Numbers Tell Tale In Tontitown

While the smoke appears to be clearing over the Tontitown City Council's plans for a city-owned and operated fire department, cursory review of city financial information (available at http://www.tontitown.com/financials) prompts a few nagging questions: 1)Why the rush to establish a city-owned fire department? 2) Can the city afford this undertaking at the present time? 3) Are citizens better protected as a result of these actions?

1) City financial figures reflect the total budgeted 2013 service contract with the Tontitown Area Volunteer Fire Department was $115,000. As discussed and reported by various sources, TAFD was prepared to provide Tontitown with continued fire protection in 2014 and beyond under a service contract totaling $120,000 to $124,000 annually. TAFD also pledged to work with city officials for the orderly transition of TAFD to a city-owned department within a two- to five-year window. So why the rush to break with TAFD and establish a separate city-owned fire department in 2014? Can the city provide equal or better fire protection service at less cost? What do the numbers say?

2) Budgeted net expenditures to establish and fund the city's make-shift fire department for the remainder of 2014 total $345,400, or almost three years worth of contracts with TAFD. Budgeted fire department payroll expense alone totals more than $136,000 for the nine-month period April-December 2014. And we're just getting started. Look to our newly established police department for additional insight: City expenditures on police protection in 2013 increased more than 50 percent over 2012 costs. These growing expenses have resulted in net decreases in the city's general and street fund reserves (essentially the city's net worth) of $725,000 since 2012. Meanwhile, 2014 revenue appears stagnant, leaving Tontitown's citizens peering down a financially cloudy rabbit hole, spending more and more just to end up where we started. At current rates of capital invasion, equity reserves could be fully absorbed in less than four years.

3) Those individuals exhibiting the desire and commitment to protect Tontitown citizens' lives and property deserve our full support and respect. Those commitments are not questioned here. However, dual-service requirements for Tontitown police/fire department employees appear counterintuitive and worthy of scrutiny. Are cross-trained policemen/firemen really the permanent answer to fully staffing the city's fire department? And what will be the ultimate cost? Currently, the city is scrambling to acquire equipment that duplicates what TAFD already possesses in an effort to adequately protect Tontitown's citizens against fire loss. A bird in the hand ...

So what are we as citizens to do? If you agree with the current path our elected (and non-elected) officials are pursuing, continue to support them. If not, remember the names of those responsible for the added financial burden placed on our city come November.

Irv Mantegani

Tontitown

Commentary on 07/17/2014

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