Winter Garden residents expressed pushback regarding the city’s proposed fire assessment fee during a community engagement meeting.
Jon C. Williams, the city manager, said he and staff members are aware the notice residents received regarding the proposed fire assessment is shocking. He said the city had to abide by statutory deadlines to be able to implement a fire assessment.
“There’s a lot of unknowns at this time, so we have to set it at the maximum rate, with the full intention of continuing to develop the budget and lowering that rate as much as possible,” Williams said.
The city is looking into alternative funding sources because of recent property tax amendments, shrinking revenue sources and increased costs to provide essential services.
In January, the Winter Garden City Commission gave authorization for city staff to proceed with updating the fire assessment previously adopted in 2008.
An actual rate will be established at the commission’s meeting Thursday, Aug. 14. The commission can lower the rate to any amount less than the advertised rate.
At the community engagement meeting Tuesday, July 29, Laura Zielonka, the finance director for the city, explained the services the local government provides and how those services are funded. Through the General Fund, the city provides services in public safety, general government, culture and recreation, transportation, and economic development and human services.
Increased need
The General Fund expenditures for Fiscal Year 2026 totals $68,780,422, with 56.3%, or $38,693,032, of the funds going toward public safety. The personnel and operating costs for the fire department total $14.6 million, while the police department’s cost totals $22.2 million.
Property taxes are the primary source of General Fund revenues. The taxes generate about 41% of the General Fund’s total revenues.
A fire assessment is a non-ad valorem fee applied according to property use and service demand. Revenues are restricted solely to fire protection, which includes personnel, equipment, training and capital costs.
Property taxes bring in about $28.4 million, which accounts for 77% of the total amount needed for fire and police protection services. The fire assessment would help fund the $8.4 million gap in services, Zielonka said.
Zielonka said the combined cost of fire and police services consistently have been higher than the city’s property tax revenues.
“The difference became more pronounced starting in 2023,” she said. “The 2023 gap between what the city collects in property taxes and what it spends on public safety services grew significantly, which is seemingly an increased pressure on the General Fund.”
In 2015, Zielonka said the cost of a fire engine was $448,000 and a police vehicle was $34,000. The same fire engine is projected to cost $1.1 million in 2026, with a police vehicle costing $74,000. Winter Garden Fire Rescue Department Chief Jose Gainza said although the department might purchase the fire engine, he won’t receive it for three years.
If the city implements the assessment at the highest rate, residents will pay between $333.56 and $518.64 per house depending on square footage.
Another factor impacting the city is the increase in minimum wages and the need to have higher wages for those in public safety to compete with larger city and county departments.
“We take great importance to attract and retain quality staff,” Zielonka said. “Competitive salaries and benefits are essential to recruit and retain skilled employees, especially in mission-critical areas such as fire and police services. Public safety roles require specialized talent. These positions demand high levels of training, certification and readiness, and there’s strong competition for qualified personnel in our area.”
Zielonka said the benefits of proposing a fire assessment would be to create a dedicated, stable revenue stream for protection services, reduce reliance on volatile and shared General Fund revenues, ensure all benefiting properties including some that might not pay property taxes contribute to fire services and help address long-term imbalances in the public safety funding.
Fire services provided
The Winter Garden Fire Rescue Department is a full-service agency.
Gainza said the department’s administration is the backbone of the department, handling strategic planning, budgeting, policy development and records management.
“Their work assures we operate efficiently and meet our long-term goals and remain compliant with city and state regulations,” he said.
The office of the fire marshal focuses on fire prevention and education. The office conducts fire inspections and plans and reviews all new and existing commercial structures as well as has community risk reduction programs.
The department also provides public education, such as CPR classes, smoke alarm installations, car seat safety checks and management of the city-wide AED program.
The Operations Division is the boots on the ground with its responsibilities including firefighting, technical rescue, hazmat, disaster response and rescue swimming operations.
The emergency medical services division provides both basic and advanced life support to those in need.
The training division manages all required recertifications and continuing education for both fire and EMS personnel.
The Emergency Management Division ensures the city’s resilience and readiness for large-scale incidents. It proactively safeguards the community for hurricanes, natural disasters and other major emergencies.
In 2024, the department logged more than 22,000 hours of training.
In 2015, the department ran approximately 4,300 calls. Now 10 years later, the department runs more than 7,000 calls, and Gainza said the number of calls is increasing.
Winter Garden Fire Rescue Department has three permanent stations, a temporary station, three engine companies, one tower device, three advanced life support rescues and eight reserve apparatuses. The department has 72 full-time staff members, including one fire inspector, one executive assistant and 70 firefighters, which includes command staff.
Community pushback
More than 100 residents were in attendance of the community meeting to ask questions and share their thoughts on the proposed assessment.
Residents made it clear they appreciate the hard work of the Winter Garden Fire Rescue Department and want to continue to support local firefighters but questioned why the burden falls on them and whether the assessment would become an annual fee.
“There seems to be no new subdivision that we will say no to, yet we still maintain a very high level of all of the things we have here,” Winter Garden’s Stasha Boyd said. “What I am concerned about is that this seems to be the wrong solution to a real problem. If we are having short funding for a long-term assessment, what will happen? Are wages going to go down? Are suddenly things that we need going to get cheaper? I see this going on and on and on.”
Williams said there are “a lot of unknown variables right now” as the city waits to see what the state Legislature does with property tax reform.
Residents said the constant development is to blame for the increased need and cost of services. They questioned why if there are more people in Winter Garden paying property taxes how there could be a gap in funding.
Williams said more people also result in more needs of services, which are costing more to provide.
Residents also suggested the city look at delaying city projects such as the expansion of Tucker Ranch and the redesign of Dillard Street. The city has put the Dillard Street project on hold after receiving an updated cost of about $40 million, but the money for the project remains in a reserve.
Another point of contention for residents is the revenues from the assessment will go into the General Fund, meaning the funds can be spent on other services besides the fire department.
Williams said more information will be provided at the commission meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14 at City Hall.
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