By Marvin G. Cortner
Editor

Facing a roomful of angry small business owners, the Osceola County Commission Monday delayed until June 28 a decision on a new method of assessing fire fees.

Fire rescue officials and county staff over the last month have held a number of public hearings in the community to gather comments on the proposed fees, which are based on the square footage of buildings, on fire risk and on the resources that would be needed to fight a fire.

The fees fund the operations of Osceola County Fire Rescue, excluding ambulance service. In the past, the county used a flat fee system based on the classification of property, such as commercial, industrial or residential.

After about two and a half hours of comment and discussion, the commission decided to send the proposed methodology back to a fire fee task force with the hope that the group could come up with a solution to the large increases in the fees for small businesses, some as much as 2,000 percent, and big drops for others, such as large resorts.

The task force also will consider whether to recommend going back to the fee system in place now but tweak it to remove inconsistencies, which prompted the search for a new methodology in the first place.

County officials said the fees do not have to be finalized until September but any delays makes the Fire Rescue budgeting process more difficult.

During Monday’s public hearing on the issue, small business owners told commissioners higher fees would force them to close, putting even more local residents out of jobs and forcing more homes and commercial property into foreclosure.

Mike Horner, president of the Kissimmee-Osceola County Chamber of Commerce, said the commission had good intentions in revisiting the fire fees but that the outcome is unacceptable as it shifts too much burden on small businesses.

“These are unsustainable increases, the fees are just too high; 2,000 percent increases are not sustainable,” Horner said. “This is ‘the sky is falling’ territory.”

Horner offered the services of the chamber to help revisit the fee methodology and also suggested that the county, if it decides to go with the new methodology in the end, to cap increases at 20 percent, and then add another 20 percent in each of the next four years.

County Chairman Fred Hawkins Jr. said he would support a cap and a five-year plan. However, he and other commissioners also warned that such a cap or any buying down of fees for any group where fees went up dramatically would force the county to dip into the general fund to make up the shortfall in the Fire Rescue budget.

“We’ve asked the fire chief to look at his budget, and we are looking at it too,” Hawkins said.

Commissioner Ken Smith said the general fund is already facing a huge shortfall (as much as $34 million in fiscal year 2010-11) and that the Fire Rescue budget may have to be cut, which could include reducing salaries and benefits, laying off firefighters and closing fire stations.

Chris Owen, chairman of the Osceola County Fire and Rescue Advisory Commission (the volunteer group that makes recommendations on the Fire Rescue budget and the department’s operations), said it is the advisory group’s opinion that there are “no significant areas where cuts can be made” without it being detrimental to the level of service now provided.

An example

Randy Weber, whose family owns a business/warehouse complex on Michigan Avenue near Kissimmee, said the fire fees for 48 commercial rental units would go from $4,400 to $44,000.

“I can’t charge my small businesses any more money; the system is unacceptable, it’s broken,” said Weber, one of the five people who will be added to the fire fee task force when it reconvenes.

The June 28 commission meeting on adopting the proposed fire fees will start at 5:30 p.m.; the date and time for the task force meeting has not yet been set.