Legislations Aims to Curb NY Fire Districts
Do you remember the series of articles from Newsday.com highlighting the financial issues of the Long Island fire districts? Well, here is a follow up article discussing some proposed legislation (from Newsday.com).
No more taxpayer-funded liquor at lavish fire installation dinners. Firefighter seminars in the Bahamas will have to be justified to the state. And most of New York's fire districts will be audited once a year, if lawmakers approve a detailed package of bills filed this week by Lindenhurst Assemb. Robert Sweeney and others.Sweeney, chairman of the Assembly's Local Governments Committee, has been negotiating since January with fire service leaders and other state officials on the 13-bill package he hopes will help clean up the extravagant spending, mismanagement and weak oversight highlighted in Newsday's series in November on Long Island's volunteer fire system.
The package, which is expected to pass both houses this spring with volunteer support, is aimed at better accountability and more public involvement, Sweeney said.
Follow the link above to view the follow up article as well as links to the original articles.
It sounds like this is a comprehensive overhaul of how fire districts will do business and should go a long way toward fixing things. However, there is one piece that I'm not sure is a good idea:
Fire districts could no longer create reserve funds to save up for buildings and trucks without putting their plans to a public vote.
Many times the public doesn't understand the need to save up the large sums of money for new trucks or new fire halls. If the public doesn't cooperate with the fire department, the department's effectiveness will suffer.
On the other hand, it makes the fire department get out and educate the public on the need to regularly replace apparatus. Hmmm.
