Martin County Taxpayers Association (MCTA) has been looking at county expenses and income for many years. The county department that costs the most is the Fire Rescue Department. The 2025 adopted budget for that department is $66,350,658.
The only other department with a larger budget is the Sheriff but that department is not under the direct control of the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC). We will address that department in a subsequent article.
The budget for Fire/Rescue in 2019 was $43,763,566. The 2025 budget is more than a 50% increase over 2019. The population has grown from 158,500 in 2020 to 163,300 today which includes the City of Stuart and Sewall’s Point which have their own Fire/Rescue Department. The cost increases are no longer sustainable.
The upper echelon at the department have explained the increases are because of more people on the roads from neighboring counties which mean more accidents and the explosion of growth in senior facilities. The cost-of-living index has increased by 25% over the 2019-2025 period. Funding comes from the general fund, an MSTU, fees, and grants, all of which are not increasing as fast as the expenditures allocated for the department.
When a private or public entity finds itself facing an intractable management problem, it is wise to hire outside consultants. The outside consultant can see whether there are more best practices that the department and the BOCC can apply to give the people of Martin County a better bang for their buck. After all these years with increases in personnel, equipment, and facilities, Martin County is still not meeting a standard level of service according to Chief Cianciulli.
MCTA is not looking for scapegoats or blame. Let us be quite clear we have not lost faith in the department’s leadership, the administration, or the BOCC. However, the MCTA believes that the BOCC should engage an outside firm to perform an efficiency review of the entire department.
Only an outsider can take an unbiased look at the protocols and levels of service with a new perspective. They can advise on what would be the best practices today. An outside consultant has the wherewithal to look at the Fire/Rescue operation with fresh eyes and the expertise that comes from a breadth of knowledge of other departments’ best practices.
Every commissioner realizes that our taxpayers cannot continue with these levels of financial increases. There needs to be a realistic review as to how we can provide the highest level of Fire/Rescue service possible but within manageable financial parameters. The old rhetoric of asking “what a life is worth” at budget time is a tired tug on emotion not an answer to a very pressing problems…sustainability.
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