The Portland City Council will have a chance to do what its finance subcommittee could not. That is to say "no" to a $1.8 million sleeping quarters for the fireboat's three-man crew and go back and look for a more cost-effective solution.
The problem with the current quarters, built in the city-owned parking garage beside the boat's dock, are real. They are noisy, have poor air quality and are not an ideal place to house emergency workers who need to be near the boat to do their jobs.
A $500,000 facility was factored into the budget for a new fireboat, which is twice as fast as the old boat but has less living space. Unfortunately, building code requirements more than tripled the price of the new quarters.
The finance committee split 2-1, favoring the project. That leaves it up to the full City Council to decide. This expenditure would need seven votes to pass, so two councilors would have to join John Anton, the lone dissenting finance committee member, to kill the project.
When they are weighing their choice, council members should consider the following factors.
The city is cutting services, not expanding them. It just laid off firefighters this year. It makes no sense to dump close to $2 million on a project like this at this time.
There may be other ways to house the fireboat crew that do not impact their ability to respond to emergencies. Hiring more firefighters and having them stay awake for eight-hour shifts instead of 24- hour ones, during which they sleep, would be less expensive than building, at least in the short run. That could be the answer for a year or two, while the city waits for the commercial real estate business, and its revenues, to recover.
Another solution could be housing part of the crew at the Central Fire Station a few blocks away on Congress Street, while leaving one crew member on the boat to get it ready when an emergency hits. This may not be an ideal plan, but it could work while other alternatives are explored.
The council should also consider the message approving this expenditure now would send to Portland voters, who will be going to the polls and be asked to support two referendums that would severely cut municipal revenue sources. The theory behind both the limit of the automobile excise tax and the Taxpayer Bill of Rights is that elected officials cannot be trusted to spend wisely on their own.
The City Council has voted in favor of resolutions encouraging voters to reject both measures. A vote for this project in these economic circumstances sends a very different message.
The fireboat crew has quarters that are less than ideal, but it makes sense to take some more time and make sure that every option short of a $1.8 million construction project is exhausted before voting to approve it.
When the City Council gets this measure on Oct. 19, members should carefully consider all the challenges the city is facing. And they should vote "no."
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