Orland Fire Protection District Releases projected cost savings for 2012 budget
BUDGET SAVINGS OF NEW BOARD REPORT:
Orland Fire Protection District
Budget Cuts & Changes Resulting in Savings For Taxpayers
This is the first time in 5 years that the Orland Fire
Protection Budget has been below $30 million. Had we not acted, instead of
being lower, it would have been as much as $1 million higher this year under
the past spending pattern of the prior OFPD leadership.
Some Major Cuts:
Change in # of employees needed during shifts $500,000
[Note: Not hiring the 11 new firefighters, we were
still able to bring the costs of overtime down by as much as $500,000 a year
without the additional hiring. We did reduce the number of total individuals on
a shift from 30 to 28 which resulted in the $500,000 savings which is noted in
the first item.]
Change in workman’s comp carrier $500,000
Change in health insurance costs $200,000
Elimination of a Deputy Chief $150,000
Change in admin staff $
32,000
Retired debt early $232,000
($90,000 total interest savings)
Public Education reduction $ 68,000
IT restructure $ 14,000
ACTUAL CUTS: $1,696,000
Reduction in Battalion Chiefs $400,000
TOTAL IDENTIFIED
SAVINGS $2,096,000
Had no effort been made to address budget spending and the
budget spending had continued at the pace it was on before the new leadership
took control of the board, the 2012 budget would easily have increased over the
2011 by between $500,000 and $1 million.
That means that in addition to the above cuts in which
savings can be seen comparing this year to the past year, we also prevented
spending that would have taken place, also, that would have increased last
year’s budget even higher.
We reduced the budget between $500,000 and $1 million simply
by changing our priorities and through cost efficiency awareness. Added to that
savings are the reductions listed above which total $1.696 million.
The actual overall savings in terms of what the budget would
have been without any action equates to an actual reduction in spending that is
$2.196 million to $2.696 million. That compares this year’s budget as it now
stands with what this year’s budget would have been had we not taken any action
at all and had spending continued its upward drift as it surely would have.
Included in this is the restructuring of the OFPD Battalion
Chief duties, and the elimination of two of the six Battalion Chiefs, which
saved the district about $400,000 in salaries including benefits.
And we did this with our hands tied, since the majority of
the budget spending involves employee contracted wages that are subject to
negotiations with the union, giving us the ability to make actual cutbacks on
that portion of the remaining budget that is non-wage related, or about 15
percent of the budget.
Jim Hickey
OFPD President
END
