Rising costs could lead to fewer hometown police and fire departments - Sun-Sentinel
Proponents of regionalization have this to say to people who like having their own hometown police force and firefighting department: Get over it.
That is, unless you don't mind paying a premium for those services.
A growing number of cities are deciding that cost does matter, especially with residents clamoring for tax relief, and are investigating consolidation with county sheriff or fire-rescue services. As cities are forced to tighten their budgets, it's hard for them not to look at public safety costs that usually make up more than half of their expenses.
"When everybody had money, and everybody had enough money to do everything, it wasn't on anybody's radar," Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti said. "Sooner or later, voters are going to say: 'Why are you wasting all this money?' "
Neither Lamberti nor Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw are knocking on city doors, seeking to expand their departments. It's up to the cities to come to them. However, the two said there are savings that come from economies of scale, where equipment is shared, service areas don't stop at city borders and fewer managers are needed.
"This is not about me taking over police departments," Bradshaw said. "At the end of the day, each jurisdiction has got to find out what is best for them."
In Deerfield Beach, where the Broward Sheriff's Office has provided police services for more than 20 years, commissioners voted in August to merge the city's fire-rescue department with Broward Sheriff Fire-Rescue. It gave the city an immediate $2.9 million savings and the promise of enhanced services.
Lamberti swore in the 160-member force on Friday and the official switchover takes place at 8 a.m. Saturday. It's the uniforms — not the employees — that are changing, going from "Deerfield Beach Fire-Rescue" T-shirts to polo shirts with an embroidered badge.
That's a point Bradshaw tries to drive home in Palm Beach County when he deals with skeptical residents resistant to change.
"That's the biggest misconception you have every single time," Bradshaw said. "They don't lose their police department. It doesn't go anywhere. It's the same men and women doing the same job."
What has changed is the rising personnel costs and the specialized training employees need that have made it much harder for cities to maintain their own departments, said Leonard Matarese, a consultant for the International City/County Management Association.
"Over the past 25 years or so, police salaries and benefits have become much more costly," said Matarese, a former city manager in Coconut Creek.
Consolidation has a strong foothold in South Florida. Seventeen municipalities are served by Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue and nine by the county's Sheriff's Ofice. In Broward, the Sheriff's Office provides police services to 14 municipalities and fire-rescue services to eight.
A number of Palm Beach County coastal communities are currently feeling out a merger with the Sheriff's Office. Ocean Ridge approached the Sheriff's Office first, but now Manalapan, Gulfstream and South Palm Beach are also determining if it might make sense to make a move together, Bradshaw said.
Hollywood, which raised its property tax rate 11 percent this year to help cover a $38 million budget gap, is now in discussions with Lamberti to see if there would be savings by having the Sheriff's Office take over the city's police and fire-rescue services.
"I don't know what those discussions will yield," Hollywood spokeswoman Raelin Storey said. "Overall, for cities with this economy, everyone is having to look at are there ways to do things at less cost?"
That's also why Riviera Beach recently requested a proposal from Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue. The city wants to see if merging its department with the county's can be a plus for residents and relieve pressure on the city's budget.
"It was related to the budget," said Riviera Beach spokeswoman Rose Anne Brown. "I know that the council and the residents are very pleased with the quality of service they receive from the [city's] fire-rescue. It's not due to any dissatisfaction."
Not every city agrees the savings are there. Pompano Beach last year and Lake Worth this year considered returning to their own police forces, before agreeing to contract extensions with their respective sheriff's offices. And Southwest Ranches this year was able to cut a deal with Pembroke Pines for a cheaper alternative for fire service than the Sheriff's Office was providing.
A Pompano Beach study last year concluded the city could save money by having its own force, but it would have faced large start-up costs. And while a resident last month told commissioners they should have the sheriff take over fire-rescue as well, Commissioner Rex Hardin said that wasn't even on his radar screen.
"At this point in time, that's not a consideration," Hardin said. "We get letters weekly praising the results of what our fire-rescue and [emergency medical technician] personnel do out there on the streets."
But Matarese said South Florida has become a model for consolidation, creating a coordination and sophistication that is a model for the rest of the country. He sees it continuing to expand.
"We're not ever going to go back to the way it was," Matarese said. "There's going to be an increasingly greater effort to provide generic public safety in a more cost-efficient manner."
lbarszewski@tribune.com or 954-356-4556
01 Oct, 2011--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEVRuMxOV85vD89wOcB0qdthuh2Vw&url=http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-sheriff-mergers-save-money-20111001,0,4007020.story
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