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Fire alarm: The oversight

When it comes to spending, fire districts dont answer to any other level of government

BY ELIZABETH MOORE | STAFF WRITER

November 19, 2005

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The treasurer of the Bayville Fire Department managed to steal $209,000 over three years without anyone noticing because he didn't let the department's accountant see the books, and no one else asked.

Volunteer leaders stymied, then weakened, a Suffolk County bill to track and report how long patients must wait for an ambulance despite a plea from a legislator whose brother-in-law died while waiting for help.

And no state, county or town agency collects facts as basic as who the volunteers are, how many people they protect, or how fast they get to fires.

Over the past 50 years, Long Island's network of small-town volunteer fire departments has evolved into a vast enterprise, yet four out of five fire agencies here answer to no higher level of government about the way they spend money or deliver lifesaving services.

Long Island volunteers preside over $1 billion in buildings and equipment, cost more than $319 million a year, administer 120 pension funds and protect 2.7-million citizens. Yet the state comptroller hasn't audited a Long Island fire district since 2001, and how volunteer departments raise and spend donations from the public is exempt from the supervision most other not-for-profit groups receive from the state attorney general.

The counties have little say in coordinating the operations of local departments, even in areas where county charters specifically direct them to play a role.

Fire departments routinely fail to file charitable tax returns on the donations they receive, and only about half of the departments or their benevolent associations turned in required annual reports in 2003 to the state showing how they spent about $10 million in state insurance surcharges.

And politicians have shown little inclination to take on the respected, well-organized and civically active volunteers, usually deferring to fire commissioners chosen in elections that draw sparse participation beyond volunteers and their families.

"I don't think our system is working," said Robert Kreitzman, a former commissioner in Selden, who says he has asked in vain for the state to audit his own district. "They don't come in to check anything ... and there's issues that would curl your hair."

Most of the laws governing Long Island's fire agencies were written in the 1930s, when New York's local governments were taking their modern form, and revised in the 1950s, when the explosion of suburban populations created an urgent need to make sure volunteer firefighters had enough tax revenue to buy water, trucks and buildings.

"Practices that perhaps were accepted everywhere as recently as 20 years ago are no longer acceptable today because society has changed," said Bayville Mayor Victoria Siegel.

"The expectations of society have changed. There's more money involved."

Fire spending receives varying degrees of scrutiny. The 124 fire districts, which cost on average $124 per resident, have their budgets approved by relatively obscure boards of elected commissioners.

The 21 independent incorporated fire companies, which cost about the same, bill towns and villages for their services with little input from local officials. The 33 village and city departments, which cost about half as much per resident, have budgets controlled by higher-profile municipal governments.

The only meaningful outside financial scrutiny of fire districts comes in audits by the state comptroller. That agency audited eight of New York's 867 fire districts in the past two years, but it has audited none on Long Island since 2001, and just 22 here in the past 10 years.

"Many of our resources have been allocated to looking into school finances following the recent financial problems in several districts," explained Jennifer Freeman, a spokeswoman for state Comptroller Alan Hevesi.

Another spokesman added that the office gives regular financial training to local officials and has prepared special reports on topics such as volunteer pension programs and financial controls, but not focused on specific districts.

"The whole system is lax, that's my impression," said former Cold Spring Harbor fire Commissioner Henry Kieronski. He said he "tried to get the comptroller's office to conduct an audit; they said, 'We don't have the people.'"

State law requires districts to file annual financial reports with the comptroller and town clerks, but they don't have to have the reports audited for accuracy.

The comptroller's office does not have the authority to audit the independent incorporated fire companies, such as Bayville.