City Extends Fire Contract with East Atlantic Beach

The City Council approve a contract extension between Long Beach and the East Atlantic Beach Fire District that opponents believe will likely hurt the city financially in coming years. 

By a vote of 3-2 last week, the council gave a thumbs-up to a  three-year contract at $315,562, payable at a flat rate of roughly $105,000 annually with an option to renew for five years at the same rate. Under th contract the Long Beach Fire Department provides fire and EMT services for East Atlantic Beach, a district with about 880 households from Nevada Street to Richard Street. The existing 10-year contract, which expires in December, has East Atlantic Beach pay an $102,000 annual fee. 

About 80 percent of the LBFD's calls to East Atlantic Beach are ambulance-related, with 125 calls were made in 2009, followed by 113 calls last year and 85 so far this year, according to LBFD Commissioner Scott Kemins. East Atlantic Beach pays roughly $903 for each call, said City Manager Charles Theofan.

“So obviously, we’re not losing money in this transaction,” Theofan said, adding that insurance companies also reimburse the city for its calls. “So this is not a money losing proposition.”

But some believe the contract is a bad deal for the city. Among them is Jay Gusler, a Long Beach firefighter who spoke as a private citizen at the Aug. 2 meeting and urged the council to table the contract until a “more informed” presentation is given. Gusler’s said that the contract failed to provide provisions to adjust the contract to increase costs.

“Is there any reason to think that pension and medical costs for the paid fire department, raises and inflation aren’t all going to erode that money, reducing the net return from that contract over that period of eight years,” he asked.  

Gusler called the LBFD’s fire services at the proposed costs “quite a bargain.”

“And I’m not suggesting we should gouge our neighbors,” he continued, “but I’m suggesting that the council’s first obligation is to the taxpayers of this city.”

Theofan said that the East Atlantic Beach Fire District is “on a very thin margin and really cannot afford to pay much more than this” through the taxes that it collects.

Gusler suggested that the city vigorously pursue contracting out to other government entities in order to offset the costs of the fire department.

Councilman Len Torres voted against the contract on that grounds that he lacked more precise information on how much the increase would affect the city’s insurance premiums.  

Theofan said the rate increase accounts for factors such as increased costs in gas, “and I guess, theoretically, if there’s been any increase in the premium. But we’ve never been told that our premiums has been driven by these contracts.”

He projected that the money the city will make from the contract will help underwrite the premium of the insurance costs.

But Councilman Michael Fagen expressed concern that the contract had the potential to lose money in light of a future contract with the city’s paid firefighters, who he noted are paid hourly based on their shift.

“Assuming that we’re going to give them a new contract, each shift is going to become more expensive,” Fagen said. “Then at the end of the day these calls to East Atlantic Beach could cost more money than what this contract seems to be calling for.”

Theofan said under no circumstances would the costs for a call to East Atlantic Beach exceed $900, and that, if anything, the contract with  helps to pay the salaries of the firefighters. "They get paid for a 24 hour tour whether they make 30 calls or they make 10 calls,” he said.