James Burger
The Bakersfield Californian
KERN COUNTY, Calif. — Kern County supervisors voted Tuesday to loan $118,000 in county service area funds to the Kern County Fire Department to kick start a firefighter paramedic program at Pine Mountain Club.
The controversial program would launch around March 1. The only other option was to wait until the middle of 2009 for a $70 voter-approved property assessment to kick in.
Supervisor Ray Watson and fire Chief Dennis Thompson, under pressure from people in Pine Mountain Club to implement the program, hatched the idea of a loan and paying it back with revenue from the $70 tax.
Thompson said the $118,000 will be spent on premium pay for firefighters, supplies, administrative oversight, computers, medication and cardiac monitors.
Supervisor Jon McQuiston said he worried the $118,000 would never be paid back because the funds the county would use to repay it would be needed to keep the program running.
Chuck Lackey, the county’s engineer, said the fire department’s costs to run the program are actually lower than earlier expected, leaving room for the loan to be repaid.
If things change again and the loan can’t be repaid, the county would have to eat the cost, said County Counsel Bernard Barmann.
“If the loan goes unpaid, the county would have to write it off as bad debt,” Barmann said.
Watson said that scenario is unlikely and made the motion to fund early implementation of the program. The board supported his motion unanimously.
Copyright 2008 The Bakersfield Californian