Brighton fire budget sparks disputes

BRIGHTON — Brighton City officials and firefighters are at odds over municipal allocations to the volunteer department. Disagreements have erupted into a series of accusatory Facebook posts over the last week, with the two sides disputing several matters of fact.

Some department members have accused the city of quietly ceasing allocations to the service.

“This decision by the Brighton City Council to defund the Fire Department and its plan for the future has most if not all of us ready to quit,” read an open letter from the Fire Department’s Facebook page.

Mayor Melvin Rich denied the accusation.

“I don’t know if we’re really cutting it, the city’s facing some challenges within the general fund, and we’re looking at examining expenses for all of our departments,” Rich said. “This is just budget time and we’re trying to make it work.”

While the proposed budget does show a $20,000 drop in public safety spending, City Clerk Michelle Talley said that was a return to normal after the department’s budget spiked to pay for a firetruck replacement in fiscal years 2021 and 2022.

Some residents, however, said Talley was obscuring the truth.

“This is a misstatement,” the open letter said. “The new firetruck and its equipment (were) replaced/paid for by an insurance claim, all but the $1,000 deductible.”

Following those accusations, Talley clarified that the money still had to run through the budget before accounting for insurance, which reimbursed the city for the expenses.

“The insurance company issued a partial check at the beginning of replacing the firetruck,” she said in an email on Friday. “Throughout the building of the firetruck, the city covered the costs, which reflects on the previous city budget documentations. Once the firetruck was complete and equipment was purchased, the insurance company issued the remaining insurance.”

A budget worksheet provided by the city puts the proposed FY 2023 budget for the fire department at $43,450. The city’s expenditures are $161,995 and $182,038 above that for fiscal years 2021 and 2022, respectively, for a total of about $344,000, roughly the expense of the nearly $350,000 fire engine confirmed by an insurance receipt, which the department provided a copy of.

Aside from the proposed budget drop next fiscal year, some community members claim the city has been quietly foregoing its annual contributions to the department’s 28E agreement with neighboring townships.

“Based on the formula, the city (pays) for the equivalent levy amount as the townships,” the open letter on social media said. “However, starting in fiscal year 2021, the city did not pay that money into the fire budget.”

Fire Chief Bill farmer said the payments had been halted without a heads up to the department.

“They’re going to tell you that they communicated with us,” he said. “There was no communication whatsoever that this ever happened until I found out.”

The truth of the department’s claim is difficult to prove, but there is some evidence. An internal, handwritten fire department spreadsheet which accurately shows payment dates back to 2009 has the words “not paid” penciled in under the formula for fiscal years 2021 and 2022.

Minutes from a meeting in 2020 show the council approved the second installment of its annual fire protection fee Feb. 4 of that year, to the tune of $3,549.24. No municipal public records since showed a contribution for the same purpose to the department, until Feb. 7, 2022.

While minutes from that meeting are not yet approved by the council, they were published in Thursday’s edition of The Southeast Iowa Union, showing a resolution for a $7,400 transfer to the fire fund on a 3-1 vote with Council Member Cathy Rich voting no and Council Member Dave McArtor absent.

The minutes do not clarify the purpose of that money, but Farmer said it was intended as the city’s protection payment for Fiscal Year 2022. Mayor Melvin Rich said that money would come from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act account, requiring another motion to finalize at the council’s next meeting.

There is no publicly available documentation of a fire protection payment from the city for fiscal year 2021.

Farmer said he did not expect the city to continue its payments moving forward.

“The city in ‘23 is not putting anything in, other than from the townships plus maybe the $4,000 in workers comp that they levied for,” he said. “They went back and made the motion to pay the $7,400, but they’re not going to … for fiscal year ‘23.”

Farmer has also accused the city of denying money to the department contributed by the surrounding townships it serves.

“Other firemen and myself sat down and went over the figures, and at the end there was $9,000 out in limbo,” he said. “Four of us had a meeting with the council on (Feb. 7,) and asked where that money was going to go. They thought it was going to stay in general and go toward maybe other funds for the city … but this money is actually township money. That needs to go into the fire budget.”

That claim is also difficult to back up, based on more handwritten internal documents from the fire department, with no sufficiently detailed city records available for a fact check. Mayor Melvin Rich said he did not recall discussing that issue at any meetings.

The city will hold a public hearing on its budget proposal during its council meeting Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. Several advocates have announced their plan to attend on behalf of the fire department.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com