QUILCENE — A newly appointed Quilcene fire commissioner said the district needs to pay close attention to its finances and defer hiring a chief until the budget is resolved.
“Our budget is my biggest concern right now,” Gary Phillips, who was selected by the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners on Dec. 3 to replace Mike Whittaker, who was recalled by voters Nov. 13.
“Right now, our yearly expenditures are about $110,000 more than our revenues, and our reserves have gone from $940,000 to about $250,000 in 2009. By my projections, we’ll be at about zero by mid-2015.”
Phillips said the department needs to have a fair amount of reserves in case it has to replace a large truck or an ambulance.
A budget workshop is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the fire station, 70 Herbert St., with ratification set for a meeting Dec. 26.
Once ratified, the department can continue the search for a chief, which was put on hold when Whittaker was recalled along with fellow commissioner Dave Ward.
“When we hire a chief, we need to make sure we have the money to pay on a three-year contract,” Phillips said.
“If we default on the chief’s contract — or any contract — there is a penalty.
“Hopefully, we can agree on enough cuts at the workshop for me to agree that it is time to hire a new chief.”
Phillips said that he expects “lots of little cuts” will add up to make the necessary budget adjustments.
One cut would be to decrease the number of residents [fire department trainees] from six to four once their current contract is up.
Another will result from Phillips and commissioner Debbie Randall, who was nominated to replace Ward, declining to take any per diem payment for the meetings they attend.
Commissioners are authorized to receive $140 per meeting along with vehicle mileage. They also can attend training sessions at district expense.
The budgeted amount for commissioners’ per diem in 2012 was $6,000 but actual expenses were $8,632 due to the additional meetings scheduled this year.
“If a volunteer goes out on a fire, they get $10 — going out in the middle of the night, missing sleep and getting dirty,” Phillips said.
“With a commissioner, it takes a certain amount of research to understand the job, but it’s clean and doesn’t take a lot of work. So I have problems if the commissioner is getting more than a volunteer firefighter,” he said.
Herb Beck, the third commission member, said Friday that he planned to collect his per diem.
Developing what Phillips called “a clear budget” also will benefit the new chief.
“In past budgets, we haven’t given the chief a clear idea of how the money should be spent,” he said.
“There hasn’t been enough of a distinction between our operations budget and our capital budget.”
“There has also been a problem with the commissioners playing too much a role in the day-to-day operation of the department, which isn’t their role.
“With the new budget, we need to give the chief a clear idea of how the money should be spent and allow him to work within those guidelines.”
Phillips said once the budget is in place, and cuts have been made, the department may seek additional money from the voters but should not do so before that time.
The district now collects 73.3 cents per $1,000 of property value. Raising it to $1.03 would raise an additional $100,000, and a raise to $1.25 would gain $175,000.
“When the time comes, we can ask the people for more revenue,” Phillips said.
“But selling higher taxes in Quilcene right now, with the way the economy is, is not a good idea. With current conditions, I don’t think it is a good idea or even possible to get more money from the people in the district.”
Phillips, who served as fire commissioner from 1990 to 2001, said this stint on the board will be different.
“Quilcene has changed. It used to be a working town, and now it’s more of a retirement town,” Phillips said.
“It used to be there were 60 people working at the forest service, a lot of young guys who were volunteer firefighters. Now we don’t have a pool of young guys to pull the volunteers from.”
“The town’s in transition,” he said. “We need to be able to live within these demographic changes.”
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
