By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
A public hearing on the town of Cicero’s 2017 budget Nov. 2 grew heated when Cicero Fire Department officials questioned the Cicero Town Board’s proposed 21.3 percent cut to the fire protection and fire district budgets.
CFD officials say the town has placed a target on the department’s back, but town officials said the fire department did not provide adequate information about $152,975 the CFD requested for a reserve fund.
“We just want to be transparent,” Town Supervisor Mark Venesky said.
“No,” said Jim Perrin, chairman of the CFD board of commissioners, “you want to make it sound like we’re doing something wrong.”
Venesky said the town board goes through each town department’s budget line by line with that department head.
“How come the fire departments can’t get the same courtesy?” Perrin asked.
Chief Jon Barrett said he was displeased with the way he found out about the potential budget cuts. Barrett said he learned of the revised budget via the town’s email newsletter at 4:36 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28, the day before the CFD was to break ground on its new fire station.
“I held off making contact with the Board of Fire Commissioners and other department members, as we had our groundbreaking scheduled for the next day in the afternoon, and nothing was going to ruin our accomplishment after four years of hard work,” Barrett told the Star-Review.
Nonetheless, Barrett voiced his displeasure to Town Councilor Dick Cushman after the Oct. 29 groundbreaking ceremony. Cushman and Venesky agreed to meet with CFD officials Nov. 1 and were scheduled to meet again Nov. 8 to discuss the budget.
‘Disappointing’ audit
According to Chief Jon Barrett, the CFD asked the town for $482,500 for the fire protection district and $362,575 for the fire district.
“The total for these two contracts would be $845,075, which is a 0 percent increase from last year,” Barrett said.
While the initial budget draft the town released in early October called for a 7.7 decrease in funding for the CFD, Barrett said he received the revised budget via the town’s email newsletter Friday afternoon. The revised budget would give the Cicero Fire Protection District $379,525 — 21.3 percent less than what the department had requested.
The revised budget showed a 1.5 percent increase for the Brewerton Fire Protection District, a 0.8 percent decrease for the North Syracuse Fire Protection District and no change in funding for both the South Bay and Bridgeport fire protection districts.
At the Nov. 2 public hearing, Venesky said he was concerned about the CFD’s fiscal health. Earlier this year, the town requested Onondaga County Comptroller Robert Antonacci perform an audit of the CFD. Antonacci said the department is in “significant fiscal stress,” noting that the CFD had depleted its fund balance.
“[Antonacci] said to me, ‘Mark, I don’t know how they’re putting fuel in their vehicles,’” Venesky said, adding that the audit was “very disappointing.”
According to Venesky, the CFD presented an operating budget of $692,100 during a budget workshop with area fire departments. He said the CFD did not present an itemized budget and did not account for the $152,975 the department requested for a reserve fund.
“The budget that they had is not clear to me. It did not spell out for me and for this board what the $152,975 above and beyond what they need to run their business is for. Nothing is itemized,” Venesky said.
Perrin said the town had not asked for itemized budgets in the past and said he reserve fund is to help pay the lease without increasing the burden on taxpayers. Barrett said the lease payments on the new fire station are $237,000 per year for the first four years beginning in 2018. The lease payment will come down to $195,000 annually in the fifth year.
“The intent and past practice of the fire district was to carry reserve funding to cover unexpected expenses and to use the funding for capital projects,” Barrett told the Star-Review.
Venesky recommended the CFD raise fire district taxes and hire a budget director to manage its budget, but CFD officials said after the November 2014 referendum to build a new fire station that the CFD could do so without having to raise taxes.
Cicero resident Sarah Pufky said during the public hearing that the cuts to the Cicero fire budget seemed “almost punitive” compared to the other fire budgets.
“You want to cut 21.3 percent from a budget that you’re not paying for these people’s labor,” Pufky said. “They’re [volunteering for the fire department] because they believe in this. There’s not a selfish reason they’re doing this.”
Pufky said the state comptroller’s office audits fire districts and fire commissioners are trained to handle their budgets.
“They can’t be transparent enough for you, is what I’m hearing,” Pufky said.
Firefighters at the hearing applauded after Pufky’s comments.
Barrett said the conflict between the CFD and the town is “not healthy,” and former supervisor Judy Boyke said she was tired of “listening to this bickering.”
“These people are volunteers,” Boyke said. “They put themselves in harm’s way to protect us.”
New fire station sparks argument
While Venesky said he is “trying to develop a working relationship” with the CFD, he and Perrin exchanged heated words over the new fire station. The CFD broke ground on the new station Oct. 29.
“We are not against the firehouse,” Venesky said. “What I am against is 80 people out of 132 who live in the district voting to pay for … a $3.2 million building.”
Perrin said the CFD is borrowing $3.2 million for the new station, and the total cost is $4 million.
“There’s 16,000 voters in the town of Cicero, and only 132 people voted. That was the third vote, and the taxpayers were told there would be no tax increase,” Venesky said. “And yet, I’m seeing $152,000 more than what you told me and the bank you need. … My concern is that we are forcing the taxpayers of Cicero to pay for a building that they had no say in.”
Perrin said only fire district residents — not fire protection district residents — can vote on fire district issues.
“I cannot go to the fire protection people and ask them to vote — that’s the law,” Perrin said. “I can’t help it that I have 1,400 taxpayers in the fire district and only 134 of them come out and vote. That’s not something I can control.”
Perrin suggested the town dissolve the fire protection districts and turn over fire department finances to each fire district.
“Get rid of the fire protection and go to a fire district and let commissioners control the whole thing,” Perrin said. “It’s out of your hands and you ain’t gotta worry about it.”
The town and the fire department’s relationship has been tense since last year’s budget process.
“The reason why we didn’t have a proper number to figure a budget last year is because you wouldn’t give it to us,” Cushman said.
A number of CFD members present at the public hearing objected to Cushman’s comments, and Venesky called for order by banging a gavel.
“This is the perfect reason why we need to go to one [fire] district,” said Town Councilor Mike Becallo, who is a CFD volunteer firefighter. “I’m sick and tired of fighting every year over all this money. All these fire departments service every single citizen in this town.”
Becallo said the town board needed to stop fighting with fire departments — “These volunteers, I might add,” he said — and trust fire commissioners to handle their budgets.
“They’re experts in what they do; we are not,” Becallo said.
Venesky said his goal is to create a “master operating plan” by the end of 2017 for the area’s fire departments that will “take the politics and the personalities out” of the fire budget process.
“We understand that we have a problem with the districts,” Venesky said.
