Temporary Cease-Fire?

Five City Fire Unions Extinguish County Efforts to Take Over Their Departments — for Now

By Ben Torter

Photo by Angie Hargot

Barring a cigar smoke-filled backroom coup, the Miami-Dade County Commission has come to an agreement that will end a firefight that has been raging since July.

The settlement, which is likely on its way to the November ballot, allows the cities of Coral Gables, Hialeah, Key Biscayne, Miami and Miami Beach to keep control of their fire departments, but prevents cities serviced by the county from breaking away and contracting fire services from neighboring cities.

“As I’ve stated before, I don’t think we’d be in this position had it not been for certain municipalities, who in the past have tried to really poach — tried to really get some of our more wealthy cities to provide services to them to the detriment of the Miami-Dade Fire District,” said Commissioner Dennis Moss, the sponsor of the proposal, during a Sept. 2 discussion.

Fire union leaders in the five municipalities see the agreement as a victory for their own autonomy, and say it proves a point they’ve been making all along.

“If you read the new proposal, it proves this issue was never about response times, duplication of services or the sky falling,” Miami Beach fire union President Adonis Garcia said. “This was supposed to be about safety, but now it’s quite obvious it was about money and preventing our autonomy.”

Responding to Moss’ allegation, Garcia added that neither his union nor department ever approached another city about usurping county duties. Quite the opposite, he said; it was certain cities that had approached them.

Town of Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett is one of the leaders who approached Miami Beach about providing fire service for his city, which will go ahead with its November vote to cancel Surfside’s contract for Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue, and he has vowed to fight to make it happen.

Despite being confident that Thursday’s discussion of the item, which would allow the five cities to keep their departments, was only a technicality and that it would pass, Garcia said the unions wouldn’t let up on the pressure, filling the County Commission chamber with members.

“As usual, you have to watch county politics each step of the way,” Garcia said. “And the union will have its eyes wide open.”

Burkett also plans to keep the pressure up, reaching out to residents and running an ad campaign to fight for Surfside’s right to choose which fire department it wants.

“I appreciate Mayor [Carlos] Alvarez’s leadership and think he’s been very fair and balanced, but there are others [county commissioners] who are very influenced by the [county fire] union and don’t have the best interest of the taxpayers” in mind, Burkett said, adding that he was very disappointed in County Commission Chairman Bruno Barreiro for “betraying” his constituents earlier in the summer.

The push for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue to take over services in the five municipalities that already have their own departments blew up after being quietly placed on the July 18 County Commission agenda by Barreiro, only four days before the meeting. Hundreds of outraged fire union members, along with city officials, overflowed the County Commission chambers fighting for their autonomy.

Barreiro and other supporters argued that unifying the six departments into one was necessary for safety: It would not only decrease response times and communication by creating one radio system, but would save money in training and other costs as well. The five municipal fire departments are all on the same 800 megahertz radio frequency, although back in the 1980s, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue chose to continue using a 450 megahertz frequency.

Opponents argued it slapped municipal autonomy in the face, and would actually increase taxes because it would raise insurance rates, which are based on the class of each department. While most of the five municipal departments are ranked Class One, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue is, on average, a Class Four.

The takeover attempt was abandoned in July when County Manager George Burgess admitted that he and his staff really didn’t know the financial implications of consolidating.

At the time, Barreiro, who was re-elected Aug. 26, and Burgess said they would review the numbers and perhaps bring the proposal back.

The new plan was quickly discussed by commissioners at their Sept. 2 meeting, where they decided to hold a discussion and vote on Sept. 4.

Still, not all county commissioners believe sufficient study has been conducted of the new proposal’s financial ramifications.

“My understanding from the [July 18] discussion is that before we proceeded with anything we were going to have a group, appointed by the chair, to hash out all these issues, whether it be consolidation or insurance or communication, and then we were going to make a decision after all of that,” said Commissioner Katy Sorenson on Sept. 2. “I’m uncomfortable with going forward with this before that’s happened because, procedurally, that’s what we asked to have happen and to me it seems that that’s where we should be right now, not jumping to a charter amendment. Regardless of the merits of a charter amendment, I don’t think these issues have really all been flushed out.”

Barreiro offered her an explanation from the dais.

“In the last meeting I did not agree to a specific formula,” Barreiro said. “I said I would look at all options. I’ll tell you what I agreed to in a meeting with the fire chiefs from the five different municipalities. I would request a report. That report would come to us. I would sit down with them. They would have an opportunity to review that report before I went ahead and put it on the agenda. I did not receive the report on time. I did not place the item on the agenda. And I have sent them the report. I received it after, and here’s where we stand. So I just state that for the record.”

Although Barreiro insisted that he hadn’t put the item on the agenda because it needed further study, he seconded Moss’ motion to place the item on the Sept. 4 agenda — the commission’s last opportunity to put the item before voters on Nov. 4.

Miami fire union President Robert Suarez explained that the unions of the five municipal fire departments are satisfied with the new proposal because they get to keep their autonomy, and that the county’s real issue has been made clear.

“I’m happy to see the County Commission focused on the problem, which is the Miami-Dade Fire Department being picked apart, and that the problem was not the fire services in Miami-Dade County as a whole,” said Suarez.

Metro-Dade Firefighters union President Stan Hills still believes consolidating all six departments would be best for county residents, but thinks commissioners are on the right track with their compromise.

“Realizing there’s as much resistance as there is, we’re supporting it,” Hills said. “But at the end of the day, we should all be on the same radio system, and we should all work together, but this was too much, too fast for some people.”

Over the last few years, discussions about swapping county services for those of neighboring cities have occurred in various Miami-Dade municipalities, with varying outcomes.

The Village of Pinecrest discussed leaving the county and contracting Coral Gables to handle its fire services, Indian Creek Village voted earlier this year to go with Miami Beach, and in November Surfside residents will vote on a deal with Miami Beach. In response to the cities’ discussions, the county passed an ordinance earlier this year banning municipalities from breaking their contracts with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. The current county referendum would include that ordinance in the county charter.

Burkett, however, remains undaunted.

“Irrespective of anything [county commissioners] are doing, it seems it’s nothing but a power grab, and it’s clearly not in the best interest of Surfside, Indian Creek or Miami Beach residents,” Burkett said. “We have the opportunity to save a tremendous amount of money and maintain a high service level, just by switching. The county is not concerned by that; they seem more concerned with protecting their turf.”

When Burkett was elected mayor of Surfside more than two years ago, he set out to find areas to save tax dollars and discovered that every time a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue truck rolled into Surfside for a call, it cost the town $6,000. In Indian Creek Village, that fee cost the city $80,000 per visit, he said. Burkett approached neighboring Miami Beach for an estimate to provide fire services. City officials told him the city could provide at least the same level of service for $2 million less, or about $3,000 per call.

“This is a cash cow for everyone who does it,” Burkett said. “But for my residents, that $2 million means we can do everything on our wish list without a one-penny tax increase…. Of course, in the upside-down world of county government, we’re being penalized for coming up with a way to pool our resources and save the taxpayers.”

In the Blog: BREAKING NEWS Update on the County Commission Vote

Comments? E-mail ben@miamisunpost.com