St. Charles fire district shares privatization plan
Come February, the St. Charles Countryside Fire Protection District may make changes trustees said will keep the taxing body financially sound until 2020. Some unhappy district residents said they could be the ones suffering because of poor service.
Fire protection district trustees are researching private companies for fire and ambulance service. If they find the right fit, they'll end the district's long relationship with the St. Charles Fire Department and Tri-Cities Ambulance Association.
“We can't afford to do this anymore,” District President Jim Gaffney said, in announcing the district's stance Wednesday at a meeting in Campton Hills.
“Just to continue to do business as usual would definitely require (more) tax dollars. We're not trying to union bust. And it's nothing against the St. Charles Fire Department. But we keep paying more and more money, and we're not getting any better service. Continuing to contract with the city of St. Charles will do nothing to improve response times.”
That issue was a selling point of the district's repeated attempts in the last several elections to pass tax increases to operate and build its own fire houses. Response times average about 7 minutes but can be as short as 2 minutes and as long as 19 minutes depending on where residents live. St. Charles city officials believe the district is not paying its fair share. The district, with a budget of about $2.2 million, accounts for 20 percent of the St. Charles Fire Department's calls, but only funds 16 percent of the department's costs.
Trustees want to open two fire stations within the district one in Wasco, the other near the new Stearns Road Bridge on the other side of the Fox River. Staff would include 41 firefighters and two ambulances, each with at least one paramedic. As few as 17 positions would be full-time. The rest of the positions would be paid-on-call employees.
Trustees repeatedly said the changes would not result in any decrease in quality of service. They sold the plan as adding two fire stations and more firefighters and paramedics to the area. But audience members, several of them firefighters, weren't buying it. They slammed the plan as increasing response times for district residents close to St. Charles. They also said paid-on-call paramedics and firefighters don't have the training or experience the full-time St. Charles Fire Department employees have. Audience members also feared the district's new ambulances will only have one paramedic, at least initially, rather than two paramedics as per the norm with the St. Charles Fire Department.
“This is giving us substandard performance,” district resident Jeff Ricker said of the working plan. “I'd rather wait the extra 2 or 3 minutes to have someone come from St. Charles if I have a fire or a medical problem than these guys show up and not know what caliber of a paramedic or firefighter I'd get.”
Gaffney said municipalities don't have a monopoly on qualified firefighters and paramedics.
“When a paramedic shows up at your house, are you going to ask if he carries a union card?” Gaffney asked. “What you're going to say is my family member is having a heart attack and please revive them.”
If the district does abandon its relationship with the St. Charles Fire Department come May 2011, Fire Chief Patrick Mullen said the city will likely drop an entire company, but no fire houses would close.
“It will require us to do some right-sizing,” Mullen said. “Obviously, if 20 percent of our call load goes away, we have to look at some capabilities and say we don't need all of that. As far as the union, we have to sit down and talk about the impacts that their membership might see. That might just be an issue that's associated, not necessarily with layoffs, but more associated with the impact on overtime.” Mullen would not rule out layoffs at some point.
If the city trims its fire service, Mullen said that will reduce the capacity to help the fire protection district during large fire calls or multiple medical calls that occur simultaneously.
“What we'll say is once we right-size our services for the city of St. Charles, we're not in a position to serve you,” Mullen said. “... You've taken that responsibility on yourself. I don't know that we're going to be in a position to provide you for free that which you've refused to pay for.”
District trustees will make their decision on or before Feb. 1.