The city of Friendswood approved changes to its mutual aid agreement for emergency medical services with League City, allowing the cities to charge each other for services dispatched to the other city, though several city leaders said they opposed the changes in principle.
What it means
League City recently notified Friendswood that it would be increasing its fees for providing mutual aid for emergency medical services, City Manager Morad Kabiri said at the Sept. 14 Friendswood City Council meeting.
Under the updated agreement League City and Friendswood would charge each other $375 per non-transport call and $1,700 per transport call, according to city documents.
In April, League City updated its mutual aid agreement with the city of Dickinson to increase fees for dispatched emergency medical services, according to previous reporting by Community Impact.
Diving in deeper
Kabiri said the changes were a result of League City’s attempt to offload its own property tax burden.
“This goes against the heart of mutual aid services,” Kabiri said. “The history of fire and EMS back to the dawn of civilization has always been helping the sister cities out.”
Mayor Mike Foreman said he disagreed with the changes in principle and would only sign the new interlocal agreement under the condition that it is reciprocal, meaning that Friendswood and League City would both charge each other when emergency response services are sent.
“Mutual aid is mutual aid, and it goes against the core of firefighters,” Foreman said.
Kabiri said that while League City provides more mutual aid on the EMS side, Friendswood provides more mutual aid to League City on the fire side due to League City’s larger size and high volume of calls.
“They don’t have a fire station close to the Friendswood side of League City,” Kabiri said.
Kabiri said that it was likely that League City would propose a similar agreement for fire service in the future.
“I’m forewarning you that this is coming in fire, because they’ve already told us that they are going to do the same thing,” Kabiri said.
