ORANGE : Officials Delay Vote on Firefighting Study
Pushing back a decision once again, the City Council postponed a vote last week on a $15,000 study to investigate the feasibility of contracting with the county for its firefighting services. The study item, which has been on council agendas intermittently since September, will finally be voted on in July, council members said.
Interim City Manager William F. Cornett Jr. recommended pushing back consideration of the study again so that the county, which will soon begin its budget process, could guarantee service costs quoted in the study.
Commissioning the study before the county settles on a budget would be like “using last year’s newspapers to buy today’s stocks,” Councilman Mark Murphy said.
But the council’s move angered the head of a local taxpayers group that has been trying for months to get the council to initiate the study. Contracting with the county could save the cash-strapped city as much as $1.8 million over two years, according to estimates.
“This should have been done before the (firefighters’) contract was signed,” said Carole Walters, head of the Orange Taxpayers’ Assn.
The council signed a contract with its city firefighters in October, which prevents the city from using other fire services for two years.
The county currently provides fire services to 16 cities.
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