How a 15 minute decision could increase your fire insurance rates by 20%
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*Lack of fire departments may mean loss of Class 2 fire rating
*Judge Villines and the Intergovernmental Cooperative Council spend 15 minutes on this decision
The situation
The majority of the residents
in Pulaski County should be very disappointed and alarmed to learn that their class
2 fire rating may change - for the worse.
Why, should they care? Because
those ratings are how insurance companies determine how much to charge for
residential and commercial fire insurance.
Now, because of a careless decision by the Intergovernmental Cooperative
Council chaired by Judge Buddy Villines and a resolution from Judge Villines
approved by the Quorum Court, the majority of residents and businesses in
Pulaski County face the real possibility that their fire insurance rates may
increase by up to 20%, not to mention the ongoing threat to public safety posed
by too few fire stations.
The background
The City of Little Rock needs
a new fire station to protect its population and to help maintain Class 2 fire
rating. At the end of the last session, the
legislature distributed General Improvement Funds (Act 844) to be allocated
based on population to Pulaski county fire departments. But,
on July 29th, the Intergovernmental Cooperative Council decided to
change this distribution to allocate equally among fire stations and not based
on population. Now, because of this poor decision supported by
county leadership, instead of the $90,000 needed by the majority of the residents
to preserve their fire rating and low insurance rates, we are facing a difficult situation. Either fire insurance rates are going up or
cities will most likely have to divert already depleted budgets to help build
fire stations.
To make the matters even worse,
this decision was made in 15 minutes by a meeting which may or may not have even
been properly conducted with a legal quorum.
The Intergovernmental Cooperative Council is comprised of all the mayors
of Pulaski County and the Little Rock City Manager and is chaired by Pulaski
County Judge Buddy Villines. According
to the minutes of the meeting, which started at 9:00 AM and adjourned at 9:15
AM, Judge Villines Chaired the meeting and the motion was made and seconded by
two mayors whose cities stood to gain from the change in the division of
funds. Judge Villines then brought the proposal to
the Pulaski County Quorum Court in the form of resolution 09-R-22 where the
resolution was approved by the Quorum Court without discussion.
Once again, our elected
officials don't seem to hold the greater good as their highest priority. Instead of thoughtfully understanding the
impact of how to best spend public money to benefit the citizens, a quick
decision was made that will have serious and costly implications for
taxpayers. We have to hold our public
officials accountable and only by shining the light on these issues will the
checks and balances work for the taxpayers and the public.
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