The discussion is the latest one among county officials regarding how to fund Chatham Fire, which serves unincorporated areas.
Chuck Kearns on proposed fire fee for unincorporated taxpayers
Chatham Emergency Services Chief Chuck Kearns discusses the fire department’s financial troubles.
Savannah Morning News
At a Wednesday morning workshop, Chatham County commissioners revisited the idea of implementing a fire fee instead of a fire tax for residents living in the county’s unincorporated areas.
The Chatham Commission weighed the pros and cons of a tax versus a fee for more than an hour before deciding to consider introducing an ordinance that would allow the collection of a fire fee. This ordinance would replace one passed in December levying a fire tax.
The new ordinance could be discussed as soon as Friday’s regularly scheduled Chatham Commission meeting, which prompted the scheduling of Wednesday’s workshop. While the workshop was open to the public, the county failed to meet public notice standards outlined under the Georgia Open Meetings Act, which requires governments to give the public seven days notice of all meetings except those called in the case of an emergency.
The county officially noticed the meeting Tuesday.
When notified prior to the meeting of the potential violation, a county spokeswoman said the workshop had been talked about in the last commission meeting, held March 11. However, neither a time nor a date for the workshop had been set during that meeting, and a verbal discussion of a planned meeting does not satisfy the requirements of the open meetings law.
Previously: Chatham County approves fire tax for unincorporated residents, but won’t collect quite yet
The workshop and the discussion of the fire fee are just the latest twist in a years-long debate on how the county can create a funding mechanism for Chatham Fire. Chatham Fire is a private nonprofit fire service that covers unincorporated Chatham County through a subscription service and has faced severe budget shortfalls – $3 million in 2021 – due to non-payments.
Chatham Emergency Services (CES), which serves as the umbrella for Chatham Fire and Chatham EMS, approached the county in 2020 after discovering nearly a third of the total 35,000 properties in unincorporated Chatham were not paying the annual fire subscription fee. Although not paying into the fire subscription service has its consequences for residents and CES’s budget, the organization is limited in its ability to collect from those non-paying property owners.
Before: Chatham County Commission approves fire services contract, fee or tax on the horizon
Previous reporting: Chatham Commission nixes proposed fire ordinance, looks to fire fee to fund Chatham Fire
Since then, the county commission and staff have weighed different options that would streamline subscription costs and mandate residents within the unincorporated areas to pay into the service. Essentially, the county would fund CES while charging residents through property tax bills.
The estimated cost to fund CES, according to County Manager Lee Smith, is around $11 million. But that amount, along with estimated fee rates for property owners, could change once the final audit is complete. Rates won’t be decided until the budget is passed in June and collection wouldn’t begin until the fall.
Related: Chatham County still in talks over fire ordinance for unincorporated residents
During the Wednesday workshop, Smith said state law prohibits the county tax commissioner from enforcing a fire fee, which is why the commission’s original plan was to fund Chatham Fire through a fire tax. However, discussions about administrative costs at the tax commission office lead to considerations of a fee instead.
How it will be collected will depend on what’s most efficient, cost effective, and who has the experience to do it, Smith said.
“We saw a general movement that way, so we’re going to move the ordinance to the fee, develop the methodology, then we can move forward with staff as far as how we do it,” said Smith.
Whichever way the fee is implemented, commissioners ultimately stressed the importance of creating a fair fee rate — one in which participating residents, especially the elderly on fixed incomes, will not have to be overburdened.
Nancy Guan is the general assignment reporter covering Chatham County municipalities. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @nancyguann.