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Southern Shores VFD 74% Budget Hike Sparks Controversy

Dare County

SOUTHERN SHORES - The volunteer fire department’s 74 percent budget hike has sparked calls for a federal investigation, talk of a town takeover of the agency, and a police investigation into a death threat against the fire chief.

The whopping budget increase came just months after the fire department agreed to a $300,000 contract payment. But earlier this year, after voters put a pair of fire-department supporters on the town council, fire leaders requested – and got – more cash. Town records show the budget bump for the fire department, now at $523,000, was the main driver behind the town’s 40-percent tax hike. And in an unusual move, a divided town council agreed to pay the full amount in one installment.

“They needed and merited the increase solely because they have been underfunded for the past four years,” the new mayor, Hal Denny declared at last week’s council meeting. New councilman George Kowalski, a fire captain who won as a write-in candidate, agreed.

“What’s good for the fire department is good for the town,” Kowalski said.

Former town officials are calling for an investigation into the November election that set the stage for the fire department’s increase. Former mayor Don Smith, who lost his seat to Denny, says it’s possible Denny and Kowalski garnered fire-department support by promising better funding.

“Personally, I think it is a quid pro quo for votes,” Smith said.

Charlie Read, the former town manager who was swept out with the changing council, wants federal investigators to pry into Southern Shores politics.

“I think these kinds of conflicts need to be vetted by somebody like the FBI to find out, if in fact, a quid pro quo does exist,” he said. “If there were improprieties that involved people voting directly on the spending of town monies, I think they need to be investigated very, very closely.”

Kowalski denied he promised anything to anybody to get elected. He says he ran, and voters wrote in his name, because they were tired of the bickering that had plagued the town council. He says voters wanted to patch the damaged relationship with the fire department.

“Four years of mistrust between a council that decided what the budget was going to be. A council that didn’t really want to work with the fire department,” he said. “And a council that did not appreciate what the fire department does for this community.”

Fire Chief Bob Harvey said his department did not endorse anyone in the election, but he said it was fair to say that Kowalski and Denny got broad support from firefighters, their relatives and friends. He said the disagreement over fire-department funding isn’t a controversy at all. It’s being stirred up by a small group unhappy with the election results.

“I think what you are dealing with is a case of the losers not liking the results,” he said.

NewsChannel 3 made repeated attempts to talk to Mayor Denny, but he admits he ignored our emails, and then he refused an in-person interview.

Read and Smith say they are concerned the fire department helped elect a fire captain who now has a voice in deciding fire-department funding. They, along with current Councilman Jim Pfizenmayer, say it’s a conflict to interest for George Kowalski to vote on matters affecting the fire department.

NewsChannel 3 contacted The School of Government at the University of North Carolina for an opinion. Experts there said unless Kowalski gets a direct financial benefit from his votes, then it’s not a conflict of interest. Further, the professors said, in the absence of a conflict Kowalski has the duty to vote on town matters.

Even so, Pfizenmayer says the fire-department budget has grown out of control. This year’s budget includes $130,000 in debt payments for a pair of new $500,000 fire trucks the fire department bought without the town’s input. The budget also includes a salary for the volunteer chief that tops $70,000.

Pfizenmayer says the fire department’s support on council means the agency could ask for even more money next year, triggering a bigger tax hike. He wants the town to take over the volunteer department. That way, he says, the town will have control over the fire department budget, the spending and the chief’s salary. He is asking the council to study the idea.

(courtesy to FireGeezer.com)

Primary Agency: Southern Shores Volunteer Fire Department

Source: wtkr.com

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Posted on Thu Jul 29 2010 at 21:06

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