Arlington council OKs new ambulance utility fee

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, August 14, 2018

By Douglas Buell / The Arlington Times

ARLINGTON — A $15 ambulance utility fee to slash mounting EMS costs and devote more general fund money for public safety needs was approved by the City Council on Aug. 6.

The new fee will appear on utility bills starting in September.

The council had the option to consider a $10 monthly fee presented by City Administrator Paul Ellis that would not have met all immediate needs. The council also could have voted against the fee altogether and handed the issue back to staff for further research.

The council and staff spent more than four years weighing ideas to get EMS and public safety funding on a more sustainable track, including forming a regional fire authority or seeking a property tax measure.

With the fee in place, the city can hire two new police officers, the first added positions since 2003 that aren’t the result of attrition. In addition, three fire personnel and a third police officer will be hired over the next three years, or sooner depending on grant funding.

Other needs met by the fee would include a domestic violence coordinator for the prosecutor’s office, equipment replacement, fire inspection and fire marshal services, and continued funding for the city’s embedded social worker if the grant for that position expires.

The EMS fee would be a restricted fund in the city budget, so monies couldn’t be used for other purposes. The hiring of police and other costs not related to EMS would be covered by general fund money that previously had been redirected to cover the deficit in the EMS budget.

The council added language to require quarterly updates starting in September on the distribution of funds.

A July 2 public hearing on the fee drew a large crowd and numerous letters and emails mostly opposed the fee.

This story originally appeared in The Arlington Times, a sibling paper of The Daily Herald.