Clinton FD seeks to recoup costs of response; Council offers support

Clinton Fire Department officials are seeking to recoup the costs for response, especially as local agencies continue to deal with agriculture byproduct spills.

During a recent meeting, the City Council unanimously adopted an ordinance establishing and implementing a program to charge mitigation rates for the deployment of emergency and non-emergency services rendered by the Clinton Fire Department.

“Raising real property tax to meet increase in service demands would not be fair when the responsible party(ies) should be held accountable for their actions,” the ordinance stated in part. “The City Council of the Clinton Fire Department desires to implement a fair and equitable procedure by which to collect said mitigation rates and shall establish a billing system in accordance with applicable laws, regulations and guidelines.”

A claim shall be filed to the responsible party through their insurance carrier. Rules or regulations will be made locally that can be amended, revoked or added. The fees will be for various levels of response encompassing motor vehicle incidents, hazmat incidents, fires and water incidents, back country and special rescue.

The contract will be with First Recovery Services USA. The department previously had a contract with the company, then called Recovery Hub, but the contract expired in 2021. There is a $500 reactivation fee and the city will receive roughly 61% of the total billed to the insurance company.

The rates — they range from $602 for a level 1 motor vehicle incident to $8,199 for an advanced hazmat response — were determined by itemizing costs for a typical run, from the time a fire apparatus leaves the station until it returns to the station, and are based on actual costs using amortized schedules for apparatus (including useful life, equipment, repairs and maintenance).

Labor rates include an average department’s actual burdened labor costs and not just a firefighter’s wage.

“This is a hot topic,” stated the Clinton fire inspector Ronald Williams, accompanied by Clinton Fire Chief Hagan Thornton, in addressing the issue. “The animal byproduct spills that have been happening numerous times … we can list those as a biological hazard in our reporting system. We will charge the insurance company the hours that the engine and the personnel are there.”

There have been dozens of similar spills in Clinton in the last three years.

One year ago, Clinton Mayor Lew Starling addressed the issue with state lawmakers, imploring the need for harsher penalties for offenders. Accompanied by Clinton Police Chief Anthony Davis and City Manager J.P. Duncan, the mayor presented photos of the dozens of spills that have occurred over the years.

Concerns have long been expressed over drivers leaving the scene of the spills, the extended hours and personnel utilized and the inability to be compensated for the resources used during clean-ups. Local officials advocated for stiffer penalties for drivers that leave the scene of a spill and for some sort of restitution for towns or government entities expending resources to clean up spills.

State lawmakers heard that plea and subsequently passed an amendment to the North Carolina General Statute, noting that “a willful violation of this section shall be punished as a Class 3 misdemeanor, and the court may order restitution for the cost of removing the materials that were blown, scattered, thrown, spilled, or placed from the vehicle.” That amendment became effective in December.

The city’s schedule of fees would serve to complement the punitive side, while also offering a way to recoup the cost of response.

“This is charged to the insurance company of the truck that spilled the byproduct, (something) that has been going on all across the city,” Williams remarked.

Back in 2012, the City Council approved for the Clinton Fire Department to utilize the billing service. Reports were submitted to the company, then called Recovery Hub, continuously for the better part of the next decade. Turnover with Clinton fire officials caused there to be a lapse in those reports, which discontinued the service. The discontinuance, according to the fire inspector, is triggered when there is a 90-120 day period when no reports are received from a particular agency.

He offered a ballpark figure of how much Recovery Hub was able to secure previously for the department to recoup cost of services, saying $129,414 was collected in a nine-year span off of 224 claims — roughly $578 per claim.

Several fire agencies utilize the service to recoup costs of resources, including Princeton, Meadow, Benson, Smithfield, Lumberton, Pembroke and others.

Upon City Council approval, Clinton Fire officials would be able to retroactively bill for response to each wreck dating back to January 2024.

“To calendar date, Clinton Fire Department has responded to 32 wrecks and one car fire,” Williams remarked. “If we billed for each, we would be at $22,501 as of the current date. But, please remember, we only receive 61% of all submitted calls previously.”

City Manager J.P. Duncan said, if approved, the regulations would be customized locally for Clinton.

“We’ve come a long way in a short period of time, and we’ve got people in place to do that, and we’ve got captains that, whenever they do the reports, they can add this information,” Williams said. “The company will have a login to our system that they will pull the information from, so the only thing we have to do is include the information in each report we have. We are not charging individuals inside Sampson County, we are charging the insurance company itself.”

“If this is billed, your homeowners insurance or your auto insurance will not go up — this is a fee that is already included in that,” said the inspector.

“So basically, since July of 2021, we’ve been losing by not collecting it, because we had a lack of personnel to do the paperwork,” said Councilman Daniel Ruggles.

“Getting this back up and active, (for byproduct spills) alone, would actually prove to be effective in recouping what we’ve lost in the last three years,” said Councilwoman Wanda Corbett.

Fire officials said there has been “a lot of manhours, a lot of fuel from the police department and the fire department sitting out there running the trucks.”

He cited that 90% of the calls concerning the spills have been after 5 p.m. or on the weekends, when personnel from Darling Ingredients and others companies are less expeditious in getting on scene, leaving emergency personnel and their vehicles idling on scene for a longer period of time, fire officials said.

Corbett pointed out that, where legislation gained more teeth to fine drivers and companies at fault in the spills, as well as provide restitution to responding agencies in some cases, the recovery program would serve as another method to actually recoup the costs of providing those services and personnel.

The Council unanimously adopted the ordinance, which will be effective next month, allowing revenue to be generated for daily response from that point on.