SAN ANTONIO — State law says the City of San Antonio may limit the ability of emergency service districts to incur debt.
“Bexar County is the only county in the state of Texas with this restrictive cap,” says Robert Pierce, board secretary and chaplain with ESD 5.
That ESD serves southwest Bexar County, an area that seems to be growing every day. It stretches from south of Highway 90 to areas east of Somerset.
“They’ve had a large growth off of Highway 90 and their (closest) station is about 10 to 12 minutes away. They’re trying to build a station in that area but they can’t get the approval from the city,” said ESD 10 Fire Chief Robert Hogan.
ESDs need city approval to incur more than $20,000 of debt if the city annexes the unincorporated land in the future. But first responders say they're facing obstacles.
The firefighters were able to get a resolution approved by Bexar County commissioners which states, in part, that “the City of San Antonio has denied and/or delayed requests for funding.”
The City of San Antonio argues they’ve accommodated requests in the past 10 years for all ESDs in the county to incur debt, except for ESD 5.
“It sounds like the ESD didn’t tell the commissioners court yesterday that they’ve sued the city and its taxpayers and have been in litigation since 2019 and lost,” Assistant City Manager Jeff Coyle told KENS 5, saying ESD 5 sued the city over land disputes related to city boundaries, in an attempt to protect its tax base from funding fire stations.
In turn, the ESD asked to borrow $17 million to build a new fire station.
The litigation is still pending, according to Chief Hogan. The chief claims delays in building fire stations and purchasing equipment impacts public safety.
“Our growth in unincorporated areas is tremendous and we’re trying to put that infrastructure out there to protect the citizens and we’re asking for cooperation from the city,” Hogan says.
The county supports efforts to remove the debt cap, which could be addressed in the Texas Legislature. City leaders say that they’re willing to work with ESD 5.
“The ESD can drop the litigation against us and work with us as all the other ESDs have, but that’s not the path they’ve taken,” Coyle said.
“So long as we are responsible for paying back a portion of that debt if that property comes into the city, then we have to do our due diligence and review their request, and most of the time we approve them."