Sunday, June 06, 1999
Bromley OKs fee, but lawsuit looms
Member opposes ambulance action
BY CINDY SCHROEDER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BROMLEY — Minutes after Bromley City Council approved an ambulance fee Saturday, missing Council Member Gail Smith threatened via letter to sue her fellow city officials.
In a letter to Mayor Jim Miller and council, Ms. Smith, who missed the meeting because of recent surgery, wrote that she is opposed to funding life squad protection by a flat fee.
With Saturday's adoption of a tax ordinance establishing the ambulance fee, the first-year council member expressed her intent “to pursue litigation regarding this matter.”
“We're supposed to be doing things legally,” Ms. Smith said when reached at her home after the meeting. “And this, to me, is not being done legally.”
Her fellow council members disagreed. They unanimously approved adding a $60 ambulance fee to every property owner's tax bill. The fee will take effect in the fiscal year beginning July 1.
While Kenton County Attorney Garry Edmondson has maintained that the fee's not legal, other lawyers have advised the city differently, the mayor said.
“Under the circumstances, council decided that this was the best and most fair way to handle it,” City Attorney Kim Vocke said. For at least two years, he said council has discussed various options for funding life squad service, including the ambulance fee.
Of all the options discussed, Mr. Vocke said, the flat fee “was more consistent with state law.”
But Mr. Edmondson, who was consulted by Ms. Smith on the issue, has said that the fire department is a corporation separate from the city. Be cause of that, the city cannot charge residents for fire department services, he has said.
In her letter, Ms. Smith cited a Silver Grove court case, which she said concluded that the proper way to charge for fire protection was to charge property owners a rate based on the assessed value of their property — not a flat fee.
“The Silver Grove case cites fire protection as a service needed by all, but only used by some,” Ms. Smith wrote. She stated that there is no significant difference between life squad protection and fire protection.
Both Mr. Miller and Council Member Patty Grimes said they saw the lawsuit as a way to settle the issue.
The mixing of council members and fire department officers also has come under fire by Ms. Smith.
As an example, Mr. Edmondson had cited Mrs. Grimes' service on council and her position as secretary and squad captain in the fire department. Because the two roles put her in the position of putting together the fire department's requests for money, and then voting on them, he saw that as a conflict of interest.
Even if there was no direct gain from holding the council/fire positions, it still wouldn't matter, he said.
Mrs. Grimes disagreed.
“We got an attorney general's opinion several years ago saying as long as I didn't benefit personally, there was no conflict,” she said.
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