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SALEM -- City council Tuesday tabled a new ordinance concerning cost recovery for the fire department for future discussion.
Councilman Jeff Stockman tabled a proposed ordinance creating and adopting section 151.07 Chapter 151 of title five of the codified ordinances of the city of Salem regarding fire department cost recovery for further discussion in a meeting of the rules and ordinances committee.
Stockman also tabled two other proposed ordinances which would make updates to existing city regulations. If approved, one of the ordinances would modify and amend Chapter 1335 of part 13 of the codified ordinances of the city of Salem regarding vacant structure registration and the second would modify and amend Chapter 373 of part three title nine of the codified ordinances of the city of Salem regarding bicycles and motorcycles.
All three ordinances were placed on the agenda for potential passage with the emergency clause, meaning that had they been approved they would have skipped the typical 30-day waiting period and taken effect immediately.
"My opinion of those three ordinances, two of which I think we are all good with meaning the fire [cost recovery] and bike regulations, is that I want the rules and ordinances committee meeting to discuss and understand them before passing them on to city council," Stockman said. "I don't feel comfortable doing them tonight even with a first reading. I'd like to take them to a rules and ordinances committee meeting and then present them at the next [city] council meeting."
The proposed cost-recovery ordinance would codify procedures for "the recovery of costs associated with fire department responses and to provide for the billing of applicable insurance coverage in accordance with the city's current citywide fee schedule."
The ordinance specifically states that it "supplements, and does not limit or replace, the hazardous-material emergency cost-recovery provisions" already in place. It also specifies that charges may only be submitted for "an incident, emergency, fire, hazardous condition, or other event for which a response charge has been established" and that the ordinance "shall not be construed to authorize a charge which is not included in or otherwise authorized by the city's current citywide fee schedule or applicable law."
The ordinance also includes sections to maintain a soft-billing policy for fee collection where permitted by the city fee schedule, under which the city would bill the financially responsible party's insurer and waive any balance not paid by insurance. Section (d) of the ordinance specifies that any charge designated "as a charge to insurance with no balance billing, the city shall not seek payment from the property owner, insured, occupant, or other person solely because the insurance carrier pays less that the amount of the established charge, denies the claim, or applies the charge to a deductible or other policy limitation."
Section (e) specifies that in the event that "insurance information is unavailable, the applicable insurance carrier cannot be identified, the carrier denies coverage, or the city is otherwise unable to obtain payment through insurance" that the city will "handle the unpaid charge in accordance with the applicable citywide fee schedule and any other applicable ordinance or law."
The fire department already maintains a soft-billing policy for cost recovery for its ambulance service.
Rather than specifying a cost for individual fees, the ordinance stipulates that all fees "shall be established through the city's citywide fee schedule or other duly adopted ordinance or resolution" and that those fees "shall be reviewed as part of the city's annual review of the citywide fee schedule."
The ordinance specifies that the "fire department or its authorized billing agent may" request any information necessary to submit an authorized charge for a fire department response directly to the responsible party's applicable insurance carrier. It also states that the fire department must "maintain reasonable documentation supporting any charge submitted" with documentation including "incident reports, dispatch records, apparatus records, personnel records, insurance information, billing records, and other records reasonably necessary to substantiate the charge."
Stockman announced that the rules and ordinance committee will meet at 6 p.m. Oct. 27 to discuss the tabled ordinances. He also requested that City Law Director Brooke Zellers attend that meeting.
Stockman said that while he knew Zellers had already reviewed the tabled ordinances and ensured they were legally sound, that his attendance at committee meetings makes clarifying legal questions and discussing proposed ordinances and updates in depth easier for everyone.
Council will meet next at 7 p.m. on Oct. 20.