Fire Service Assessment Gets Mixed Response

Initial reaction to a proposed citywide fire assessment district is mixed, but most Glendale residents appear willing to pay a tax rather than face cuts in protective services, city officials said Tuesday.

The assessment district is one of a series of proposals the city is considering to meet an expected $6.4-million shortfall next year from its current $288-million budget.

Fire Chief Richard Hinz said about 75 residents who attended the first public meeting Monday at the Chevy Chase branch library on the proposal “were not generally ecstatic” over the idea of a new tax and a few “were very vocally opposed.”

But Hinz said the reaction overall was that residents do not want to compromise on protection.

Assistant Fire Chief Chris Gray said he met a similar reaction in a separate meeting Monday with about 25 leaders from the umbrella Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council.

The city is proposing to levy an annual tax, which would amount to $25.50 on a typical single-family home, to make up a $1.2-million shortfall in the Fire Department’s budget for the fiscal year, beginning July 1.

The fees would vary widely for homes, apartments, businesses and commercial buildings, depending on whether they are in a fire-hazard area, are equipped with fire sprinklers and have non-combustible roofs.

Annual fees could be as high as $39.80 for a house with no sprinklers and a combustible roof in a hazard zone and as low as $15.30 for a house equipped with sprinklers and located in a non-hazard area.

Fees also would vary for condominiums, apartments, businesses and commercial buildings, up to a maximum of $453.50 a year for a heavy manufacturing plant without fire sprinklers.

Hinz said the fees were recommended by BSI Consultants, a San Diego firm that has helped other cities establish assessment districts.

Because of reduced revenues stemming from the recession and cutbacks in state allocations, the Fire Department has eliminated 12 positions through attrition in the past 15 months as part of a citywide hiring freeze, Gray said. Without the proposed assessment, the department would have to cut another 15 positions from its current staff of 175.

Gray said the cuts would require that one of the city’s nine fire stations be closed daily, on a rotating basis. Response times to some calls could then jump to as much as 20 minutes.

The next public meeting on the issue is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Central Library, 222 E. Harvard St.