RIVERDALE, Ga. — Concerns over merging Riverdale Fire and Clayton County Fire Departments were back up for discussion Wednesday night.
City leaders called a special meeting tonight, with this topic being the only item on the agenda.
City Manager Scott Wood said the reasoning all comes down to money, adding, "Where we would cost, we estimate between $750,000 and $1 million a year, plus the acquisition of two new fire trucks, which would cost about $2 million."
Wood said the city currently has an ISO 3 ranking, which determines how effectively a fire department can protect its community. The lower the number, the better the protection. Clayton County has an ISO 1. Wood said consolidating with the county wouldn't cost anything, but if the city doesn't, it could hurt residents' pockets.
If people want to pay more taxes, to have the city of Riverdale's name on a firetruck and a City of Riverdale patch, that's fine," Wood said. "I'm not critical of that. I just need everybody to understand that that's what would happen."
Wood was called out for leaving Monday's meeting early. He said he was sick. But he stuck around Wednesday to finally give the presentation he was supposed to give at the last meeting, explaining the benefits of letting the county take over.
During his presentation, Wood explained there would be no property millage tax increases. Instead, the plan is to increase personnel, which is one of the reasons he's confident EMS response times won't be affected, nor will firefighter's employment status.
However, Riverdale resident Jacqueline Taylor wasn't buying it. She compared the meeting to a circus.
"We didn't get any answers, just like Monday," Taylor said. "I feel that there is a communication barrier."
Others spoke out about communications during the public comment section, stating there wasn't enough warning about Monday's agenda item.
Wood negates this, saying that this was in the newspaper, on the city's website, and on social media pages.
Some are now even calling for Wood's firing, accusing him of mismanaging money and disrespecting residents by dismissing himself from the last meeting.
"Why should we keep the person, the manager, that's supposed to be handling all these deficiencies for us?" Taylor said.
Taylor is referring to deficiencies related to ISO ratings. She feels that if the city's ranking has been low for a long period, why haven't officials handled it before it became costly?
"Show us more detail of the budget that you guys have," Taylor said. "You're saying that you have this, but we don't have any numbers. Show us the annual budget that we have for 2023. Show us the annual budget that we have for 2024."
Council members said Wednesday's meeting wasn't to answer resident's questions directly. They'll have that opportunity at the town hall meeting on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
"We hope that people will begin to look, thoroughly, at the facts and leave emotions aside," Wood said.
If the residents agree to pay more taxes to keep Riverdale Fire Departments, a council member floated the idea of a special election so residents can vote.