VOLUSIA EXPOSED

What We Suspect,
Compared To What We Know

VolusiaExposed attended the February 24, 2015 community meeting organized by Volusia County Government. This meeting was one of nine scheduled meetings. The goal of these meetings was for county officials to fully explain to citizens, the need to raise taxes on unincorporated residents, due to a multi-year short fall in the county's special fire fund.

The fire fund covers the cost of fire services within the unincorporated areas of Volusia County.

During this meeting, Volusia County Director of Public Protection, George Recktenwald assigned some of the blame for the fund's shortfall on the economic "housing bubble". However, VolusiaExposed wondered why the "housing bubble" had only apparently affected the fire fund?

We suspected that the county's incorporation of EVAC into Volusia County government in 2011 was the real cause of the fire fund's deficit. Afterall, the deficit funding transpired during the first four years of EVAC being a county department, rather than a private foundation.

VolusiaExposed attended this meeting with only our suspicions in hand. What we wanted to leave with, were assurances from county officials, that the fire fund was not being raided in order to cover a countywide service - EVAC. Sadly, we left with our suspicions confirmed - EVAC's operational costs had been covered with revenue from the fire fund. Volusia County Department of Public Protection Director, George Recktenwald confirmed this to us in open forum (see top video to the right of this page).

Apparently since the incorporation of EVAC into county government - the county has been playing a "rob Peter to pay Paul" game with the county's fire fund, in order to cover EVAC transport costs.

According to a May 6, 2011 DeLand Beacon article, EVAC had only a 48% collection rate regarding their emergency transport fees. It would appear that approximately over half the people that are transported by EVAC - don't pay their EVAC bills. Yes, that is a disturbing number - but more disturbing is the fact, that according to Mr. Recktenwald, absent EVAC collecting those fees - the county fire fund covers those lost fees.(see top video - special attention to mins 3:00-3:15)

Not only did Mr. Recktenwald confirm the raiding of the fire fund during the February 24, 2015 meeting - in our opinion, he repeated this confirmation when addressing Councilwoman Denys questioning during an April 2, 2015 council meeting (see video - third from the top - special attention to mins 2:00-2:45). Within that same video - County Manager Jim Dinneen attempted to deny that the fire fund is used to cover EVAC transports - but, in our opinion, his (Dinneen) answer was nothing more than a deflective response to Ms. Denys' questions.

What Is Our Beef Over The Fire Fund?

We (VolusiaExposed.Com) explained our "beef" / concerns regarding the county fire fund during our (3) minute presentation in front of the county council (see second video from the top - right of web page).

In short, our concern is that ONLY taxpayers in the unincorporated areas of Volusia County pay into the fire fund. However, EVAC is a countywide (including the cities within the county) service. Therefore, if the fire fund is being raided in order to cover shortfalls in the collection of EVAC transport fees - this would be an unfair tax burden to the taxpayers in the unincorporated areas of the county.