Fox Point accepts NSFD funding formula, for now

The Fox Point Village Board tonight begrudgingly accepted its percentage of the North Shore Fire Department's budget as allotted in an amended NSFD funding formula which will be in effect for the next three years.

Trustees took action in July to add a three-year sunset clause to the formula so that Fox Point, as well as the other NSFD member communities, can renegotiate in 2015. The sunset clause was supported by the River Hills Village Board and was ultimately approved by the NSFD Board of Directors, though a decrease in Fox Point's percentage contribution - which trustees and Village President Michael West had expressed interest in - was not.

In the new funding formula Fox Point will contribute 10.31 percent of the NSFD budget annually, down from the 10.38 percent it had paid from 2008 through 2012. However, West and Fox Point trustees have taken issue with the new percentage, since it is more than the 9.31 percent Fox Point would be paying for the next three years, had the original NSFD funding formula in effect from 1995 through 2007 been used and the percentages not been frozen in 2008.

"If you think (the original) formula is fair, then these proposed numbers aren't really fair to Fox Point," said trustee F.R. Dengel.

West told trustees that using an NSFD subcommittee to come up with the altered formula hadn't worked in his estimation, and that he would campaign for negotiations between all the member communities and a new formula between now and 2015.

"I will be active, and it may be that this village board at some point needs to formally pass a resolution asking the (NSFD board) to bring the seven communities together at one place and one time to negotiate a new formula," West said.

The village board voted 5-1 to approve the funding formula, with trustee F.R. Dengel dissenting and trustee William Warner absent.