By Jacqueline Seibel
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Copyright 2007 Journal Sentinel Inc.
MUSKEGO, Wis. — The city’s current system of contracting with two fire departments to handle the emergency calls is dysfunctional, and a city director of fire and rescue services should be hired to oversee the agencies’ finances and purchases, a new study released Thursday says.
The study cites a lack of accountability and a duplication of equipment and effort between the Muskego Fire Department, which contracts for the fire calls on the west side of the city, and the Tess Corners Fire Department, which contracts for the fire calls on the east side and all ambulance calls.
There is also an area in the center of the city in which both departments respond to fire calls.
Compiled by the Virginia-based System Planning Corp., the 68-page, $60,000 study provides 36 recommendations on how the city could improve its fire and rescue services and provide accountability to city officials and taxpayers.
It urges action on some recommendations as soon as 90 days, including hiring the director.
Muskego Fire Chief Andy Mack disagreed with the study’s recommendations.
“Our past administration put our Fire Department in a hole, and I’m going to dig us out,” Mack said. He asked that the city give him time because he was just elected to the post in January.
Jeff Verburgt, president of the board of the Tess Corners department, refused to comment on the study.
Phil Dibb, a member of the Tess Corners department, said there wouldn’t be any incentive to listen to a city emergency services director because the fire company is structured as a private corporation.
Pat Simpson, who presented the study at a meeting Thursday, said the incentive for the fire companies to listen to a director is the taxpayer money they receive.
Mayor John Johnson said the job description for the director’s position is not defined but it would be a position at the level of a department head on the city’s payroll.
Simpson said the fire departments are doing a fine job but there are problems that could escalate as the city continues to grow. The city is ready to go the next level by hiring a full-time professional, he said.
The dysfunction is the result of two factors, the study says:
* A lack of a single point of accountability for all fire-rescue functions because each department is a private corporation.
Only recently - and because questions were raised regarding recordkeeping at the Muskego Fire Department - have the departments been required to have all checks signed by the city before making purchases.
* “One-upmanship” between the fire companies, driving duplication of services and unnecessary equipment purchases. A centralized administration could correct this.
Each year since 2004, the city has given Tess Corners about $160,000 and Muskego from $257,000 to $289,000 for operational costs. The departments were never audited until recently, when city officials ordered that an outside accounting firm check into the finances of the Muskego Fire Department.
Based on the annual operating budgets, the per capita cost of fire and rescue in Muskego is $20.89, compared with an average of $45.97 for five other cites: Monroe, Mequon, Cedarburg, New Berlin and Port Washington.
From 2004 to the present, the city has also given Tess Corners a total of $3.12 million and Muskego $759,000 for capital expenditures, the study says.
The money spent on equipment has provided no standardization between the departments, the study notes. Muskego has a 100-foot ladder truck, although the tallest building in Muskego is 40 feet. Tess Corners has the only operational pumper truck, so the department responds to every Muskego call involving a structure.
Both departments have extrication equipment. Typically, only a department providing ambulance service would.
The Common Council is to discuss the next step at a future meeting, and there will be time for public input, Johnson said.
Copyright 2007, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)