West Palm Beach officials review fire-assessment fee use, schedule detailed budget update

City Administrator Faye Johnson told the West Palm Beach City Commission that the city has used fire-assessment fee revenue in ways that comply with the city's ordinance and that there has been no misuse of the funds.

Johnson said the presentation had three objectives: "to confirm that the use of the fire fees do in fact comply with the city ordinance governing it, which is Ordinance 4141-08;" to "clear up the discrepancy about the 2019 commitment on the use of the fire fee increase revenue;" and to "clarify the transparency issue related to administration providing quarterly fire assessment fee work sessions." She asked the commission to consider both sides of contested accounts and said she would not risk her career by knowingly misapplying public dollars.

The presentation traced the fee's origin to 2008, when the city engaged Government Services Group (GSG) to design a fire-assessment program and adopted Ordinance 4141-08 and a companion Resolution 212-08 to set rates and the assessment method. Johnson said the ordinance allows fee revenue to fund specific categories of fire-department activity including personnel, materials and services, capital, and debt service, and that the city places assessment revenue in a separate fund (Fund 131) for capital and related uses.

Johnson summarized collections and allocations: during the initial period (FY09'FY18) roughly $20 million was collected, of which about $11.4 million was allocated for capital and about $8.2 million moved to the general fund for fire-related salaries.…