Fire-rescue not on Jupiter ballot
Council won’t submit issue to elections board
JUPITER – An effort to place a question on the March ballot about Jupiter’s effort to create its own fire-rescue department met with a roadblock this week when the Town Council declined to submit the question to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections.
The elections office said it needs the question — which would require voters instead of the Town Council to approve creating a fire-rescue department — in hand by Dec. 15 to place it on the March 19 ballot.
Opponents of Jupiter ending its 40year relationship with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue say they are strongly considering taking the matter to court in an effort to place it on the ballot.
Many of those who oppose the split are members of Local 2928 of the International Association of Firefighters, which represents county firefighters and paramedics. They have gathered more than 9,000 signatures on petitions trying to put the measure on the March ballot.
Under Florida Statute 166.031, however, ballot measures of this kind cannot go to a vote that day because it is not a town “general election,” meaning the kind where mayors and Town Council members are chosen, the Town Attorney Tom Baird said.
The next such election is in March 2025, when Jupiter voters also will elect a mayor and two council members. Baird said council members would have to call a special election for it to make it on the 2024 ballot, but the Town must first find the question “legally proper.”
Baird said he determined the proposed ballot question is “legally insufficient” during Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, and he advised council members against submitting the ballot language to the supervisor of the elections office at any time.
“The referendum question is legally insufficient because it fails to provide fair notice and adequately advise voters of the proposal’s purpose and the decision to be made,” Baird said in a prepared statement issued the day after the meeting.
“As contained in the Charter Amendment Petition Form, the full text of the legislative power to be exercised through the initiative to amend the town’s charter violates, and is inconsistent with the legislative home rule powers granted to the Town Council by the Florida Constitution, Florida Statutes and the Jupiter Charter and is inconsistent with other provisions of the Jupiter Charter,” the statement went on to read.
Mayor Jim Kuretski and council
members Ron Delaney and Malise Sundstrom accepted Baird’s recommendation at Tuesday’s meeting. Council member Cameron May, a Palm Beach County Fire Rescue firefighter and paramedic, did not.
“I read the petition, and I think it’s legally sufficient from what it’s requesting,” said May, a union member who opposed the split when the council approved it Aug. 15 and has voted against spending money to launch the new department.
“I’m trying to advocate for the residents in the audience today that we place it on the ballot in March, if possible.”
Kuretski shot back, saying that the petition is rejected and he doesn’t want to discuss it again during future meetings.
“I agree with the town attorney. I’m not in favor of proceeding with this item,” Kuretski said. “I want to make sure that’s clear tonight. I don’t want it on the next agenda. It is rejected.”
Council member Andy Fore, who took office after the Aug. 15 vote, said the item should have been put on the agenda for the Nov. 21 meeting so the public would have had two weeks of notice about the petition update before the council made a decision on the matter.
Opponents of the split from Palm Beach County Fire Rescue submitted their petitions to the Supervisor of Elections Office on Oct. 30.
Jeffrey Newsome, the local union’s president and a firefighter for more than 28 years, said he thinks some Town Council and staff members are trying to push the vote to 2025 because “they are scared they will lose.”
He said that the petition’s organizers have retained an attorney and are considering legal action against the town to try to get their item, a change to the town charter, on the March ballot.
Jupiter cites rising costs in split from PBC Fire-Rescue
The town’s decision to end its 40-year relationship with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue has been the subject of fiery comments at nearly every town Council meeting following the Aug. 15 vote.
Their comments have been met with council members approving the allocation of millions of dollars toward the new department’s engines, ambulances and first hires.
Kuretski, Delaney and Sundstrom have said concerns about rising costs and local control led them to their vote.
They said the county agency wanted to raise the fire-rescue tax rate it charges Jupiter property owners to $3.45 per $1,000 of assessed value over the next five years, up from $1.87 this year, without providing any new services.
Past contracts covered the costs of staffing and equipping the three fire stations within Jupiter, based on the volume of calls for service generated within the town, town officials said in an email sent to residents in October.
The $1.87 rate “equated to a budget” of about $26 million this past year. The county’s proposed rate increases would eventually raise that total to about $62.5 million, given the growth in Jupiter’s property values, the town’s letter said.
The letter also noted that most coastal communities in Palm Beach County already have created fire-rescue departments, including neighboring Palm Beach Gardens and Tequesta.
The new department would begin service in 2026, and the town is expected to pay a cost of more than $60 million to launch it, including buying trucks, hiring personnel and building at least one fire station. It is working with the International City/County Management Association on building out the department and agreed to pay it $187,500 on Tuesday.
Opponents have said a new town department may not provide the same level of service that an experienced agency such as Palm Beach County Fire Rescue can deliver. They said it also may struggle to recruit firefighters.
They also questioned why there wasn’t more public discussion about the switch prior to the Aug. 15 vote, which came at a meeting when the issue was listed only as a “presentation.” The council had discussed the state of negotiations at prior meetings and said it faced a Sept. 30 deadline to decide whether to withdraw from the contract.
Tempers flare at Jupiter meetings since fire-rescue vote
The town’s arguments have done little to persuade critics of the switch, and many of them spoke over council members as they defended the new fire department at the Town Council meeting on Nov. 8.
Council members voted to allocate more than $2.1 million towards the purchase of four four-door ambulances at the Nov. 8 meeting, despite residents asking them to stop spending money until the petition makes it on a ballot.
“I’m a steward of the taxpayer’s money,” Delaney said from the dais. “This comes down to local control. We do our best up here and we’re listening to everybody. It’s not as lopsided as you think it is.”
A lively discussion sparked when a resident called out, “That’s why you put it up for a vote!”
Delaney responded saying, “OK, so if we put this up for a vote, then any major thing we do up here we have to put up for a referendum?”
Numerous residents yelled back and shouts about an upcoming vote on the fire department filled the room.
“I shouldn’t converse,” Delaney said. “We’re not supposed to have a conversation now. I’ll talk to you after. That’s it.”
May made a motion to table all items on fire rescue expenditures until residents vote on the issue. At the time of the meeting, it appeared the matter could be on the March 2024 ballot.
“I just want to support my residents that are here,” May said.
“If the residents vote and say they want their own fire department, I’ll be the first person to stand up here and say, ‘How can I help make this the best fire department possible?’ ”
Residents then broke out in a roaring applause and one called out and said, “That’s leadership!” No other council member supported the motion, so it did not pass.
The department is scheduled to launch in three years, the same amount of time it can take for the new fire rescue vehicles to arrive. The four other council members expressed concern over not ordering the ambulances in time if they were to table expenditure decisions.
“If we wait for a vote and the vote fails, we won’t be able to get these vehicles,” Fore said Nov. 8.
“I will fully respect any vote that takes place and back it with every bit of energy I have, but right now I believe this vehicle purchase needs to be made.”