By Richard Egan
The Omaha World-Herald
BELLEVUE, Neb. — Bellevue residents have been billed for Fire Department rescue service since 1984, though no one can find written rules allowing either the Bellevue Volunteer Fire Department or the City of Bellevue to do so.
Now the city — which is moving to take over collecting rescue fees — is preparing to formalize the fees through a proposed ordinance that would establish a fee of $500 per call for ambulance requests and requests to handle hazardous materials, the same amount the Bellevue Volunteer Fire Department charges. No date has been set for the city to take over collection of the fees.
The city and Fire Department do not dispute that they struck a deal in 1984 to establish rescue service fees that the Fire Department would collect. Neither could produce a document, however, that authorized the billing.
City Clerk Kay Dammast and Dave Szymanski, president of the Bellevue Volunteer Fire Department, searched without success for something on paper that authorized the department to bill residents for rescue service.
“Incorrect or correct, it was just allowed to happen,” Szymanski said.
In a hearing in February on Legislative Bill 1096, the department revealed that it had accumulated nearly $3.4 million in a fund built up entirely from rescue fees. The fund is for length-of-service payments to longtime volunteers. Szymanski said the fund pays out $8,694 a month to a total of 24 recipients who receive an average of $362.25.
Asked whether the Fire Department’s collection of fees has been legal, City Attorney Patrick Sullivan said in an interview, “that’s the $4 million question.” Sullivan said he wouldn’t give an opinion on that to anyone but city officials.
Sullivan said at the City Council meeting Monday night that while a new ordinance won’t make past issues disappear, it will make it legal and permissible for the city to collect fees.
“It would stop the bleeding,” he said.
Mayor Ed Babbitt also was focused on the future. “We can’t go back and correct what’s happened in the past,” he said in an interview after the meeting. “The important thing is not to get distracted from moving forward.”
Councilman Dave Wees wanted assurance that an accident victim who was uninsured or couldn’t afford to pay a bill wouldn’t be charged. “They’ve already paid for the service to some extent through taxes,” he said.
Councilman John Ott suggested that the ordinance be worded clearly to stipulate that residents be charged only for transportation to a hospital, not for every rescue service response.
Sullivan said that while some homeowners and automobile insurance policies might not cover emergency services or cover only part of the charges, the city would be obliged to bill everyone. “Insurance might only pay $220 of a $500 bill, but once fees are set by ordinance we can’t waive them,” he said. “Whether we collect them is another story.”
The city’s proposal occurs as Legislative Bill 1096 — which would require any city in the state with a population of at least 37,500 to hire a full-time fire chief by January 2009 — winds its way through the Legislature. LB 1096 also would give Bellevue access to the Fire Department’s funds.
A bid by the city to establish fees for all Fire Department services was dropped after opposition from the Bellevue Volunteer Fire Department.