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City administrator defends fire assessment fee use, says prior representations about staffing/trucks did not align with adopted budget
Summary
City Administrator Faye Johnson reviewed the history and legal uses of the fire assessment fee, said the city has not misused the funds, and identified gaps between August 2019 public presentations (which stakeholders characterized as promising 9 firefighters and two trucks) and the FY20 adopted budget, which did not include those FTEs.
West Palm Beach officials spent the second half of an Aug. 4 budget work session reviewing the city's fire assessment fee: its legal basis, how revenues were used, and lingering questions about promises made during a 2019 rate increase discussion.
City Administrator Faye Johnson told commissioners she opened the review to confirm legal compliance with ordinance 41-41-08, to "clear up the discrepancy" about what was represented in 2019 about how revenue increases would be used, and to explain quarterly reporting practices. "I want to start out by emphatically stating that there has been no misuse of the city's fire fees," she said.
Johnson traced the fee's origin to a 2008 program developed by Government Services Group (GSG), described the ordinance's permitted uses (a lettered list of categories including personnel services, materials and services, capital outlay and debt service), and noted the fee is deposited in a separate…
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