By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Valley Fire District Advisory Board reviewed a report of District expenditures at a meeting held Tuesday, February 8 in Overton. The report was provided by officials from Clark County Fire Department (CCFD), the entity charged by the County Commission with overseeing the management of the local Fire District.
The report included budgeted expenditures for the district and contained moderate detail on actual expenditures for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.
The report showed that the district’s largest expense, by far, this year was in conjunction with fighting the wildfire at Warm Springs on July 1 of last year. The district was charged nearly $850,000 to reimburse various federal, state and county agencies that responded in fighting that fire over the period of several days.
In a previous board meeting, CCFD officials had told board members that the Department would be seeking reimbursement of those expenses from the parties finally determined to be at fault for the fire.
“They promised to update us on a regular basis, every three months or so, on what was being done to recoup those funds,” said Board Member Judy Metz. “I had read recently that Southern Nevada Water Authority was found culpable in that incident so I wondered if payment arrangements are being worked out to get that money back to us, and where we are with that.”
CCFD Rural Coordinator, Chief Mike Johnson stated that the matter was still resting with an investigative group within the CCFD. He admitted that he was unsure what the current status was on the subject. But he committed to get that information to present to the board at a later meeting. “You were promised something and now I’ll make the promise to go get it for you,” he said.
The next largest district expenditure this year is in salaries and employee benefits, according to the report. The three local stations are made up entirely of volunteer firefighters and EMTs. But the district receives direct support from CCFD personnel. The district then pays a portion of the salaries for this personnel. The report showed that the district portion of these salaries with benefits added up to nearly $159,000.
All other district expenses for this year thus far add up to about $79,000. These miscellaneous expenses included all firefighter/EMT training, repair and maintenance to vehicles and buildings, office supplies, communication equipment, insurance, medical supplies, firefighting equipment, etc.
Though board members expressed general agreement with the direction of the budget numbers, some said that there were key elements, normally included in financial statements, that were absent from this report. One main element missing was a beginning and ending account balance.
“I’d like just a simple statement that makes it clear what we started out with, what exactly we have spent and what we have left in the account,” said Overton Station 74 Chief Matt Nelson who serves on the District Advisory Board.
Also missing from the report was a statement showing district revenues. Organized under Nevada Revised Statute 474, the district receives its funding from a portion of the state Consolidated Sales Tax.
Johnson said that, in meeting with CCFD finance department officials, he had been told that the district account balance was around $1.9 million after all current bills are paid. But he admitted that this, and other details, did not appear on the reports being presented to the board.
But Johnson made it clear that the department could make the information available to the board if they wanted to go meet with CCFD finance officials.
“From here the next step is to go in to Las Vegas and meet with our finance people,” Johnson said. “If you go in there, they can access the SAP program (financial database) and break down any line item to show you exactly what it is. I think that if you go that route, maybe you can understand the big picture a lot better.”
Metz said that she would be willing to do this if the board so directed. “Personally, I think that these numbers are generally in line,” she said. “But if you want, I’ll go down and try to get a handle on the details with them.”
But the consensus among the other board members was that this was not necessary as the numbers presented seemed generally accurate. No further board action was taken on the matter.
