CITY OF FERRIS/ESD #5 REACH AGREEMENT – WITH CONDITIONS

FERRIS – It was back in August when the City of Ferris decided if the Ellis County Emergency Service District #5 wouldn’t let them see the proper financial records for due diligence, then the city would not continue to ask its residents to pay taxes for fire service in the county.

After all, the city of Ferris has a fire department – and ESD #5 does not.  

What ESD #5 did have – was the Ferris Fire Department making calls to the county in exchange for a mutually beneficial agreement in which the city, the residents and ESD #5 were working together.

Ferris City Manager Brooks Williams started asking questions – because he wasn’t sure the “mutually beneficial” part was happening. 

The Ferris City Council wasn’t sure it was happening either. 

“As a city, we have been working to ensure that the taxpayers have transparency around the services they receive and the accompanying tax dollars that pay for those services,” Williams said. 

“The ESD and city have gone through an extensive negotiation process to land where we are today. 

“This agreement represents a step in the right direction, and memorializes the commitment of our two organizations to service the citizens of the City of Ferris and the ESD #5 – through efficient and transparent administration of their tax dollars.”

After the city decided its Fire Department would not be servicing the county in ESD #5 after the end of the 120-day notice of dissolution (which would have been Jan. 19), the Emergency Service District took notice and negotiated a contract mutually beneficial to all involved.

For those who aren’t sure of the duties of the ESD #5, in a nutshell they are responsible for fire coverage in the county that falls under Ferris, but remember in the City of Ferris the city’s fire department already services residents there.

And, the residents of Ferris are paying 0.3 cents in city taxes to maintain ESD #5.

Williams said, “Our point was our citizens get fire service from the city. If the ESD is gone, our citizens still get a fire service – because they pay for it.”

When Williams asked ESD #5 to furnish financial information about what they were doing, the requests were ignored.

“We were stonewalled. ESD #5 asked why we wanted this information. Our point was it was public information – and we didn’t have to have a reason,” Williams said. 

“And, we still didn’t get it.”

After much back and forth with no results, Williams said the city had no choice but to let ESD #5 know the relationship was not going to work for Ferris. 

The Ferris City Council then passed a resolution to dissolve the contract with ESD #5. 

“ESD is defined strictly as a financing mechanism,’ Williams explained. 

“We said if that is what your mechanism is, you need to be providing us something. They didn’t want to do that. 

“We said how about you give us a percentage of your revenue, and we will take that to upgrade our fire fighting service and on and on.”

One issue of Ferris dissolving its relationship was then the ESD #5 would be responsible for responding to calls in the ESD. The city would have no longer done that.  

“At that time, what was going to happen is if insurance companies got wind of the dissolution, the county ISO rating would have taken a dramatic hit. 

“The people in the county would have taken a bigger hit because they would have been going from a paid fire department to a volunteer fire department, and that in and of itself affects your ISO rating. 

“Then, there is the evaluation of response times. Volunteer fire departments generally have a slower response time,” Williams explained.

At that point, the City of Ferris and ESD #5 finally came to an agreement for contracted services between the two. 

So, while the district is charged with the duty to provide protection of life and property from fire, hazardous materials, and disaster within its boundaries, Ferris is also still onboard to do that with the available personnel, facilities, and equipment to provide fire protection services. 

Since the renegotiated contract is now mutually beneficial, the Ferris City Council voted unanimously to reinstate the contract with ESD#5. 

“When they came back to the table, there were stipulations – such as ESD #5 undergoing a full external audit every year,” Williams said. “We told them 55% of their revenue needed to be passed through us because we are the ones paying the people, paying the insurance, paying for, maintaining and fueling the vehicles – all of it.”

Williams said the city modeled its ESD agreement after the Red Oak ESD because he said “it works pretty well.”

“At the end of the day we have a contract I think that is beneficial for both,” Williams concluded. 

“We still run the day-to-day operations of the fire department, and they give us 55-percent of what they take in. And if it goes above what they generated last year we then get 60-percent. 

“Our council was supportive of the fact Ferris wants to help those in the county – but they were also very clear moving forward that this relationship will be a mutually beneficial relationship, and one where we are all working together.”