HELENA — Helena Fire Chief Jon Campbell says that as costs within the department continue to rise, a potential way to balance expenses is by billing people responsible for certain types of incidents or their insurance.
"As increases in inflation in our state cap on taxation for municipals and counties starts to play a factor, we have to explore all of our revenue-generating opportunities," said Fire Chief Campbell.
(Watch to hear from Fire Chief Campbell about what the proposal could mean for the city.)
During Wednesday's City of Helena administrative meeting, Campbell introduced the idea to the city commission.
In his presentation, he says that cost recovery could support "the general fund by recuperating costs incurred from incident responses."
He said, "If we go on a vehicle accident and we have to use our tools to extricate somebody and we burn through a number of saw blades – those are costs that are not necessarily baked into our budget on an annual basis because they can fluctuate depending on the call volume."
Who could be charged would depend on the incident.
For instance, the department may charge insurance companies for vehicle accidents or fires, property owners or contractors for false alarms or broken gas lines, and responsible parties for EMS non-transport, hazardous materials transports, or specialized rescues.
Several Montana municipalities use cost recovery, including Great Falls, Kalispell, Missoula, and Bigfork.
How the possible cost recovery works would all depend on the policy the city passes.
Possible suggestions Fire Chief Campbell made include fees only being given to non-residents or false alarm fees being given to property owners or third-party contractors with a large amount during a window of time.
"In the future, now that we've taken their initial temperature and get a sense that they're willing to have this discussion, I'll be looking at all options going forward," said Campbell.
He estimates the department could see a return of over $125,000 annually by implementing cost recovery.
Chief Campbell will work with the city manager on what the next steps could look like.
