The DeWitt Town Board last week paid the village of East Syracuse one-fourth of its usual yearly payment for services, and said that no more money will be forthcoming until the village proves to the town that it actually spends town money on fire protection and that it has not been overcharging the town for services.
According to DeWitt Supervisor Ed Michalenko, the town of DeWitt pays about $1.2 million per year to the village of East Syracuse Fire Department for fire protection in the northern district of the town, which includes the Park Hill, Franklin Park, Parkwood and Collamer neighborhoods.
“It’s been a longstanding allegation prior to my becoming supervisor that we were overpaying for fire protection services in the north town district,” said Michalenko.
At the June 8 meeting of the DeWitt Town Board, village of East Syracuse Deputy Mayor James Carr used the public comment time to address the DeWitt Town Board about the $400,000 payment the town typically gives to the village in April, which hadn’t been received yet, as well as bringing up the idea of signing a contract with the village for protection on the DeWitt North Town Fire Protection District.
“Usually we [village of East Syracuse] get a check for about $400,000 on April 15 for fire protection on the north end, so I was wondering about the status of that,” said Carr as he addressed the town board. “We also haven’t had a contract in place between the town and the village since about 2010, so I was wondering what your opinions were on getting a contract signed.”
Michalenko said he has had the town comptroller send a FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request to see the village financial records that pertained to the spending of the East Syracuse Fire Department and the total payments the town of DeWitt, including taxpayer dollars, has made to the fire department since 2009.
Since 2009, the town has paid about $6.4 million in payments to the East Syracuse Fire Department, said Michalenko, and the town is supposed to share the costs of fire protection with the village on an 80/20 split.
This 80/20 split should have resulted in about $4.6 million in payments by the town, which is why Michalenko said the town believes they have been overpaying for fire protection.
“So we’re looking at right now $1.8 million unsubstantiated dollars paid to the village of East Syracuse …We’d like to see the expenditures that show whether or not you actually spent the money on fire protection services,” said Michalenko.
“First of all, those numbers up there don’t constitute what it takes to run that fire department. There’s more expenses associated,” said Carr. “We had a forensic audit done by Mr. Antonacci [Onondaga County Comptroller] two or three years ago. His findings were not that the town of Dewitt was overpaying for fire services.”
According to Carr, the North Town Fire Protection District pays the lowest tax rate for fire protection service in DeWitt at $1.30 per $1,000 assessed value. Residents covered by the Jamesville Fire Department pay $2.75 per $1,000 assessed value and residents covered by the DeWitt Fire Department pay $2.63 per 1,000 assessed value.
In regards to a contract, Michalenko said there has not been one in place between the town and the village for fire protection for about five years at the request of the East Syracuse Fire Department, but he would be willing to set up a meeting to discuss forming one.
The town board voted to authorize checks to the village of East Syracuse for $105,000 and one to the East Syracuse Fire Department for $95,000, which must be authorized by the village. Michalenko said the town board requests that the East Syracuse Fire Department show where the unsubstantiated $1.8 million that the town paid went to in order for the town to keep a positive relationship with the village of East Syracuse.
“We’re not saying that these are exact or absolute, we’re saying that these numbers are our best understanding. There could be missing expenditures but right now, this is our best understanding,” said Michalenko.
Hayleigh Gowans is a reporter for the Eagle Bulletin. She can be reached at [email protected].
