Putting a Dollar Value on What We Do - Charly Curcio

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Each year, the state auditor estimates what it would cost to replace the volunteer fire and ambulance companies in Delaware with a paid, career service and that report was issued earlier this month. His conclusions, how he arrives at them and how those results relate to your local fire district should be of great interest. The auditor bases his numbers on the actual costs incurred by the City of Wilmington, which has a paid, career department. Wilmington’s population is 74,453 and is served by seven fire stations, which is an average of one station per 10,636 residents. The fire department employs 173 people, or roughly 25 employees in each of its seven stations. The average cost of each employee for salary and benefits is $93,584, up from $92,300 in 2007. He factors in costs for fire apparatus costing $300,000-8000,000 each with a 15 year life expectancy, ambulances costing $150,000 with a four year life expectancy and utility vehicles costing $35,000-75,000 lasting 10 years each, plus 20% for supplies and 10% for maintenance. Buildings excluding land are figured in assuming a $400,000 initial cost, 10% annual maintenance and 20 year useful life. He also adds in individual firefighter equipment like bunker gear and breathing apparatus at $5,000 per person and a four year life. The reality for volunteer companies is a bit different. We are paying 50-75% more for major pieces of apparatus, reflecting that we are buying for 25-30 years of useful life instead of 15. Similarly, building costs are much higher because we build facilities that are architecturally compatible with their neighborhoods and that we expect to last 50 years or longer. Thus, we think the conclusions that the auditor draws below understate the value of volunteer services. Based on a state population of 790,311 excluding Wilmington, the auditor estimates that 76 stations and 1,900 employees would be needed to protect citizens. He projects the associated cost at over $191 million! After deducting $41 million in government support to the volunteer companies, consisting of $6 million in grants, $8 million in county subsidies and the $27 million insurance tax which the state collects, the total amount avoided by state taxpayers is $151 million, or just under $2 million per station. Sussex County’s population is roughly 175,000 and it is served by 19 volunteer fire companies. The average population per company is 9,200, not far off the Wilmington average of 10,636. That small difference is fully offset by the larger geographical areas covered in Sussex and in the very large seasonal populations that many communities accommodate. In the BBVFC case, if we use the auditor’s conservative conclusion of $2 million after government support as the value of services provided by our company and divide that number by the 10,000 properties in our district, we get a cost per property of just under $200. Contrasting that result with our average annual fund contribution of less than $20 per property highlights the many, many hours our volunteers provide and the fundraising burdens we take on to keep all of us safe. As always, your continuing support of your volunteer emergency services in greatly appreciated. Charly Curcio is treasurer of and a fire police officer with the BBVFC. He has been a member since 1995 and has served four previous terms as treasurer. Charlie is both a certified public accountant and an attorney and works as a CPA with Jefferson, Urian, Doane & Sterner, P.A. He lives in Ocean View with his wife, Sherri, a long time member of the Ladies’ Auxiliary, and can be reached at [email protected].