Homer council to vote Oct. 26 on spending $60,000 to audit its volunteer fire department

The Homer City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing and final vote Oct. 26 on spending $60,000 for an operational audit of the Homer Volunteer Fire Department, reviving a review the city canceled last year.

City Manager Melissa Jacobsen and Fire Chief Dan Jager are sponsoring the ordinance.

The audit traces back to late 2024 and early 2025, when the council heard "a lot of public input" about the department's operations and support for its volunteers, Jacobsen wrote in a Sept. 30 memo. Former volunteers were among the residents who raised concerns at council meetings that February and March.

When Jacobsen sent the council a draft of the audit request that June, she listed concerns that had come up, including too few volunteers and doubts that the department could adequately respond to a structure fire, "much less a community disaster."

The city put the request out in July 2025, then canceled it. The fire chief's job was vacant from July to October 2025, and staff had limited capacity to manage the project, Jacobsen wrote.

"Chief Jager has been on board with the department for a year now and the desire to conduct the Operational Audit for the HVFD still exists," she wrote. The city had planned to seek the money in its fiscal 2028-29 budget but decided to act sooner.

If the council approves the money, the city would advertise the first week of November and take proposals just after the new year.