County angling to dominate fire district talks

Collier County officials may be interested in cozying up to the independent fire districts to hand off ambulance service, but the county’s desire to control the direction of talks was hinted at during a Thursday night meeting.

Emergency Management Director Dan Summers wants to speak for the two fire districts that are controlled by county officials, according to the county’s emergency medical services chief, Jeff Page.

That is not in the spirit of the subcommittee study group about to begin talks, fire commissioners and chiefs from 10 Collier districts said Thursday night.

Late last week, after several days of commission meetings and budget workshops, Collier commissioners unanimously agreed to ask independent fire districts to consolidate to take over emergency management services.

While fire commissioners and chiefs aren’t sure consolidation is the answer, they agree EMS needs better distribution among the fire districts, and East Naples Fire District Commissioner Tom Cannon had already proposed a subcommittee study group.

Fellow fire chiefs and commissioners confirmed subcommittee composition Thursday night, and Cannon said all that needed to be done was get contact names from the Isles of Capri and Ochopee fire districts.

That’s when Page announced that Summers intends to represent Ochopee and Capri fire districts.

“This seems to be a new development that transpired over the past two days,” Cannon said, noting that every other cooperating district has forwarded the names of one commissioner, one chief officer and a firefighter to make up the subcommittee.

“I don’t see why the county is going to be any different,” Cannon said, noting that he plans to have lunch today with Commissioner Fred Coyle and intends to also call Deputy County Manager Leo Ochs.

Golden Gate Fire Control & Rescue Chief Donald Peterson said he was concerned about possible Government in the Sunshine Law violations, because some of the subcommittee members are elected officials.

Marco Island Fire Chief Mike Murphy expressed similar concerns.

Consequently, fire commissioners agreed to run committee makeup past an attorney before posting notice of the first meeting, which is scheduled for mid-July.

Peterson also noted that county commissioners expected to have some kind of an answer from the independent fire districts this fall, since everyone is heading into budget talks, he said.

Cannon said the fire districts are not working on the county’s timetable.

“I told the county that we don’t answer to them,” Cannon said, adding that it is more important to take the time to complete an objective study.

The independent fire districts are Big Corkscrew, East Naples, Golden Gate, North Naples and Immokalee. As cities, Naples and Marco each have a fire department that answers to City Council. Capri and Ochopee are county-run.

Tax rates vary greatly among the fire districts.