A bill for ambulance services at Marysville High School’s upcoming graduation prompted a philosophical debate at Marysville City Council.
During his comment period at Monday night’s meeting, Council President Donald Boerger discussed the possibility of waiving fees the school is being asked to pay for certain city services.
Last autumn, city council approved a series of fee increases for a variety of city services and facilities including things like pool rental, cemetery rates, reserving the city community room or pavilion.
Also included was the implementation of a special event fee structure for the Fire Department for medic apparatus, $450 for the first three hours and $150 for each additional hour; fire trucks, $675 for the first three hours and $225 for each additional hour, and utility apparatus like a Gator or grass fighter, $240 for the first three hours and $80 for each additional hour. Legislation to increase and create the fees went through the council committee, work session and approval process. At the time City Manager Terry Emery said fees in the city had not been looked at for about a decade and it was time to consider adjusting them.
“Obviously, there is a cost to provide services and maintain and staff and prepare facilities. We set these costs to cover our cost to provide service,” Emery said. “I think we have a responsibility to protect our costs and limit our need to request additional money at the end of the year to pay for these things.”
At Monday night’s meeting, Boerger said the school district had not been aware of the fee increase and had not budgeted to pay the fees.
Emery explained that as the school district was planning for graduation ceremonies, organizers requested a medic be present, as it has been for years. That’s when school officials learned of the new fee. Emery said Schools Superintendent Diane Allen contacted him. Allen said the district has never paid for the service in the past. Emery said he explained the fees are new and offered her the rationale for their creation.
Boerger said no one from the district contacted him, “I had just noticed that we were charging.”
Emery said the legislation passed last year does have a provision that allows him to waive the fees for certain requests “individually, on a case-by-case basis.”
Boerger said that schools had been “unaware” that the fee had been passed and had not budgeted for them.
He suggested that since no one had informed the school district, and “to continue to be good community partners,” the city could waive the fees for the school district.
“I would ask that we waive that fee for this year,” Boerger said.
He stressed that the schools didn’t know about the fee creation and said he believes the schools will need to budget for the fees. Boerger suggested waiving the fees for this year and discussing the fees moving forward at council’s next joint meeting with the school board.
Council member J.R. Rausch there is a process to go through for something like waiving the fees.
“There is a process we would go that where we would deliberate it. It wouldn’t come from the president in closing comments at a meeting,” Rausch told Boerger. “That’s not how that gets done. That might be your feeling, but bring legislation that says we are going to waive the fee — we will talk about it, we will deliberate and we will vote on it. You don’t just say in your closing comments, ‘I want this done.’ You have no authority. You are one of seven.”
Boerger said he would write the legislation and any members that wanted to cosponsor it could. He then directed law director Tim Aslaner to draft the legislation.
“Well wait a second,” Aslaner said. “Let’s talk about this first.”
Council member Mark Reams echoed the idea.
“Let us talk with the schools in a committee meeting first. We’ve already got this established,” Reams said.
Emery has said the legislation creating the fee went through a vetted process and any waiver should go through a similar process.
“I think we need to be thoughtful in how we do this,” Emery said.
Emery said the next joint meeting will be held June 17 and will be the full council and the full school board rather than a subcommittee.
The city manager said that while the city and schools have had better communication in the last year, even better communication could help avoid confusion.
Emery said Marysville is the first community he has worked in “where the schools were not represented at at least one council meeting a month.”
He said city council is doing so much, it can be “very difficult” to notify every group about legislation that could impact them.
“I would suggest that maybe we approach the schools about the possibility of having a rep here at city council once a month because they will catch legislation as it is going through the process and then we can get a school update at the same time,” Emery said. “That is typically what has taken place in other places that I have been. It is just something to think about.”
Following the meeting, Emery reiterated the idea.
“I think it would behoove the schools to have someone at council meetings at least once a month,” he said. “There are so many things, I think it would be a benefit if they were a little closer to observe what city council is doing and know how things could impact the schools in ways we might not even think of.”