Prosper council approves firm to pursue insurer payments for fire/rescue mitigation; ordinance updated to add mitigation rates

The Prosper Town Council on Tuesday approved a professional services agreement with a private vendor to pursue collections from insurance companies for certain emergency and non‑emergency fire department responses, and adopted an accompanying ordinance to add Fire Department mitigation rates to the town fee schedule.

Fire Chief Blassingame told the council the town had explored several vendors that recover costs from commercial insurance policies after incidents that use significant town resources. The firm described in the staff presentation — variably referred to in the record as “Emergifier,” “EmergifyRE” and in the motion as “Emergent Fire LLC” — will operate similarly to third‑party EMS billing services the town uses. The vendor’s fee is a percentage of collections; staff said the proposed contract charges the vendor 15 percent of collections.

Scope and limitations: Chief Blassingame said the program focuses on commercial insurance claims and does not bill individual residents. “They don’t bill our residents,” he said, adding that the vendor targets insurers and follows national averages and FEMA guidelines to support billings for incidents such as motor‑vehicle accidents, structure fires, vehicle fires, hazmat responses and industrial or commercial facility incidents.

Blassingame said municipalities that have used similar programs have seen widely varying recoveries depending on incident size — from tens of thousands of dollars up to six‑figures for large commercial fires. He told councilors one cited example where a municipality collected “over a $100,000 just on that one incident alone.”

Revenue handling: Staff said net collections after the vendor fee would be deposited into the town’s charges for services account, the same fund used for EMS billing revenue. Council asked whether proceeds were restricted to equipment or specific capital uses; staff replied the funds return to the charges for services account and may be used in accordance with town accounting practices.

Related ordinance change: The council also adopted an ordinance that repealed the town’s previous hazardous materials incident response article and replaced it with a new article establishing fire‑department mitigation rates (added to Appendix A, Section 23 of the fee schedule). Staff said the change consolidated billing authority and aligned the fee schedule with the vendor’s contracted rates.

Council action: Council Member Marcus Ray moved to approve the agreement with Emergent Fire LLC; Craig Andres seconded the motion. The council approved the professional services amendment unanimously. The subsequent ordinance amendment to adopt the fire mitigation rates was moved from the dais and passed unanimously as well.

What it does not change: Chief Blassingame emphasized the vendor attempts collections from insurance carriers; if carriers do not pay, the town will typically write off the amount rather than send bills to individuals. The program is an attempt to recoup costs for supplies and large‑scale responses that otherwise rely solely on tax revenue.

Follow up: Staff said the vendor already works with the town’s EMS billing system, reducing data‑integration work, and that the hazard response component will now be billed under the broader mitigation rates framework. Council asked staff to return with any necessary operational details as implementation proceeds.