Editorial: Forget about consolidation in Marco ambulance vote

In each of the past two major elections in Collier County, political campaigns focused on one burning issue when it came to emergency services: consolidating a plethora of independent fire districts.

In 2014, the big issue was where candidates stood on two referendums on merging the Golden Gate and East Naples fire departments into the Greater Naples district and whether to combine North Naples and Big Corkscrew Island departments into the North Collier fire district. Both referendums passed and candidates supporting the mergers won out.

In 2016, it was whether those mergers were working as intended and whether further consolidation of fire departments was in order. Mix in votes both years that led to Isles of Capri’s independent fire district ultimately agreeing in 2016 to become part of Greater Naples fire department. A couple of small fire departments run by Collier County government also were turned over to Greater Naples.

We went from nearly a dozen separate fire departments in Collier County and its cities to about half that number today.

Fast forward to 2018, however, and consolidation isn’t a hot-button emergency services issue at all. Instead, North Collier and the independent Immokalee fire district are proposing referendums on new fee structures to pay for their services.

Yet consolidation still is being mentioned in the context of a referendum. It’s on Marco Island. Some on Marco have pointed to a fear of a unified county-based fire department taking over the counEmergency Medical Services and thus creating an uncertainty about island ambulance service, suggesting this is a reason to vote in favor of the referendum to start a city ambulance service.

When deciding how to vote on the Aug. 28 Marco Island ambulance referendum, consolidation shouldn’t be a consideration.

There’s a greater chance of catching a red herring in Big Marco River than there is of fire district and EMS consolidation at this point.

Why the talk?

North Collier fire’s Executive Director Sal D’Angelo tells us his future to-do list still includes exploring consolidation involving independent fire districts but any conversations occurring “do not bring EMS into the picture.”

Ditto for the other large fire department in Collier, Greater Naples.

“The board of fire commissioners has not had any formal discussion on a single countywide fire-rescue district, including EMS services,” Fire Chief Kingman Schuldt said. “The board has had numerous discussions regarding the potential merger with the North Collier Fire Control & Rescue District. However, no formal action has been taken.”

The origin of the concerns expressed by some on Marco Island trace to an ill-advised decision by the former Collier County Commission to put a popularity vote about consolidation on the March 2016 presidential preference ballot. We said at the time that it was a bad idea for several reasons, including that it wrongly excluded voters in Naples and Marco Island.

As a straw ballot rather than a binding referendum, the results were essentially meaningless anyway. If a vote was going to be held there was no harm in hearing from city voters.

Also, the wording referred to an emergency medical services authority for “unincorporated” Collier. That exclusion of cities means Marco voters would be right where they are today in deciding whether they want their ambulance services provided by the city or a countywide agency.

There are financial and degree of service questions for Marco voters to weigh as they decide whether to increase island property taxes to have the city fire department and a to-be-hired medical director take over ambulance services from Collier EMS.

Consolidation, though? It’s not an issue. Go fish.