Residents have expressed opposition to expansion of county fire district into the area
On Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, Sarasota County staff issued a news release saying that the Sarasota County Fire Department would “host an event for our community to meet fire department leadership” from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Jan. 11, at Sarasota County Fire Station 23, which is located at 1930 N. Tamiami Trail in Nokomis.
“This will be an opportunity to ask questions and speak with Sarasota County Fire Department [SCFD] leadership about fire assessments, SCFD services and the proposal to possibly include a portion of Nokomis into the Sarasota County Fire and Rescue District.”
The news release then noted, “A public hearing is set before the Sarasota County Board of County Commissioners” on Jan. 21, 2025, at the Sarasota County Administration Center, which stands at 1660 Ringling Blvd. in downtown Sarasota.
“For more information, visit scgov.net/fire,” the release said.
Over the past couple of months, Nokomis residents have pleaded with the Sarasota County commissioners to oppose the Sarasota County Fire Department and Emergency Service Department recommendation to incorporate part of the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department (NVFD) service area into the Sarasota County Fire Department District and begin imposing county fire assessments on the property owners in the affected area.
On Dec. 11, 2024, county Fire Chief David Rathbun — who has been in that position since November 2022 — and other representatives of the Fire Department held a meeting, as well — also at Fire Station 23 — to talk about plans involving the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department.
On Dec. 17, 2024, the commissioners were expected to conduct the hearing that has been rescheduled for Jan. 21. As a result of public concerns — those expressed in person that day and those the board members had received via email, as Commissioners Teresa Mast and Mark Smith noted — the board members agreed unanimously to delay the hearing.
Mast referenced the “significant amount of emails” in her remarks.
Nonetheless, Chair Joe Neunder — who lives in Nokomis — welcomed public comments on the issues under consideration, even though County Attorney Joshua Moye had made it clear that none of the remarks would be made part of the record for the Jan. 21 hearing. Fourteen people who indicated that they had come to the meeting that day to speak during the hearing did end up addressing the board under its Open to the Public period at the end of the other business for the Dec. 17 session.
All but two of them voiced strong support for the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department (NVFD), and a number of them cited the lack of transparency of county staff as the hearing had been planned.
One of the latter individuals, Bill Cantrell, president of the Nokomis Area Civic Association (NACA), told the commissioners, “A big disappointment for me is that NACA has always had a strong and close relationship [with community leaders]. We always had an open line of communication. … That has not been the case here. Our community feels like we are being steamrolled … To have this [proposal] thrown at us right before [the holidays is] not how it should have been done.”
Additionally, Mike Barker, chair of the board of commissioners of the NVFD, asked the commissioners to direct county staff in any similar situation in the future “to operate in total transparency [and] consult and work with the impacted residents …”
The goal, Barker continued, should be to do what is best for the residents. In this case, however, he said, “It’s turned into a bashing of the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department rather than [a focus on] enhanced services for the residents, which I don’t see anywhere [in this proposal].”
Barbara Gentry, the administrator of the NVFD, pointed out that the Nokomis staff had had to file a public records request with the county to find out information “on this whole process.”
In fact, she added, “We had to follow up, because [county personnel] stalled and did not give it to us the first time.”
Steve Kona, chief of NVFD, told the commissioners, “I think the residents here are angry. It’s not so much the proposed change,” he pointed out, but “they felt like they weren’t given a voice.”
The plan to conduct the hearing eight days before Christmas, Kona added, “is not a good look for Sarasota County.”
The story behind the hearing originally planned for Dec. 17 and then set for Jan. 21 actually began in early 2021.
‘Eliminate the annual subsidy …’
In May 2020, the Sarasota County Fire Department contracted with Emergency Services Consulting International (ESCI) “to produce an update to the 2018 Sarasota County Fire Department (SCFD) Master Plan,” the resulting March 2021 report said. “The purpose of the study was to assess the current conditions, service delivery, and financial sustainability of the SCFD [Sarasota County Fire Department] and to evaluate current and future deployment options,” ESCI added.
The section of the 2021 study that focused on the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department explained that funding for the department “is provided through annual fees and donations, as well as an annual payment of $70,000 by Sarasota County to the District for Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department to provide response within their District. Since the Countywide Fire … non-ad valorem assessment is not applied within the Nokomis Volunteer Fire District and the County provides an annual subsidy to the District for fire response, there is a growing imbalance between SCFD fire suppression resources used within the District and funding to pay for these resources. SCFD fire suppression response is well beyond mutual aid and has effectively become routine emergency response, the cost of which is ultimately absorbed by the residents and businesses of Sarasota County outside of the District and within SCFD fire service area which are paying the … non-ad valorem assessment.”
A June 4, 2024 memo from Fire Chief Rathbun to Rich Collins, director of the county’s Emergency Services Department — which was included in a July 2024 report that Collins sent to County Administrator Jonathan Lewis — pointed out, “Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department, Inc., exists as a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization. Because NVFD is not recognized as an independent or dependent special district under the laws of Florida, it does not possess the authority to levy special assessments or impact fees. Annual dues and donations are the primary funding sources, in addition to the annual subsidy paid by the County in the amount of $57,963.70 …”
During the Dec. 17 County Commission meeting, Todd Kerkering, the City of Sarasota’s emergency manager, told the board members that he has been a Nokomis resident for 19 years. His annual dues for the NVFD are approximately $290, he said. If he were to start paying county fire assessments, he added, the total would rise to about $500 a year.
Still, Kerkering was one of two speakers that day who acknowledged that the county staff had valid points. “I see issues on both sides,” he noted, though he also pointed out that the 2021 ESCI study used data that was from 2019, nearly six years ago.
“Let’s look at this [proposal] next year,” he added. “Let’s get new data.”
Emergency Services Director Collins’ July 22, 2024 report to Lewis — sent slightly more than three years after the ESCI report was released — said, “Over the past several months, [Rathbun] and the team have evaluated and developed recommendations on the process, timing, and funding for completing a phased-in approach to assuming primary fire protection in the Nokomis (mid-county) area … Staff’s recommended phased-in approach provides the mechanism to begin service as soon as practical with existing staffing/equipment while also allowing time to plan, identify, and procure the appropriate equipment and capital to effectively provide the services needed in this area. It also provides a timeline for implementation including the legally required notices and process for bringing the Nokomis area into the Assessment District.”
If the plans were to be implemented, the ”Next Steps” that Collins identified in his memorandum were for county staff to begin “notifications and communications … in the last quarter of [the 2024 fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30, 2024]. Notifications and adoption of assessments would begin in November of [the 2025 fiscal year] for implementation beginning [Oct. 1, 2025 for the 2026 fiscal year].”
‘Errors or misleading facts’
On Nov. 19, 2024, with two new county commissioners having been sworn in that morning during the board’s regular meeting in Venice, two people came to the podium of the R.L. Anderson Administration Center to request that one item be struck from the Consent Agenda of routine business matters that day. That item called for the commissioners to “authorize a public hearing on an ordinance amending Sections 110-251 and 110-254 of the County Code to expand the boundaries of the Sarasota County Fire and Rescue District to include Nokomis” and to “authorize a public hearing on a resolution declaring Notice of Intent to use the uniform method for the levy, collection, and enforcement of non-ad valorem assessments within the Sarasota County Fire and Rescue District.”
The accompanying staff memo said that the “revenue to be collected by the non-ad valorem fire assessments for this area is estimated at [$2 million]. Estimated expenditure for providing services to the expanded fire district area is [$1.5 million]. This includes the need for nine firefighters for an estimated cost of $1.4M (including bunker gear and Uniforms” so Engines 22 and 24 [would have staffing of three persons],” along with “an estimated cost of $75,000 for Advanced Life Support Equipment to make Engine 24 Advanced Life Support capable.”
The first of the two speakers at Open to the Public, Nokomis Fire Chief Kona, who mentioned that he had held his position for the past 13 years, told the commissioners that day that the NVFD “has served the residents of this community for the past 75 years …”
Holding up a binder with a copy of the 2021 ESCI report, Kona continued, “This was the beginning of where we’re at today, and that is the takeover of the Nokomis Fire Department. Now, we don’t use those words, because they’re not politically correct,” he added, “but that’s exactly what it is.”
While the report discussed the need for “enhanced services,” Kona said, the county Fire Department proposal represents “the slow and progressive takeover of our department.”
Kona asked each of the commissioners to spend 30 minutes with him, individually, “at some point,” so he could present the department’s side of the story. He noted that the county plan would affect 15,000 residents.
Further, he contended that the 2021 ESCI report contained “17 errors or misleading facts” about the NVFD.
The second speaker that day, Gentry, the administrator of the NVFD, also urged the commissioners to discuss the issues with leaders of the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department.
Additionally, Gentry pointed out that the Nokomis department has two ladder trucks, two engines, one tanker, one truck used for brush fires, a rescue boat and a command vehicle. Yet, she told the board members, the county plan would reduce the amount of equipment available to the department to fight fires.
‘The crux of the issue’
After the Nov. 19 public comments, then-interim commission Chair Neunder turned to the Consent Agenda, asking whether anyone wanted to pull an item for discussion. Commissioner Mark Smith responded that he would like to ask Collins of Emergency Services to offer some remarks about the authorization for the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department hearing in December.
“The crux of the issue for us,” Collins told the commissioners, is that the residents in the rest of the unincorporated areas of the county, outside Nokomis, are subsidizing the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department.
Collins stressed that staff was asking only for authorization to conduct the Dec. 17, 2024 hearing. The intervening weeks, he said, would allow the public time to address their concerns with the commissioners, so the commissioners would have all the information they needed “to make a policy decision …”
Then Collins said, “The Nokomis Fire Department [has] done a great service to the community. But the [Sarasota County Fire Department’s updated strategic plan resulting from the 2021 ESCI report] calls for improved service to mid-county residents,” including eliminating the annual subsidy for the Nokomis department.
While the Nokomis firefighters “provide fire suppression and first responder services in Nokomis, Laurel, south Osprey and all of Casey Key,” Collins continued, “it’s also important to note that Sarasota County Fire Department provides all the EMS [emergency medical services] in that area.”
Further, he said, the county Fire Department provides automatic mutual aid to Nokomis “and makes up the balance of effective response force needed to efficiently mitigate fire suppression incidents.”
Moreover, Collins emphasized, not only do the Nokomis residents pay no county fire assessments, they also pay no fire impact fees “for all the growth that’s occurring in the mid-county area …”
Impact fees are assessed on new construction. They are designed to help pay for the infrastructure, such as roads and fire stations, needed to serve new residents.
Collins also explained that the expansion of the fire assessments needed to win approval before Jan. 1, 2025 to allow the offices of the Sarasota County Tax Collector and the Sarasota County Property Appraiser sufficient time to prepare for handling those assessments. The December 2024 hearing timeline would ensure that the amount of the annual fire assessment necessary for the 2026 fiscal year could be determined, he said, so the affected residents would have adequate notice.
Colins also addressed the recent completion of the rebuilding of Fire Station 23 — which was completed in March 2024. That cost the county more than $9 million, he added. That station, he said, would be the primary one to serve the portion of the Nokomis area that would be brought into the county’s fire district.
(Chief Rathbun’s June 4, 2024 memo pointed out, “County-owned Fire Station 23 is currently shared by SCFD and NVFD crews. In 2017, Sarasota County entered into an updated 10-year term contract for a shared facility agreement with NVFD for NVFD to co-locate at county-owned Station 23. This Agreement ends on September 30, 2027. No rent payments are made by NVFD to Sarasota County under this agreement. Currently, NVFD houses one fire engine at this station while SCFD houses two rescues (ambulances) for EMS response and patient transport services.”)
Over the next three to five years, Collins continued on Nov. 19, the Nokomis department would serve the remaining area not brought into the county district, as he and leaders of the Sarasota County Fire Department worked on a plan to add the last portion of the NVFD service area into the county district.
Collins promised public meetings would be held in the affected area if the board members that day approved the Dec. 17, 2024 public hearing.
Commissioner Ron Cutsinger made the motion to authorize the hearing, and Commissioner Smith seconded it. The motion passed on a 5-0 vote.
Cutsinger did emphasize that staff should make certain that the public was informed of the December date.
‘Do the right thing’
Among the other supporters of the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department who addressed the board on Dec. 17, Dennis Bragg, president of the Osprey Nokomis Chamber of Commerce, talked about how many times the Nokomis firefighters have provided support for the Sarasota County Fire Department. As of that date, he noted, Nokomis had recorded 135 such incidents, while county firefighters had aided the Nokomis department nine times.
He also called the Nokomis Fire Department a “community icon.”
Bob Caldwell, who noted that he is a resident of the Spanish Lakes Mobile Home Park in Nokomis, told the commissioners, “Do the right thing for all homeowners within the district served by the Nokomis Fire Department. That is your job … Represent these homeowners …”