Midway’s city council voted Dec. 9 to delay final approval of the 2025 budget to Dec. 16 while it continues negotiations with the Liberty County Board of Commissioners about whether Midway will contract with the county for full fire services within the city limits.
While the county is tight-lipped about the ongoing talks, Mayor Levern Clancy has dropped hints that the city is still open to the possibility of contracting with the county for full fire services.
Right now, the county only responds to “priority calls,” according to previous statements by Liberty County Fire Chief Brian Darby, such as structure fires, fire alarms, carbon monoxide, vehicle accidents, and backup requests from EMS on scene.
‘The big, big ticket item’
During the third and final budget workshop at 5:30 p.m., just before the regular 6 p.m. council meeting, Clancy spoke by phone with Campbell O’Steen, senior accountant with Harris and Company. When Campbell said he did not have a copy of the draft budget at hand, Clancy said, “You know the big, big ticket item was the fire department.”
During the regular meeting, Clancy said that the agenda item about the Midway Volunteer Fire Department would be moved to executive session and that the city attorney was absent due to illness. Georgia’s Open Meetings Act allows for discussion of whether to enter into a contract to purchase, dispose of, or lease property or real estate, but Clancy did not specify the nature of the executive session beyond it being about the Midway Volunteer Fire Department. The Current has asked Clancy which specific exceptions applied and whether the city attorney called into the executive session.
After the council reconvened in open session, it voted unanimously to stick with Liberty County Fire Services.
Mayor Pro Tem Clemontine Washington made a motion for Midway to continue having fire services provided by the Liberty County fire Department. But, the motion did not clarify whether that would include more service than the major calls that LCFD currently runs.
After the meeting, The Current asked whether the vote to keep county fire services was at existing service levels or to expand those services.
“Once they get that agreement wrote up,” Clancy replied, “then we will come back in. Because we have to do something so that they know we’re serious.”
Asked whether that meant the city was on board with building a new fire station the county had suggested in previous meetings, Clancy said, “Whatever’s in the five-year plan.”
Washington said no deal had been made on a new station: “Not yet. We’re still working on it.”
Clancy added, “Once that comes back, we’ve got to go and vote on it. Because they might say we don’t want to serve Midway.” But he added, “Yeah, it’s looking that way.”
Liberty County Commission Chair Donald Lovette told The Current, “The Board of Commissioners will review the proposal during our Dec. 19th meeting and discuss specifics of a potential contract for these services.”
Asked what the county would need to do between Dec. 19 and Jan. 1 to get Midway ready for full fire services and how soon the first round of new firefighters be on the job, Assistant County Administrator Joseph Mosley, who has been deeply involved in the negotiations, wrote in an email, “All of this will be discussed at the meeting.”
A quick review
The county and city have been in negotiations to expand full-coverage county fire service to Midway since at least August. The effort comes after an investigation by The Current revealed rock-bottom fire insurance ratings and substandard conditions at the city’s volunteer fire department. Days later, Clancy ordered the fire station closed pending safety inspections and repairs, effectively locking out the volunteer firefighters.
Tempers flared at a July council meeting when the council voted to seek fire coverage from the county. Volunteer firefighters confronted Clancy and Washington, saying their requests for repairs, supplies, and radio batteries had gone ignored for months. Washington countered that she had made sure the department had gotten new hoses and other equipment.
By August, a state regulator gave the city 30 days to get back into compliance. Deputy Chief Jonathan Campbell and nearly all the other volunteer firefighters resigned. In September, Liberty County offered a five-year plan to add a fire station and round-the-clock firefighting for Midway at a cost of $5.8 million. At the time, city officials said that was too much money.
As a county employee, Darby is not involved in negotiating the deal. The parties involved are the City of Midway and the Liberty County Board of Commissioners because they would sign any agreement reached.
However, Darby has presented a proposed five-year plan to both governing bodies, explaining how the county could ramp up full fire services over that timeframe, along with estimates for what it would cost to build a new fire station, equip it, and staff it around the clock with new firefighters.
How will the city pay?
Midway officials have not stated publicly how they would pay for such a plan. This week, the city released a draft copy of budgeted and actual revenues and expenditures for Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, 2024. A copy of the city’s draft Statement of Revenues and Expenditures, Budget & Actual, from the General Fund (the Water Fund is accounted for separately) showed the city spent $205,650 on the fire department budget, and is proposing a $66,900 increase to $272,550. The city has not clarified whether the increase covers Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 of this year or if the $272,550 is meant to cover all of 2025.
The document did not specify revenue sources for 2025 that would cover the first and lowest payment of over $800,000 in the county’s proposed five-year plan.