The Fort Walton Beach City Council on Tuesday rejected a $57,000 bid for a fire department consolidation study and tabled further discussion until December.

• The council voted 4-3 to reject the proposal from Matrix Consulting Group and postpone the consolidation study discussion to its December meeting. 

In a separate 5-2 vote, council members directed staff to issue a new request for qualifications (RFQ) for a broader fire services study that would “review all available options” rather than focus on predetermined consolidation scenarios.

Councilman Travis Smith, who proposed the motion for a new RFQ, emphasized the need for a more open-ended study.

• “I don’t want to spend the money to do a study and basically tell the person doing the study that you have to arrive at one of these three outcomes,” Smith said. “There’s probably at least 15 different types of consolidation that can happen.”

The consolidation study, initially proposed in April 2024 by Councilman David Schmidt, was meant to explore three potential scenarios: merging the Fort Walton Beach Fire Department with Ocean City-Wright Fire Control District (OCWFCD) under OCWFCD, merging under Fort Walton Beach, or forming a new consolidated fire district.

Fort Walton Beach Fire Chief Jeremy Morgan expressed skepticism about the study’s value and potential outcomes. “If everybody’s not on board, it doesn’t matter what the result says, it’s not going to happen. It’s just a waste of money, in my opinion,” Morgan said.

• Morgan highlighted potential challenges, including combining debt services, equipment, personnel, pay plans, and pension plans. “We’ve been around since the 1940s. We have a lot of retirees on pension plans that the city will have to keep paying until they pass away,” he told Get The Coast.

Ocean City-Wright Fire Chief Jeff Wagner reiterated his district’s lack of interest in participating, citing recent accreditation efforts and strategic planning. “We have a plan and a path forward that we’ve put all of our eggs in that basket, and that’s what we want to pursue,” Wagner said.

• OCWFCD’s coverage area includes Ocean City, Wright, Shalimar, and Cinco Bayou, with contracted services to the City of Mary Esther.

Both chiefs emphasized the existing cooperation between their departments through mutual aid agreements. “We operate as one big department anyway, and that’s how the mutual aid agreement enforces that,” Morgan said.

Several council members and residents raised concerns about the study’s cost and potential impact on firefighter morale. Councilman Nic Allegretto said, “I don’t want to lose any more members of our fire department.”

• Proponents of the study, including Councilman David Schmidt, argued it would provide valuable data for long-term planning. “This is simply just to gather information and gather evaluation that gives us data,” Schmidt said.

The new RFQ will request bidders be prepared to make an oral presentation to the council. City staff indicated the process could begin in mid-October, with results potentially ready for the December meeting.

Any consolidation would require legislative action, as the Ocean City-Wright Fire Control District is a legislatively created entity.