Ocoee to hold public hearing on increased fire protection fee

The Ocoee City Commission will listen to public comments and bring to a vote at its July 15 meeting a proposed increase to the city’s fire-protection fee for its residents. 

If approved by the commission in its current form, Ocoee residents would see the fire fee more than double from its current rate of $69.50 per fire protection unit to $139.23 per unit. The current rate hasn’t changed since 2014.

This fee is non-ad valorem tax — meaning it is not based on the property’s value but on a per-unit basis — that can be levied by the city according to Section 197.3632 of Florida Statutes. It serves to help fund fire protection services for Ocoee residents. At its current rate, the fire fee only funds 17.97% of the city’s cost to provide these services, while the proposed increase would see the fee represent about 36% of the required funding.

During the May 20 commission meeting, Assistant City Manager Mike Rumer, along with representatives from Anser Advisory — an advisory firm contracted by the city to assist in updating the Fire Assessment Memorandum — and Nabors, Giblin & Nickerson — the consulting law firm that prepared the amended and restated initial assessment resolution for fire assessments — presented the proposed fire assessment resolution for the 2025-26 fiscal year and answered questions from the commission about it.

A few of the main points addressed by Rumer during his presentation of the resolution focused on why the city needed to increase the fee. According to the city’s projections, the cost of providing fire protection services is expected to rise to about $16 million per year. This is because of the continued increase in personnel-related costs, scheduled vehicle replacements, station construction and upgrades, and inflationary effects on costs of operational items.

Along with the expected increases in expenditures, city staff believes relying on ad valorem taxes to cover the remaining costs is becoming increasingly unpredictable with changes to traditional state funding sources, pointing to the approval of Amendment 5 in the November 2024 election as an example. The amendment provides for an annual adjustment to the second $25,000 homestead exemption that is tied to the Consumer Price Index, meaning if inflation rises the exemption will increase and the city’s tax revenue will decrease.

Ultimately, the proposed resolution serves as a more stable and equitable funding mechanism to provide the city with a predictable and reliable revenue source to cover the costs associated with providing fire protection services to its residents. 

Although the vote to adopt the resolution isn’t until the commission’s next meeting, each member of the commission — minus District 1 Commissioner Scott Kennedy, who was absent — voiced support for the increase, with former Ocoee Fire Chief and current District 3 Commissioner Richard Firstner speaking strongly in favor of the resolution.

“The purpose of this fire assessment fee is to help pay for the services that we’re providing to the citizens of Ocoee, it’s nothing extra,” Firstner said. “This is what it costs to run the fire department — (that’s not) to mention all the equipment, the protective clothing, the hose, you name it — that all needs to be replaced on a regular basis, and it all comes due year after year after year. We have to find a revenue source to at least fray that expense somewhat. 

“The only thing I can see, in lieu of increasing this fee — which will only pay about 36% of the cost — is to raise the millage rate,” he said. “No one wants to talk about that, but that’s the facts of life. Somebody has to pay the bill, and it’s getting to the point now where our ad valorem revenue is being eroded by the state. 

“This is going to help to fray that cost a little bit, at least for fire services, and it’s something that we can’t (live) without,” Firstner said. “It’s something that you don’t have the option to (not) pay for, because when the telephone rings, we go, and it doesn’t matter how big the house is, how small the house is, who’s living there, we provide the same level of professional service. … This is a necessary evil. We have to do it and still (there’s) no guarantee that the millage (rate) won’t go up but it’ll help keep it down as low as we possibly can.”