City rejects townships' EMS/fire offer
The finance committee of the Hillsboro City Council has voted to recommend council reject the offer of a three year contract at $30 per person for EMS/fire coverage to Liberty, Jackson, New Market and Washington Townships.
The committee met Monday evening at the Hillsboro fire station, and lasted less than two minutes. The session had been called for the purpose of discussing the proposal on EMS/fire contracts submitted to the city by area townships last Wednesday, and to review the the city's financial position.
Chairperson Peter Pence called the meeting to order and asked if council members had any questions.
Committee member Dave Shoemaker said, "After looking over the offer of $30 per person for Liberty, New Market, Jackson and Washington townships, I move that we recommend to council that we reject the offer, and give the mayor permission and encourage him to continue on with negotiations."
The motion was seconded by committee member Bill Alexander, and it passed 3-0. There was no additional discussion or further comments, and the meeting was immediately adjourned.
Hillsboro Mayor Drew Hastings was in attendance, along with Hillsboro Safety and Service Director Rick Giroux, Hillsboro Auditor Gary Lewis, and council member Bonnie Parr.
Following the adjournment, when asked by The Highland County Press what led to the recommendation to reject the offer, Shoemaker said that because the negotiations are ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment on the elements of the proposal that led to it being turned down by the city.
Pence said that the city budget is something he and other members of council continue to monitor on a weekly and daily basis, and that he hopes the township service issues is something that can be resolved soon.
"We will keep monitoring the budget so we hopefully can make it to the end of the year in budget," Pence said. "Hopefully all of us can get to some sort of agreement (on the EMS/fire services)."
Shoemaker noted that it is not up to council to negotiate with the townships, but that their role is to approve whatever agreement that can be negotiated by the administration.
There were no township representatives in attendance.
Legal counsel to the townships, Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins told The Highland County Press that she will take the information to the township trustees to see how they would like to proceed in moving forward.
On Wednesday, townships from Liberty, Jackson, New Market and Washington Townships submitted a proposal to Hillsboro Mayor Drew Hastings, which included the following:
• Offer of $30 per resident: Liberty: 3,637 $109,110; Washington: 1,123 $33,690; New Market: 1,888 $ 56,640; Jackson: 1,094 $ 32,820, for a total payment of $232,260.
• The contract will be for a three-year period.
• Gary Lewis, City auditor (allegedly) told a township trustee that 55 percent of the city income tax revenue received by the city of Hillsboro was paid by township residents, which amounts to approximately $482,350 (.4 percent of 1.5 percent income tax = $877,000. $877,000 x .55 percent -= $482,350).
• The EMS runs for the four townships for three months was 105 runs. This would total approximately 420 runs for 2012 (in 2011 the four townships had actual runs totally 521 runs).
• $497,517 (2011 EMS revenue)/1,629/ (total EMS runs) = $305 per run.
• $305 x 521 runs = $158,905 total revenue from township EMS runs.
• City EMS runs accounted for nearly four times that of township runs.
• Services have been reduced due to the layoff of part-time and volunteer firefighters. Therefore, we are paying for full service and receiving reduced services. With the offer of $30 per resident, we would expect a fully staffed fire department to serve the city of Hillsboro and the Townships.
• $232,260 + $158,905 = $391,165 total revenue from the townships. In addition, $482,350 is received from township residents via the city income tax.
The city has until May 23 to respond to the townships' proposal.