fire Station 7 has been planned for construction on county-owned property in the Lakewood Ranch area, a county Capital Projects Department document says. Formally, the location is 5099 Systems Court.
Fire Station 27 will stand at 3176 E. Venice Ave. in Venice, the corresponding Capital Projects document notes. The site already has been purchased, that document says.
Yet another factor behind the needed increase in fire assessments, Collins explained in March, is an unfunded state mandate for life-safety inspections, as provided for in Florida Statute 633. All commercial structures must undergo inspections on an annual or two- or three-year basis, he said. “We do not have enough inspectors to comply with that state mandate.”
Eleven new inspectors are to be hired in the 2027 fiscal year, Collins added. However, he told the board members, as with the extra engine personnel, they will not be on staff until April, when the fiscal year is half over.
Further, then-Chief David Rathbun had been working with the Emergency Services team to spread those new hires over five years, to bring the county into compliance with the state law, Collins added.
Staff compensation, equipment maintenance and fuel
Another budget issue is compensation, Collins continued in March. The County Commission, he pointed out, has approved a number of bargaining contracts over the years in an effort to help the Fire Department remain competitive in recruiting new members.
Since 2017, Collins said — depending on rank and time served with the department — salaries and benefits combined have increased from an average of 4.47% to 6.79%. Moreover, he noted, since 2012, the Florida Retirement System (FRS) amount that the county pays has risen 30%.
Altogether, Collins reported, the expense of personnel services will comprise nearly 70% of the FY 2027 budget.
He also noted in March that the bargaining contract with personnel will expire in September.
Further, Collins pointed out, equipment maintenance costs “have continued to go up,” as has the expense of fuel.
In regard to maintenance: He noted that the equipment the Fire Department uses has a lot of built-in technology. In addition to that, he told the commissioners, the Fire Department must use mechanics who have been certified as emergency vehicle technicians.
A slide he presented the board members showed that the Emergency Services maintenance expense was $1,856,111 in the 2010 fiscal year; this year, the figure was put at $3,857,038.
As for fuel: Another slide showed that that expense had risen from $309,717 in the 2010 fiscal year to $1,310,693 this fiscal year.
Additionally, Collins pointed out, the cost of EMS units has climbed 130% from 2013, while the expense of fire engines has risen 110%.
“A ladder truck that cost $1 million several years ago is now $2.4 million,” he told the commissioners.
“Now we’re keeping vehicles longer,” he added. Instead of eight years, Collins noted, staff is keeping EMS units for 10 years; fire engines remain in service 12 years, while the former mark was 10 years; and ladder trucks are kept for 15 years, instead of 10.
Yet another big factor in the budget, Collins said, is the need to build back up the reserves for the both the EMS and Fire funds. He showed the commissioners slides reflecting the changes in the EMS millage rate and the Fire Fund assessments over the past couple of decades.
When he began working with the county in 2014, Collins pointed out, the reserves had reached such a high level that the County Commission decided they should be spent down. In fact, he continued, from 2012 through 2020, “There was an extensive use of reserves,” given the board’s priority.
“It’s absolutely critical that we get these reserves to where they need to be,” Commissioner Mast told Collins.
She and her colleagues thanked Collins for staff’s efforts to work on ways to save the county money. Nonetheless, Mast said, “You can’t kick the can down the road too far.”