happy holidays from SAFE-D
SAFE-D
Pen
Official Newsletter of the State Association
of Fire and Emergency Districts
4Q 2016
SAFE-D offers
annual reporting
through website
John Carlton (The Carlton Law Firm, PLLC ) discusses basic ESD operations with participants at SAFE-D’s ESD101 course in Jasper Nov. 12. More than 40 registrants from as far
away as Parker County near Fort Worth, made the trek to East Texas for the course.
Association preparing
for legislative session
SAFE-D is preparing for the 85 Legislative Session, which begins in January.
The SAFE-D Board and Legislative Counsel John
Carlton are monitoring several issues that could arise
at the Capitol and affect ESDs and how they operate.
ANNEXATION: SAFE-D is interested in providing
more clarity and certainty for Emergency Services
District residents facing municipal annexation, and
the Association has concern for both the residents of
the area being annexed by the municipality and the
effects on the residents in the remaining portion of
the ESD post-annexation. A look at some annexation
issues appears on Pages 4 and 5 of this newsletter.
th
CONTINUED PAGE 14  LEGISLATURE
Texas law requires all ESDs to
report basic information about their
operations to the Texas Department
of Agriculture by Jan. 1 each year.
Under an agreement between
TDA and SAFE-D, ESDs can use
a handy online reporting system
available through the SAFE-D website, www.safe-d.org.
SAFE-D will collect the reports
and deliver them to the Agriculture
Department, satisfying the reporting requirement.
March Madness
Registration open for SAFE-D Conference
If you get swept up in March Madness, Sweet 16 is a term you’ll
hear a lot.
So it is with SAFE-D’s Annual Conference March 9-11 at the
Embassy Suites Convention Center in San Marcos. It’s the 16th
Annual Conference. Sweet!
SAFE-D is putting together a great program for all levels of
ESD commissioner education. With approval from Texas A&M’s
V.G. Young Institute of County Government, an ESD commissioner can earn up to 14 hours of certified training credit at the
SAFE-D Annual Conference.
As always, there’ll be a basic track for new commissioners,
including the opportunity to take state-required Open Meetings
CONTINUED PAGE 10  MARCH
Letter from the Executive Director
The ESD bargain
I
By Cliff Avery
Executive Director
f you’re involved in Texas emergency services
districts, you’ve had this feeling: ESDs are a
bargain.
Part of that comes from the tax cap that emergency
services districts have to labor under. You know this
as well as I do: The constitutional maximum tax rate
for ESDs is ten cents per $100 of property value.
If you read the notices that municipalities have
to put in the paper when they’re going through their
truth-in-taxation drill, you see that they routinely set
a rate in the 30- or 40- or 50-cent range (or more).
Municipalities’ tax caps are higher, so they have a lot
of flexibility.
They can ask their voters for bonded indebtedness,
and use their debt service rate to pay off the debt.
ESDs have to include any debt service for bonds under
that ten-cent cap, which is why you don’t read about a
lot of ESD bond debt.
If you ever want to compare apples to apples, it’s
actually pretty easy (if you have a calculator or a
spreadsheet).
For example, let’s see how much a fairly typical
midsize city spends on its fire department.
Let’s take San Marcos, for two reasons.
The first is that we want you to come to San Marcos
March 9-11 for the SAFE-D Annual Conference,
and this is a shameless way to plug that. The second is
that its budget is online and fairly easy to read.
To calculate the property tax effort that it would
take to fund the San Marcos Fire Department, you
begin by finding out what the property tax base is for
the city.
Fortunately, the San Marcos budget online gives
you this information. Its total assessed value is
$4,107,442,275. To figure out how much a penny
per $100 tax rate would raise, divide by 100 and
CONTINUED PAGE 10  AVERY
ABOUT SAFE-D
SAFE-D, the Texas State Association of Fire and Emergency
Districts, is the only association dedicated to meeting the
needs of Texas emergency services districts. Through
SAFE-D, member districts work smarter and work better to
provide fire protection and emergency medical services to
the people they serve.
PO Box 676  Pflugerville, TX 78691
512-251-8101  Fax: 512-251-8152
email: [email protected]
www.safe-d.org
President: Scott Morgan, Harris County ESD No. 29
Vice President: James Kelly, Montgomery County ESD No. 8
Secretary: Liz Cargile, Medina County ESD No. 5
Treasurer: Paula Barr, Travis County ESD No. 6
Board of Directors:
Jim Carter, Denton County ESD No. 1
Bob Janusaitis, Harris County ESD No. 9
Mark Jack, Parker County ESD No. 1
Thomas Nanninga, Williamson County ESD No. 2
Billy Ted Smith, Jasper County ESD No. 1
Don Wagner, Comal County ESD No. 3
Executive Director: Cliff Avery, GCP Association Services
Asst. Executive Director: Clay Avery, GCP Association Services
To advertise: Contact SAFE-D
[email protected]  512-251-8101
The Leader in ESD
Sales Tax Services
 Sales Tax Administration
 Sales Tax Recovery & Enhancement
 Sales Tax Compliance Reviews
 Sales Tax Trends Analysis
 Sales Tax Source Analysis
 Economic Trends Information
 New Sales Tax Potential Analysis
 Sales Tax Forecasts
 Sales Tax Sharing Accounting
www.salestaxassurance.com
Austin: 512.906.0429
Houston: 713.504.1479
2
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SAFE-D Pen | 4Q 2016
3
A tale of two counties...
... In Bexar County, San Antonio puts two ESDs in its sights
SAN ANTONIO – An aggressive City of San Antonio annexation campaign will gut two northwest Bexar County emergency services districts once it takes effect in 2019.
Bexar County ESD No. 8 will lose about 56 percent of its ad
valorem revenue when the City of San Antonio takes the most
populated portion of its district.
Bexar County ESD No. 4 will lose about 60 percent of its
revenue and will force its service provider, Leon Springs Volunteer Fire Department, to adjust to providing fire protection
to a more rural area, said Joe Constantino, vice president and
administrative officer of the department.
Constantino told SAFE-D that the ESD, through the fire
department, has 25 paid staffers and can count on 25 to 30
volunteers. It puts two firefighters per shift around-the-clock at
its four stations.
With the reduction in tax revenues after annexations, “we
may have to go back to one [firefighter] per shift. We still have
to pay for fuel and supplies,” he said.
ESD 4 Commissioner Steve Surratt said the district will
CONTINUED PAGE 12  SAN ANTONIO
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...In Travis County, Austin’s ‘innocuous’ annexation threatens an ESD
By Jerry Staton
Travis County ESD No. 11
AUSTIN – The recent proposal by the City
of Austin to annex property owned by Holt
Industries has focused attention on the plight
of all ESDs in Travis County. The following is
intended to be an overview of a crisis that has
been delayed, but not resolved, and options to
address the problem.
On Sept. 8, 2016, Travis County Emergency
Services District No. 11 received notice that the
City of Austin intended to annex a 27-acre commercial tract of land owned by Holt Industries.
The annexation was scheduled to take place in
December 2016. Unlike the process for annex- Holt’s facility on 27 acres along South I-35 provides a third of the revenues for
ing residential properties, commercial annexa- Travis County ESD No. 11. A compromise postponed Austin’s annexation of the
tract to allow the ESD a chance to identify alternatives.
tion can occur alarmingly fast. From the City of Austin’s perspective this
have little direct influence in the annexation process. The
annexation was going to be an unwelcome, but otherwise
cities hold all the cards. That does not suggest there was
innocuous, removal of territory from Travis County ESD 11.
nothing the ESD could do, and after the Sept. 8 notification,
There are currently no safeguards in place to protect the
a plan to resist the annexation began the following day.
residents of an ESD who are not included in an annexation
The bottom line is the revenue reduction would set the
from the effects of the annexation. There is no requirement
District’s service levels back by almost 14 years. Moreover,
to do an impact study to analyze who or to what degree the
the demographics of southeast Travis County are such that
annexation would affect the ESD and the residents of the
the reduction in services would impact some of the poorest
District. and most vulnerable residents in Travis County. Thus the
Without input from the District, the City of Austin was
overall effort was centered on conveying a moral argument
unaware of the impact to ESD 11 and the residents serviced
to the final decision-makers, the Austin City Council.
by the District. While this tract of land provided roughly
Immediate efforts included:
.0003 percent of the District’s property tax revenue, the
1. The firefighters association worked to bring awareness
sales tax contribution was 32 percent of the District’s total
to the impacted residents and business owners by going
revenue.
door–to-door asking people to express their concerns with
The loss of revenue would amount to a reduction of
the Austin City Council Members. approximately $1 million from a $3 million dollar annual
2. District staff engaged state, county and local (small city
budget. Without another source of income, the District
and school district) elected officials, includwould be unable to support the three
ing the Austin City Council. This was done
fire stations it currently operates and
Annexation could with the goal of informing the various stakewould require a significant reduction
holders on the impact this annexation would
of personnel. This would drastically
force layoffs,
have on the residents/tax payers. reduce the District’s ability to provide
3. Within four days, just shy of 1,000 phone
close stations
service to all ESD 11 residents, and to
calls were received by City Hall, thus creata lesser degree to the citizens of Austin
ing a burning issue which highlighted the
in southeast Travis County outside the
potential impact of the annexation, bringing
District because of the automatic aid agreement with the
it to the top of the pile for the busy City Council members,
City of Austin. ESD 11 responds to calls in the city almost as
even during the final weeks of budget preparation.
often as the city responds to calls in the District. The City Council members’ attention to this important
The District staff has been aware of the value of the Holt
issue was greatly appreciated and respected because their
property for many years. The ESD commissioners and the
efforts to understand the issue eventually permeated down
fire chief have discussed the possible impact this annexation
to the city staff level. City staff were then questioned on
would have on the District and its residents.
As everyone involved with annexation knows, the ESDs
CONTINUED PAGE 14  AUSTIN
SAFE-D Pen | 4Q 2016
5
Voters consider creation,
sales tax, annexations
in November elections
S L AT T E R Y T AC K E T T
A R C H I T E C T S ,
L L P
Some Texas emergency services districts managed to navigate the choppy waters – some would say “tsunami” – of Election 2016 to win approval from voters.
Three new ESDs were created. Of those three, two were
“overlay” districts were created for emergency medical services:
Travis County ESD No. 7, which will be contiguous with Travis
County ESD No. 1, and Hays County ESD No. 9, which overlays
parts of another ESD and extends into unincorporated Hays
County. Another ESD was created for fire protection in Henderson County.
Also in Hays County, a successful annexation election expanded the territory of Hays County ESD No. 7.
In Williamson County, Williamson County ESD No. 5, which
serves Jerrell and its surrounding area, won voter approval for a
1 percent sales tax.
Voters in Travis County ESD No. 14 removed themselves
from Capital Metro transportation authority, giving the ESD
enough headroom to ask for an additional sales tax next spring.
In Hidalgo County, ESD No. 3 lost its bid to raise its tax rate
maximum from three cents per $100 to six cents per $100.
D e l i v e ri ng d e s i g n s o lu t i o n s t h at
re f l e c t o u r c li e nt s ’ v i s i o n ,
o b j e c ti v e s a n d a e s t h et i c p r e f e r e n c e s .
www.S l at t e r yTa ck et t .c o m
(7 1 3 ) 52 1 . 0 59 1
|
st ud i o @sl at t e r y t a ck et t .c om
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SAFE-D Pen | 4Q 2016
7
Former ESD commissioner wins national service honor
NASHVILLE – A former Hays County ESD commissioner and current assistant fire chief is the first winner of
an award recognizing community service.
Kidde announced the winner of the “Step Up and
Stand Out” contest in October at the Firehouse Expo in
Nashville, recognizing Bob Love, assistant chief of North
Hays County Fire Rescue in Dripping Springs. Love recently
stepped down as commissioner of Hays County ESD No. 6.
The contest is part of a national campaign developed
by Kidde and national fire service organizations to raise
awareness of the need for fire department volunteers and
recognize those who have already stepped up to support
their communities.
Kidde, a leading manufacturer of residential fire safety
products, is a part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a
unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).
Kidde worked with Firehouse, the Volunteer and Combination Officers Section of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), the National Fire Protection
Association (NFPA) and National Fallen Firefighters
Foundation (NFFF) to create the program.
Launched nationwide in February, “Step Up and Stand
Out” asked fire departments and the public to submit
videos nominating a current volunteer firefighter or support
volunteer for recognition of their community service. Once
submissions were accepted, the public had the opportunity
to vote online to determine the winner with the highest
score.
“We appreciate everyone who took the time to vote and
show support for Bob Love and volunteer firefighters across
the nation. These men and women play a critical role in
keeping our communities safe, and it’s important to us that
we do our part in recognizing their efforts and service,” said
Chris Rovenstine, vice president of sales and marketing,
Kidde.
The winner of “Step Up and Stand Out” received a
$1,000 training grant for his fire department and additional
prizes including a free trip for two to Nashville.
All of the top finalists of the contest received a prize pack
consisting of 200 Kidde smoke alarms for their local fire
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Avery continued from Page 2
multiply by .01 (which is the same as dividing by 10,000, but that loses the
rhythm of “penny per 100”).
So in the City of San Marcos, a penny of the tax rate raises $410,744.
San Marcos, like a lot of cities, breaks out a detailed budget for its fire
department, in this case $8,804,539. That includes 76 FTEs with salaries
and benefits of more than $8.1 million. By the way, the Fire Department is
projected to respond to 4,601 incidents in the ’16-’17 budget year.
So how many pennies of tax rate ($410,744) does it take to fund the San
Marcos Fire Department? Do the math (divide the budget by the penny proceeds) and that comes out to a tax rate of 21.43 cents per $100 of San Marcos’ assessed value, more than twice what an ESD can levy for its services.
I hear what you’re saying. This isn’t apples to apples; it’s more apples to
apple peel. And you’re right. We’re just hitting the surface.
For one thing, the San Marcos fire budget doesn’t include debt service for
fire stations or big-ticket fire apparatuses. That’s in another part of the budget. It also doesn’t include some of the government overhead that ESDs have
to pay with their ten-cents-per-$100, such as legal and H-R. So it would not
be unreasonable to argue that, once those costs are figured, in, the ad valorem tax effort to fund San Marcos Fire Department would be somewhere
in the 25-cent to 30-cent per $100 range, as much three times what an ESD
can do.
And, yes, I know several ESDs that are running 4,600 calls a year.
And that’s why ESDs are a bargain.
SAFE-D
CONFERENCE
March 9-11
San Marcos
March from Page 1
Act and Public Information Act training
and receive ESD commissioner training
credit at the same time.
Veteran commissioners can delve
into a host of topics to improve their
ESDs’ operations – ranging from
strategic planning to relations with
service providers.
Look for a detailed schedule of training sessions in the next SAFE-D newsletter or on-line at www.safe-d.org.
Cost for the conference is $255
for attendees from SAFE-D member
organizations and their service providers; $424 for nonmembers and $795 for
representatives of commercial organizations. Registration is open for the conference. Click to the SAFE-D website,
www.safe-d.org, today.
10
www.safe-d.org
SAFE-D Pen | 4Q 2016
11
San Antonio
likely turn one station in the proposed annexation area into
a maintenance facility.
Surratt said the ESD has been preparing for the annexation juggernaut since the City announced its plans in 2014.
“Luckily we’ve seen this coming so we’ve been able to bank
money so we’ll be okay. It’s still going to hurt the rest of the
district.”
Surratt said that, with the City’s announcement, ESD 4
began tracking the number of calls it responded to in the
proposed annexation area. Of the 1,026 calls it responded to
in 2015, 664 – about 65 percent – were in the area slated to
be annexed.
Constantino said that ESD 4 had met with San Antonio
city officials to explain the impact on the ESD and fire protection in the area. His takeaway: “They don’t care.”
Under current annexation law, the City of San Antonio is
required to provide the same level of service in the annexed
areas as is being provided before annexation. Constantino
said that will mean an average response time of 7 minutes,
15 seconds with firefighters certified in Advanced Life Support.
But the City has at least another year to develop its ser-
from Page 4
vice plan. “We haven’t even got them to commit to [locating] an ambulance” in the annexation area, Constantino
said.
Surratt said the district has begun an educational campaign to share information with the residents of ESD 4.
“They need to know what to expect,” he said.
The San Antonio City Council approved going forward
with the plan in September, against impassioned opposition
from homeowners. A similar annexation plan along U.S.
281 was scaled back last summer when homeowners, armed
with lawyers and lobbyists, convinced the City to take only
commercial properties and leave the residential properties
ineligible for annexation until 2034.
Part of that plan called for the City to contract with Bexar
County ESD No. 3 to provide fire protection in the commercial annexation area. The San Antonio city manager, in
discussing the plan at the September meeting, said that the
San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association was planning to seek an injunction to stop the plan.
Calls to SAPFFA First Vice President Mark Black for
comment were unreturned at SAFE-D Pen presstime.
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SAFE-D Pen | 4Q 2016
13
Austin
the need and timing of this annexation and to consider the
impact to the residents in southeast Travis County.
On Sept. 19, the director of the Austin Planning and Zoning Department submitted a memorandum to the mayor
and city council requesting the annexation be postponed a
year.
It is unclear how the final decision was made to postpone
the annexation and/or who played the pivotal role. In the
end, hundreds of people came together (including the City
of Austin leadership) and centered on maintaining the services to the residents of southeast Travis County.
Possible solutions to provide long-term stability for the
District and other ESDs:
1. One answer was to create an overlay district, which
ESD 11 is currently attempting to implement. Educating/
informing the citizens in ESD 11 is a major part of that process. It is not an easy task to ask the residents and taxpayers
of the District to pay more property taxes, but the alternative is far worse.
2. Another possible solution would be to charge for certain services, again requiring the residents to pay for what
Legislature
from Page 5
they currently receive by way of existing taxes. Charging for
selective services would not make up for the lost revenue
from Holt but could help offset the effects of the loss.
3. Still being discussed by numerous ESDs is the potential for getting support from Travis County by moving to a
unified fire service. This discussion has been ongoing for
years and appears to be nowhere near ready for implementation.
4. Another partial solution is for the annexing city to
forgo removing the territory from the ESD. This was made
possible by recent legislative action introduced by ESD 11
and supported by a number of interested parties.
5. A new committee within the Travis County Emergency
District Commissioner Council was formed to consider other long-term solutions to annexation by offering legislation
to give the ESDs some leverage in the annexation process.
What is clear from the first meeting is that all ESDs are subject to the potential for reduced incomes from annexation,
and if we do not find a way to work together to address the
problem, sustainability for the ESDs will remain a critical
issue for the foreseeable future.
SAFE-D will seek a constructive dialog with municipal interests toward solutions.
SALES TAX: SAFE-D will defend ESDs’ sales tax authority as more ESDs are turning to sales tax to augment
revenue.
FUNDING: Although there’s little hope in the climate
at the Capitol for raising the constitutional ad valorem tax
cap, SAFE-D will keep an eye on opportunities to enhance
revenues for ESDs.
Carlton was scheduled to preview the Legislative session at a Dec. 12 webcast. A recording of the webcast will
be available under the Video Library tab on the SAFE-D
website, www.safe-d.org.
Watch the website and newsletters, both printed and
electronic, for information as the session goes along.
from Page 1
One helpful website to watch during the session is www.
capitol.state.tx.us (notice the spelling of “capitol,” as in
the building, not the “capital” city).
Using the “Word/Phrase” search, you can search for the
phrase “emergency services districts” or “annexation.” Once
you identify the bills you want to watch, you can create a list
on the website that will report on actions taken about the
bills.
Another great tool allows you to identify who represents
you in Washington and Austin. On the right side of the
www.capitol.state.tx.us homepage, you can enter your
address, and the website will show the state senator and
state representative serving that address, as well as the
U.S. senators (John Cornyn and Ted Cruz) and congressional representative.
Feb. 17 deadline to call May vote
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For other key dates in the May 6 election, consult the
Texas Secretary of State’s website at www.sos.texas.
gov/elections/voter/2017-important-electiondates.shtml.
14
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SAFE-D Pen | 4Q 2016
15
4Q Newsletter 2016
State Association of Fire and Emergency Districts
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