Where's The Fire?

If They Really Wanted Us To Attend The Budget Hearings. . .



Time was, not all that long ago, that fire district budgets -- or how your local fire department spends millions of dollars each year in taxpayer money -- were decided by three (or more) men in a room (the fire commissioners) behind closed doors. [Hey, who do those guys think they are, the Governor, Majority Leader of the State Senate, and the Speaker of the Assembly?]

Then, last year, the NYS Legislature, looking to bring public scrutiny and transparency to the fire district budget process, passed legislation that required the districts to hold public hearings on their budgets, and to give the public due notice thereof. [Click on TWN (Town Law), then Article 11, then 181.]

So now the fire districts' budget process is out in the open, and every taxpayer knows about these public hearings, right?

Well, don't give any pop quizzes quite yet.

This year's fire district budget hearings will be held on Tuesday, October 16th. The districts were required to give "notice" via publication in "official" newspapers, on their websites, if they have websites, and through the township's "message boards" and websites.

We checked several fire district websites. A few had notices of the public hearings posted -- rarely conspicuously. Others did not.

On we clicked to the website of the Town of Hempstead, where we came upon the following post:

Fire Department Hearings
Listed below are notices of public budget hearings for Fire Districts within Hempstead Town in compliance with Section 105 sub-division 3 of the Town Law, which was amended in 2006 , effective January 1, 2007. Please note that only those notices that have been electronically transmitted to the Office of Communications and Public Affairs have been included.

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
Baldwin Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 9/28/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
Bellmore Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 9/26/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
Bethpage Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 9/26/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
East Meadow Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 10/1/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
Franklin Square & Munson Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 9/27/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
Hewlett Bay Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 10/1/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
Inwood Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 9/25/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
Lakeview Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 10/1/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
Lido-Point Lookout Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 10/3/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
New Hyde Park Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 10/3/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
North Bellmore Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 9/25/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
North Merrick Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 9/25/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
Oceanside Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 9/26/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
Seaford Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 10/4/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
South Hempstead Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 10/3/2007

Hearing Date: 10/16/2007
Westbury Fire District Public Hearing
Posted: 10/9/2007

Aside from the fact that, at the time of our visit, the links to the specific fire districts didn't work (your mileage may vary), what happened to the notices from other districts within the Town of Hempstead, such as Levittown, Roosevelt, Uniondale, Wantagh and West Hempstead, to name but a few of the fire districts located in unincorporated areas of the township which do not appear on the town's public hearing list?

Were the commissioners off on a field trip to Vegas, or a scuba diving training session near the Great Barrier Reef? Did they just forget to scan in the notice, or to drop it in the mail?

Seems the Town of Hempstead only posted notices received "electronically." Guess if your fire district commissioners sent notice by fax or snail mail -- or didn't bother to send notice at all (what's a little violation of law among friends) -- the notices just didn't get posted.

Of course, the law doesn't limit the required posting to notices received electronically, but who would ever notice?

And what of the timing of these postings? The public notices on the Town's website were posted anywhere from 20 days out, max, to a mere 7 days before the scheduled budget hearing.

So what? Even with these postings, no one knows the location or time of the October 16th hearings -- at least we weren't able to open the notices from our computer, even with pdf capabilities -- assuming anyone looked for these notices, or could find them, other than by chance, in the first place.

How much do you want to wager [the sum total of your 2008-09 tax bill, perhaps?] that these hearings will be held at an inconvenient hour -- most likely during the work day, from 2:06 PM to 2:09 PM -- when few would be able to attend, anyway.

It would be nice if, rather than to have these fire commissioners -- most of whom probably don't know a fire hydrant from a beer keg -- review and pass on multi-million dollar budgets, that there be a more centralized process, under auspices of the Town or the County, with attendant public hearings, in the evening, at Town Hall or the County Seat, upon actual notice to the public. [Our elected officials spend so much time, money, and paper mailing out sordid propaganda, certainly one more piece, specifying fire district budget hearings -- as opposed to sunscreen advices -- wouldn't be too much to ask.]

Then, there might at least be some sense of accountability, real or perceived, other than leaving it all in the hands of commissioners we didn't even know we had, under the guise of "local control."

We will talk more about the consolidation of local fire districts -- as in, perish the thought, a countywide fire service to replace the provincial fire district fiefdoms -- at a later date.

As for compliance with State Law, well, neither town nor special district are known for anything resembling adherence to the provisions of codes, regulations, or statutes, are they?

Maybe next year.

For now, if you want to learn more about the October 16th fire district budget hearings, be sure to contact your local fire department. They're in the book. [We've also linked them below, for your convenience.]

Perhaps they'll tell you. Maybe not. Surely they will ask, "Who wants to know?"

Of course, you could simply leave the decisions on how millions of your tax dollars will be spent at the fire districts to the powers-that-be. Surely, our popularly elected fire commissioners, exerting that "local control" as ceded to them by the taxpayers, will make the right decisions, no doubt over that keg of beer.

As for the "review" process -- either now or later -- can anyone say "rubber stamp?"
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Click HERE for a listing of Nassau County Fire Departments

Click HERE for a listing of Suffolk County Fire Departments