Lafayette fire dept. pushing for tax hike

Department promises improved services

By Amy Bounds (Contact)
Saturday, September 27, 2008

LAFAYETTE — Local firefighters are canvassing the city, hoping to convince residents to approve an emergency services tax hike to pay for additional full-time firefighters and paramedics.

This is a critical need,” said Joe Navarro, a Lafayette firefighter and chairman of the Committee to Support Lafayette Fire and Ambulance. “We’ve been struggling to make every dollar go as far as possible.”

If the question, Ballot Issue 2A, is approved, the property tax mill levy would increase by up to 4.5 mills to generate about $1.5 million in 2009. The increase would cost the owner of a $350,000 home about $125 a year.

Lafayette now has no dedicated funding source for emergency services.

City Administrator GaryKlaphake said the city can only afford minimum fire department staffing. The city is transitioning from a staff of volunteer firefighters to one of professional firefighters.

In 2005, Lafayette hired two full-time firefighters and one full-time training officer. Prior to that, the fire chief was the only member of the department on the payroll. In 2006, the city received grant money from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to add nine full-timers over four years.

If the tax increase passes, Klaphake said, the money would cover eight additional full-time firefighters and paramedics, with three on duty around the clock at the fire station. The station is one of busiest in Boulder County, with close to 2,000 calls a year, officials said.

Now there’s typically one or two paid firefighters on duty per shift, with gaps filled by volunteers. City officials said volunteers will still be needed to help with structure fires and other major emergencies.

Navarro said approval of the tax also would allow the department to expand its volunteer ranks, from 60 to 80. Though volunteers are unpaid, he said, the department foots the bill for equipment and training.

Lafayette also took over ambulance services from a private contractor in 2007, with the goal of reducing response times. But the user fees don’t cover the costs, requiring the city to spend about $250,000 from its general fund budget for the service.

The proposed tax increase would cover that gap and provide money to replace aging ambulances. The city’s two ambulances are 12 years and 6 years old. Navarro said ambulances need to be replaced after five years.

Opponents have called the measure a “taxpayer bailout,” saying the city should live within its means and should have planned better.

The city’s other ballot measure, Ballot Issue 2B, calls for creation of a 2 percent lodging tax, would generate $75,000 to $100,000 a year for the city’s general fund, based on construction of a hotel north of Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in the SoLa development.

Work on the 82-acre-development’s infrastructure is expected to start later this year. Along with a hotel, the plans include apartments, retail, restaurants, commercial buildings and a senior living facility.

Contact Camera Staff Writer Amy Bounds at 303-473-1341 or

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• Ensure a reasonable response time, since Jan 1 2007 the Lafayette Fire Department has been unable to meet minimum staffing 21% of the time. This means a severely delayed response as volunteers who unable to staff the Fire House need to be called in and our neighboring agencies respond. This means that without this ballot issue you could have to wait 15 to 20 minutes for a response to your emergency.  
• Ensure adequate personnel, this ballot issue, once passed, will ensure that there is a full crew of 4 firefighters and two medic units on duty in the city at all times. This means that the fire department will have adequate resources to save your life in the event of a car accident, heart attack, medical emergency, or a fire at your house.  
• Cost to you, the cost to the average home of $250,000 is 27¢ a day or $8.37 a month. This is your assessed value not your market value. To find your assessed value visit the county assessor’s webpage at http://map.co.boulder.co.us:8080/basemap/default.jsp. Then plug in that value to the chart at our website. Needless to say the cost will be low and our cost per capita will still be the lowest in the area of similarly sized cities. 
• New personnel, this ballot issue, once passed, will allow the fire department to bring on eight new firefighters and over 20 new volunteers. We are currently at our limit with the number of volunteers that the department can support and most of them live outside 10 min away from the station. The eight new paid staff will allow for a guarantee of staffing to augment the volunteers not replace them. 
• Improve training, currently a firefighter needs to be trained 16 weeks of fire academy, 15 weeks of emergency medical training, and three weeks of hazardous materials training. These courses cost a lot of money and there are necessary levels of training above that which cost even more money. With the passing of issue 2A the department will be able to provide current training for its members and be ready for any emergency.  
• Reducing the ambulance costs, currently the ambulance costs the city $250,000 a year in unpaid bills. Most insurance companies arbitrarily decide how to pay for services regardless of how much it actually costs. This forces private ambulance companies to cut costs to stay afloat. By merging the medical care of the city with the fire department we can ensure that competent personnel and adequate equipment respond to your emergency.  
• New capital equipment, currently some of the equipment that the fire department relies on to save your life is older then the firefighters using it. There is no sales tax based way for the city to save for new fire trucks or ambulances. Fire trucks need to be replaced every 20 years and ambulances every 5 years. The oldest fire truck is 19 years old and the oldest ambulance is 12 years old with the other two 6 years old. The new fire truck the fire department got last year replaced one that was 26 years old. With the passing of 2A the fire department will be able to put aside money each year to pay for the timely replacement of capital equipment.  
• Sales tax options not viable, simply put having not enough staff to adequately staff the life saving trucks cannot continue. It is only through the experience of our leaders and the professionalism of our crews that lives have not been lost. Sooner or later the unthinkable will happen and despite the heroic efforts of the firefighters, lives and property will be lost. Lafayette ranks 25^th out of 29 metro area cities for sales tax revenue. Most residents of Lafayette shop in Broomfield or Boulder, this hemorrhages sales tax revenue. There is no way to provide adequate protection without cutting back on other services like snow plowing, the library, the senior center, the rec center / golf course and road / utility maintenance. This leads to situations were roads are not plowed, water service is interrupted, and the parks are not maintained . The sales tax general fund cannot give the citizens the services they need, a new source of income must be tapped to pay for essential functions. 

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