02/13/2024
"Why is Chester Fire Department in financial distress all of a sudden?" This is a frequent and understandable question as CFD moves to lay off its professional firefighting staff by the end of this month. (Note: multiple alternatives to this closure are being presented to the voters on a special election ballot on May 7 as Measures B and C).
When Chester Fire Protection District merged with Chester Public Utility District in 2010, the ambulance service that the new Chester Fire Department (CFD) operated made money and allowed for Chester to have a full-time, professional fire department. Ambulance revenue paid for the cost of having at least two firefighters on duty 24/7; at least one of whom was a credentialed paramedic and the other an emergency medical technician (EMT). This has allowed CFD to operate an Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulance, offering life-saving acute pre-hospital care.
In the following years, insurance reimbursement practices resulting from passage of the Affordable Care Act significantly reduced CFD's ambulance revenues. What had been a money-making venture became a money-losing business, causing the department to begin relying on other revenues to support its ongoing, annual expenditures.
Over the past several years, Chester Fire has relied on one-time dollars each year to balance its annual budget. These one-time dollars are based on how much support CFD has been able to provide to fight certain wildfires each year. As a general rule, one-time (unpredictable) dollars should never be used as a source to balance annual (regular) budget expenses. If the revenues never materialize but you have fixed expenses, you inevitably must borrow from reserves or from other funds.
As fire department reserves have run out in the past few years (because there have been fewer wildfires and opportunities for CFD to provide wildfire assistance in the last 3 fire seasons) the department has financed its operations by using cash from CPUD's sewer fund. CFD will need to repay approximately $1.5 million dollars to CPUD's sewer fund as those dollars are legally required to be used to benefit sewer ratepayers. The use of sewer fund dollars by the fire department has not slowed or prevented any sewer projects and CPUD is currently pursuing a multi-million dollar state grant for sewer system improvements.
Chester Fire's financial problems are not new, they simply haven't been at the forefront of public discussion until now as the current board and administration deal with the reality of insufficient revenue and limited reserves.
CPUD/CFD's current board of directors and administration believe that Chester deserves a functional fire department, and that stable, annual funding must be identified to pay for the service regardless of whether CFD is all-volunteer or employs professional firefighters. More information will be published soon about Measures B and C and what options each of them presents for the voters to choose.
Have questions you'd like to see addressed? Email [email protected] and we'll do our best.
