Everman fire chief urges Tarrant County ESD to stop municipal subsidy, questions station plan

Everman Fire Chief told the Everman City Council on June 24 that a recent Tarrant County Emergency Services District No. 1 strategic study does not prioritize ending municipal subsidies for county emergency medical services and that the omission threatens Everman’s budget and firefighter pay.

The chief said Everman receives about $590 from the county for each ambulance response into unincorporated areas but that the true per‑call operating cost is closer to the local and national average of about $1,300. “Every time our ambulance responds to the county, the city is writing a check in the amount of about $488.82,” the Fire Chief said. He urged the ESD to use available sales‑and‑use tax revenue to stop municipalities from subsidizing county responses and to raise firefighter compensation.

The council heard a presentation summarizing the ESD strategic study, prepared by a consultant and provided to the council in draft or final form. The study recommends building three new ESD stations (Eagle Mountain, Whiskey Flats and Lakeside), funding nine ambulances, assuming billing responsibilities, and pursuing performance‑based contracts. The Fire Chief said those priorities appear aimed chiefly at lowering insurance rates in select subdivisions rather than addressing the ongoing municipal subsidy and high call volumes in southern Tarrant County.

City staff and the chief reviewed the ESD funding mechanics: the ESD pays a flat annual amount for fire contracts (the chief cited roughly $140,000 annually) and an EMS point‑system payout that, on fiscal‑year 2024 call volumes, yielded about $590 per county call. The chief said Everman’s billing and payer mix (a high share of uninsured or self‑pay patients in the city’s coverage area) reduce collections from patient billing relative to wealthier jurisdictions. Using the ESD’s own recovery assumptions, the chief said the county’s combined payment and expected billing recovery would cover about $811.18 per call, leaving a municipal subsidy of about $488.82 per county call.

The Fire Chief told council members that the study’s alternative EMS delivery model would reduce the number of primary ambulances in southern Tarrant County from seven to three, reallocating units to Rendon and Crowley. He said that change would reduce local capacity in an area with some of the county’s highest incident density. “We are seeing tremendous amounts of growth in the unincorporated areas of the county, and we are looking at a proposal to essentially reduce our primary ambulances available in the area,” he said.

Council members and staff said they had submitted a letter to the ESD asking that the board not move forward on capital projects until stakeholder input is collected and chiefs and municipalities have reviewed underlying data. The chief said the ESD board authorized the interim executive director to begin site work and develop budgets for station construction at the board’s June 10 meeting despite that outstanding stakeholder review.

No formal council action was taken on the ESD study itself during the meeting. The council and staff described ongoing concern about the timing: the city manager and fire chief said the ESD had not provided a clear funding commitment for the coming budget year, and council members said the uncertainty complicates the city’s budget planning.

The Fire Chief recommended that the ESD make stopping the municipal subsidy and funding firefighter compensation top priorities before large capital investments. He said Everman supports stakeholder review of the study and continued, constructive county‑city partnership but asked for quicker ESD action to address the fiscal imbalance.

The presentation included several specific data points presented by the Fire Chief: an approximate $1,300 per‑call national average operating cost benchmark, a cited county EMS payment of about $590 per county call in fiscal 2024, a fiscal‑year 2024 operational EMS budget figure (noted in the presentation materials) and a reported billing recovery of roughly $213,000 for that same year; the chief used those figures to compute the per‑call subsidy. The chief also referenced the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) eight‑minute urban response guideline when criticizing a 12‑minute target used in the ESD model.

Council members asked questions and expressed support for pressing the ESD for stakeholder review and clarification of funding. The council did not vote on any motion related to the ESD at the June 24 meeting.

The chief said he would continue coordinating with other municipal fire chiefs and the city manager to press the ESD and to provide council updated fiscal estimates as they are available.