Ivins-Santa Clara police, fire chiefs raise alarm bells about their financial future

IVINS — The chiefs of the combined fire and police departments of Ivins and Santa Clara say they have done what they can to trim the budgetary fat of their departments but have each raised concerns that both departments will have trouble funding their departments in the future.

Santa Clara-Ivins Police Chief Bob Flowers speaks as members of the Ivins and Santa Clara city councils hold a joint meeting at Ivins City Hall, Ivins, Utah, Jan. 26, 2023 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

The concerns were raised during a Jan. 26 joint meeting of the Ivins and Santa Clara city councils, the second-ever combined meeting of the two cities that share public safety agencies.

“I don’t know where to cut off,” Santa Clara-Ivins Police Chief Bob Flowers told the council. “You can lay off officers, but I think that would be a big mistake.”

The biggest rise in expenses isn’t more crime to deal with or a need for new technology as much as a cost most employers are dealing with: The cost of health care.

The biggest expense in the proposed budgets for both police and fire – and the only ones in the millions – are the compensation and benefits to employees. And about a fourth of the cost of personnel for both departments come from the rising cost of health care and other benefits. 

“Health care is always going up,” Santa Clara-Ivins Fire Chief Andrew Parker told the Ivins City Council.

In its proposed 2023-24 budget, 87.7% ($2,468,819) of the fire department’s $2,816,011 consists of employee salaries and benefits. Of that compensation, 29.8% ($735,936) comes from benefits like health care and retirement.

The police department, in its proposed budget, has less of its budget as a percentage going to employee salaries and benefits, but benefits take up a greater part of law enforcement personnel costs.

Of the police budget of $3,766,271, $2,558,786 (67.9%) goes to personnel. Of those costs, $857,103 go toward benefits.

The cost to provide employee benefits is up 7.6% for the police force this year and up 80.8% ($473,932 to $857,103) since 2018.

The rise in the cost of benefits for the fire department has more than doubled ($311,405) to $735,936) this year and is up 438% since 2019. However, those numbers are also heavily influenced by the fire department’s transition away from a mostly volunteer to a full-time force in the last two years. 

Ivins City Council member Lance Anderson gestures as members of the Ivins and Santa Clara city councils hold a joint meeting at Ivins City Hall, Ivins, Utah, Jan. 26,, 2023 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

It will be up to the city leaders to ultimately figure out where the funds are going to come from for the increasing costs of paying those who fight crimes and fires. And the answer may come down to three words: Truth in taxation.

Under Utah law, a city or town can’t increase property taxes without a truth-in-taxation hearing. Santa Clara last held a truth-in-taxation hearing in 2007 and Ivins last held such a hearing in 2005. Those years were also the last time each city raised property taxes.

Ivins Mayor Chris Hart noted the city’s recent survey of residents, which gave high marks to the city’s public safety agencies and said they should receive more funding but also was overwhelmingly against a property tax increase. 

“The survey made clear residents want a lot of things but don’t want to increase property taxes or revenue and that’s what we’re struggling with,” Hart said. “How many of you up for election are willing to get into truth in taxation?”

The most recent Southern Utah truth in taxation hearing was at St. George City Hall in August 2022 and, like the situation in Santa Clara and Ivins, involved a property tax hike to pay for public safety. It was rejected after a large presence of residents showed up against an increase – noting that the city should cut from other programs before increasing property taxes.

As the silence in the room was noticeable after Hart’s question about truth in taxation, Santa Clara Council member Ben Shakespeare, while noting that he himself was not up for election, said he would “take the bullet” and said the way to avoid the fate of the attempt to raise money for public safety in St. George was to make sure in advance to account for every dollar spent by each city. 

(L-R) Santa Clara Council members Leina Mathis and Ben Shakespeare with Santa Clara City Attorney Matthew Ence as members of the Ivins and Santa Clara city councils hold a joint meeting at Ivins City Hall, Ivins, Utah, Jan. 26,, 2023 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

“The reality is we need $1.1 million,” Shakespeare said. “At some point, we will need to go to truth in taxation but when we do that we better account for where every dollar goes. That’s where other cities have failed.”

While both cities run the departments jointly, Santa Clara is responsible for much of the operations and budget of the fire department, while Ivins serves the same role for the police. Hart said the question is whether residents are willing to foot the bill to maintain both. 

“Our residents not only need it, they expect it,” Hart said. “I hope we have enough reasonable people in our cities that know we need to pay for it.”

Police looking for new wheels

Last year, Flowers asked for and received more compensation for his officers that was achieved after he agreed to forgo a request for new patrol cars. But he said he was warned at the time by Santa Clara City Manager Brock Jacobsen that “if you give up one thing, you’ll need it later.”

That later is now. Flowers says his big request this year is $165,000 for three new vehicles.

“We have an aging fleet,” Flowers said, noting five of the department’s vehicles have more than 20,000 miles, two over 100,000 miles. 

Complicating that purchase is inflation; it’s going to cost much more to replace parts of the police fleet now than it would have a year ago. There’s also what Flower said are state requirements by the Utah Communications Authority for all police vehicles to be compliant with what is called the Phase II standard for public safety radios – a requirement Flowers said did not come with funding from the Legislature.

In a file photo, a Santa Clara-Ivins Police cruiser sits in front of the original Ivins City Hall, now the SCI Public Safety Building, Ivins, Utah, Oct. 1, 2020 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

“Vehicles that used to cost $20,000 are now $60,000 and then we have to add radios and other equipment,” Flowers said, noting he is also disappointed funding has now come from Washington County. “Every city in the state is going to have to change out radios. Smaller counties are paying for their radios. Why isn’t ours? It’s a frustration for me.” 

While asking for funds, Flowers said the “bad guys” shouldn’t expect their enforcement to become needy anytime soon. 

Flowers said if people have felt like they have seen their patrols more lately, it’s no accident. He said calls in the area have gone in the past year from “dogs barking” to “shootings and burglaries.” But he added it isn’t local residents committing the majority of the crimes, and those that are, increasingly are on the younger side.

“A lot of our crimes are not done by our citizens, it’s people coming into our area. A lot more youth are involved in these shootings. It seems like the flavor is our youth are not fully understanding the repercussions for doing these things,” Flowers noted, acting that because of increasing crime, the long arm of the law is squeezing harder. 

“People that are coming here to do nefarious things hate us because we’ll come after you for a broken taillight. We’ll hunt you,” Flowers said. “I’ve had complaints about officers being parked on the street. Get over it.”

Fire investing in its people

During a PowerPoint presentation he gave to the two councils, the fire chief for both cities included a picture of each firefighter or EMT responsible for that department. 

Parker said that was deliberate.

“There’s a face that goes to every line item,” Parker said. “We’ve put money into the people. We want to put it into our people. The people provide the services.”

Santa Clara-Ivins Fire Chief Andrew Parker speaks as members of the Ivins and Santa Clara city councils hold a joint meeting at Ivins City Hall, Ivins, Utah, Jan. 26,, 2023 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

With that, the fire department is asking to reduce its overall operations budget while increasing the funding for its personnel. 

Parker said the department is also going with a lean, programs-based budget based on the services the department provides. 

“We’ve even budgeted for the time we spend on controlled burns,” Parker said. “If we didn’t budget for that event, we’re not going to do it.”

Parker also defended his move last year to transition the department from mostly volunteers to full-time firefighters and EMTs. That includes keeping the Ivins Center Street Fire Station manned 24/7.

Ivins Council member Dennis Mehr questioned whether the move to full-time firefighters has been money well-spent.

“We’re traded volunteers for a professional force,” Mehr said. “It would be helpful to see the performance to budget. We ought to look at the dollars per unit. Is it worth the additional funding? In my mind, we owe it to our residents to understand what we’re doing here.”

In response, Parker noted a January incident where a 72-year-old man collapsed on the pickleball courts at Santa Clara’s Gubler Park. Parker said the man’s life was saved by the quick response within 10 minutes of SCI paramedics. 

“If a guy comes out of the hospital, that is a success,” Parker said. “If people get there quicker, there will be less monetary loss. If someone is staffing a station, we will have a faster response. More folks full-time will make the fires go out quicker.”

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