The Newberry City Commission tabled a second reading on Monday for a fire assessment that would increase the rate for properties that fall in the “industrial/warehouse” category.
The preliminary fire assessment rates, which the commission approved in July, are based on calculations by Anser Advisory, which the city contracted to calculate an apportionment that would fairly spread fire service costs across all users of the fire service.
Best practice is to redo the study about every 10 years, according to Mayor Jordan Marlowe, and this year’s new study led to proposed increases in several categories.
If the preliminary rates were approved, the residential rate would remain a flat $200, the commercial rate would rise from 17 cents per square foot to 24 cents per square foot, and the institutional rate would drop from 23 cents per square foot to 6 cents per square foot.
Mirroring the institutional rate’s drop, the industrial/warehouse rate would shoot up from 3 cents per square foot to 25 cents per square foot, a cost which Todd Rousseau with Ultimate Boat & RV Storage said would raise his fire assessment rate from about $4,500 a year to more than $29,000.
Commissioners and city staff noted that the fire assessment study was skewed by one non-compliant business with which the city is currently working through code enforcement.
“I think maybe the study was trying to get us to the right spot, but I don’t think it’s accounting for the unique situation that we have here,” Marden said. “And I don’t like that one business is throwing it for everybody, that just doesn’t make any sense.”
Though the majority (51%) of the Newberry Fire Department’s funding comes from property taxes, the fire assessment comprises another 36%.
Marlowe said he thinks there are not enough categories built into the fire assessment, noting that most emergency calls are medical based, and the fires are usually a farmer’s field or a structure struck by lightning.
Assistant City Manager Dallas Lee told the City Commission that if there was enough concern around the proposed fire assessment rates that the city could not adopt them, it could still fall back on the current rates. This would make about a $10,000 difference, which Lee said it would be possible to absorb into the budget.
Commissioners voted unanimously to table the second reading of the fire assessment rates until the city’s Sept. 9 meeting.
“Assistant City Manager Dallas Lee told the City Commission that if there was enough concern around the proposed fire assessment rates that the city could not adopt them, it could still fall back on the current rates. This would make about a $10,000 difference, which Lee said it would be possible to absorb into the budget. ” – so, in other words, draw the extra $10k from the city budget (aka the taxpayers who are already funding 51% of this). Yeah, let’s let the businesses off the hook because of one business that everybody is too afraid to name because it catches on fire every 10 days. That business should pay double the assessment if that’s the case, they operate a freaking tinder box. This commission is so backwards…everything on the taxpayers so that they can appear to be a “business friendly” community. BS.
It’s time for a new mayor and commissioner, who is gonna run and do what’s best for the people in this city, not what corrupt Marlowe and his sheep wants.