Brighton packs city council meeting

Hundreds of residents from Brighton and surrounding townships turned out for a city council meeting Tuesday night amid concerns about the city’s fire department budget.

After blazing through the council’s regular business, Mayor Melvin Rich sought to set the record straight before opening the meeting to public comments.

“The fire department is not being defunded,” he said. “The fire fund is part of the general fund and its budget for fiscal year 2023 is $67,206, up from $62,526 for fiscal year 2022.”

While Rich’s comments were true when accounting for irregular expenses those years, department members said that wasn’t the whole story.

The department did not receive its regularly scheduled allocations from the city for fiscal years 2021 and 2022 from the city. The council sought to partially correct that trend with a $7,400 transfer to the department from its American Rescue Plan Act funds earlier in the meeting Tuesday night, but other allocations look unlikely in the near future.

“For fiscal year 2022, no action will be taken to transfer funds from outside the general fund into the fire fund until the 2021 audit is completed,” Rich said. “The city recently requested additional audit services due to possible improper transfers of city funds.”

The city gave little explanation for its lack of a contribution in fiscal years 2021 and 2022, but said guidance from the Department of Management barred the use of money from the municipal gas fund as it had up until 2020.

“We were very surprised to find out that fiscal year 2021, funding had just stopped,” Volunteer Firefighter Jamie Collier said. “Especially since we know all the folks up here, it was very disappointing. We understand there is an issue with how those funds in the past were done, but that is not the fire department’s responsibility.”

Township trustees, said the city needed to pitch in to the fund, most of which is funded by the townships.

“There’s a lot of firemen here, I’ve talked to them, there’s a lot that aren’t going to be here if this doesn’t get fixed, and fixed quickly,” Brighton Township Trustee Gordon Shelangoski said. “You could go from having fire protection for the townships, the whole community, everyone, to having nothing in 24 hours … I really think this is so shortsighted by the council.”

With firefighter volunteers threatening to resign the magnitude of funding decisions is high.

“The Brighton Fire Department is second to none, they lay their lives on the line every time they get a phone call and they never know exactly what lies ahead, they just answer the call,” community member and former County Supervisor Abe Miller said, speaking on behalf of the fire department for an agenda item. “If we don’t have a fire department in Brighton Iowa, lives are going to be lost. Minutes and seconds make a difference for a lot of these fire calls.”

During the public comment period, some speakers said they were worried about the city’s possible mishandling of funds.

“It sounds like you don’t know what’s going on in your budget, and that scares me because we give $14,000 to you folks and expect fire protection,” speaker Mike Murphy said. “I understand trustees are paying 90% of your fire protection around here … and I’d expect you’d at least want to pay your little stipend that they’re asking for.”

Many said they didn’t understand the city’s difficulty coming up with the money.

“I know money’s tight for everybody, it’s tight for the city, it’s tight for all the people who live in the city or county or wherever,” Brighton Township resident Richard Long said. “Whatever you’ve got to do, keep it going … I’ll tell you one thing, when it’s your stuff that’s burning, $7,000 ain’t nothing.”

The adversarial nature of the issue was unusual for the generally tight-knit city of 600 people, a fact not lost on its residents. Some complained when the city declined to answer questions during the meeting, a norm that is common practice in public hearings but not required.

“When you guys get the things figured out, let the community know, then we can all act as a community again and not cut a wedge,” resident Henry Mineart said. “If this doesn’t get resolved, there probably won’t be a Whoopee days, the Chamber’s not going to get funded … let’s get back to giving answers and being a community, or we’re not going to have one.”

Many speakers agreed.

“I would suggest that if they’re not going to come up with the money, you do need to answer questions because it looks like your hiding something,” community member Dennis Pacha said.

In classic small town fashion, a handful of residents offered their willingness to support the department.

“What can I do to help? That’s the idea that we’ve all got to have,” said Dick Green, a resident of Richland, a city served by Brighton’s fire department. “If there is a shortfall of money, I’ll sell a trunk and give it to you, whatever it takes.”

City and fire officials seemed to walk away with different views on the meeting.

“How can you be embarrassed, not to answer any questions?” Fire Chief Bill Farmer said.

Council Member Cathy Rich, on the other hand said she felt it was a productive meeting.

“I thought it was very productive,” she said. “But I wish people would reach out to the council, and not just Facebook and not just believe what they see on Facebook. There’s two sides to every story, and as a council we’re trying to represent the taxpayers.”

Mayor Melvin Rich said he hoped the city could move forward.

“There’s no doubt we’ve got an excellent fire department,” he said. “We’ve just got to fund it.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com