Howard Fairman, a native Vermonter, likes to study official public documents and presentations, research their backgrounds and implications, document what's really happening, then share food for thought with fellow grassroots Vermonters. To watch the Putney Selectboard's discussion of the ordinance with the author at the June 11 meeting, visit bit.ly/820-putneysb.
PUTNEY-Should your local fire department bill you for its services?
You or your landlord already have paid property taxes funding the fire department.
How about nearby fire departments that provided mutual aid?
How about more distant fire departments that covered these fire stations?
Each local property-tax payer pays a small share of funding fire department services so that those who have to receive them do not also suffer financially for having received them, which is exactly how insurance works.
Each mutual-aid property-tax payer pays a small share of funding mutual-aid fire department services for the same reason, which again is exactly how insurance works.
To my knowledge, there has been no public discussion of this emerging public issue, so I am initiating it with Putney, where I live, as an example.
What has happened or is happening in your town?
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During its June 11 regular public meeting, Putney Selectboard unanimously adopted and enacted "An Ordinance Establishing and Implementing a Program to Charge Mitigation Rates for the Deployment of Emergency and Non-Emergency Services by the Fire Department for Services Provided/Rendered by/for the Putney Fire Department."
They claimed that it applies only to billing for Putney Emergency Services (fire and EMS department) runs to motor-vehicle incidents "on the highway" and is discretionary.
This is not what their ordinance says: "A claim shall be filed to the responsible party(s) through their insurance carrier. In some circumstances, the responsible party(s) will be billed directly" (Section 2). ("In some circumstances" is arbitrary and too vague to be legally valid.)
This ordinance is law, to which the legal definition of "shall" applies: "Shall is an imperative command, usually indicating that certain actions are mandatory, and not permissive," according to the Wex Legal Dictionary from the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. "This contrasts with the word 'may,' which is generally used to indicate a permissive provision, ordinarily implying some degree of discretion."
Moreover, the proposed billing-and-collections contractor's contract states that the Town of Putney "appoints Company as Client's attorney-in-fact for the following purposes: [...] To bill and collect all revenue earned by and due to Client, in connection with Client's provision of emergency services" (emphasis added).
My insurance agents, who represent 29 homeowners and renters insurers, told me that these insurers may or may not cover fire-department service charges and, if they do, coverage ranges from $500 to $1,000 per loss with no deductible.
My policy's coverage is $500. How much would I still owe?
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Fire-services billing-and-collections companies are promoting their services in exchange for a large cut of the amounts collected as per their standard price lists that bear no relation whatsoever to a town's actual costs already funded by property taxpayers.
If the Putney Fire & EMS Department is dispatched to my home near their station and a fire hydrant, my fire-department service charge - as per the proposed billing-and-collections contractor's standard price list - will be two fire engines at $554 per hour and two hours for the run, including preparation afterward for another run, would amount to $2,216.
At this point, less my $500 insured, I would owe $1,716. Beyond more costs for the town public water system, there also will be a bill for a tanker.
The proposed billing-and-collections contractor will take 22% of the total, or $487.52 for sending this bill.
This contract includes an airtight clause requiring that any resulting legal action be filed in California and litigated under its laws - prohibitive for any local property owner or renter, who may forfeit protections under Vermont laws.
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Every local fire department receives mutual aid from and provides mutual aid to nearby towns.
If one town can bill a recipient for fire department services, so can every town that provides mutual-aid fire-department services.
• Will the town share collected Putney Emergency Services charges with other fire departments that provided mutual aid?
• Will other towns whose fire departments provided mutual aid for the town also bill Putney recipients for their services?
• Will the town bill recipients in other towns where Putney Emergency Services provided mutual aid? What if this town is in Massachusetts or New Hampshire?
• How much in total will recipients of these fire-department services be billed? Much more than their homeowner's or renter's coverages, if any, ranging from $500 to $1,000 per loss.
• What about our longstanding principle that each local property-tax payer pays a small share of funding local and mutual-aid fire-department services so that those who have to receive them do not also suffer financially for having received them?
State law permits 5% of Putney voters to act soon to petition a Special Town Meeting to approve or annul the fire-services billing ordinance that their Selectboard adopted and enacted.
What can you do in your town?
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