Fire District 13 commission votes to boost budget by $90,000

The Skagit County Fire District 13 Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution last week that the “2014 Operating Budget be increased by $90,193.43 to $706,899.97.”

However, it appears there was a math error — some employee costs were dropped from the tally given to the board — so the budget would actually be more than $741,000.

A year ago, the district’s operating budget was $480,000 and the original budget the district adopted for this year was $637,000. In contrast, this year’s operating budget for District 11, the Mt. Erie Department, is about $325,000 and District 2, McLean Road Department, is about $466,000 this year.

According to its budget document created last fall, the district expects to receive $786,584 this year, an amount that includes $165,000 in grant money.

In a list of explanations prepared for the commissioners by the office staff to explain the budget increase, the district showed its budget for attorney fees going up by $35,000 to $44,000.

A good portion of the lawyer bills came because the district paid $24,500 to settle a lawsuit filed in March by “La Conner Weekly News” over what the newspaper considers egregious violations of the state’s open government laws. We accused the district commissioners of holding illegal closed meetings and its office staff of refusing to turn over public records. To settle the suit, the district paid the newspaper’s attorney and agreed to have its officials properly trained in the state’s open government laws.

The other $19,500 in the attorney bills include the district’s costs associated with its secretary’s allegations of harassment against a former commissioner. The secretary quit her job in January and was rehired last month.

Another big budget increase is $15,000 extra for office staff to cover the cost of a temporary secretary and a pay increase for the administrative assistant during the permanent secretary’s resignation.

The “sleeper program,” which is to let firefighters stay in a new mobile home at the Hope Island Fire Station on Snee Oosh Road has driven up costs, as well. The district added $8,550 to cover the extra cost in utilities there and another $10,000 increase in the amount of fuel for fire trucks kept at that station, since they’re being driven more.

Also, the district added another $7,450 for firefighter stipends.