SAN ANTONIO – A KSAT 12 Defenders investigation into emergency services districts that collect millions of dollars in taxes each year in Bexar County found that information about how that tax money is being spent is hard to come by.
There are 11 emergency services districts outside San Antonio city limits in Bexar County, providing fire and ambulance service. These districts also collect a fair amount of taxes from residents.
In 2013, District 2 collected $3,818,520; District 3 collected $2,466,920; and more than $1 million each in District 7, at $1,676,410; District 4, at $1,472,980, and District 5, at $1,074,630.
County Commissioner Kevin Wolff said the ESDs get little county oversight.
"They are little, miniature taxing districts," Wolff said. "Right now, statutorily, they can kind of do things any way they want."
Wolff agreed that uniform information from the districts is difficult to find.
The Defenders sent requests for information on spending to each district that could be found.
District 7 was the first to respond, providng a pile of credit card statements, bank statements and more, showing all their purchases. The district provided documentation on spending at Petsmart for supplies for Dottie the Fire Dog. Other spending included food expenses from Dominos, Bush's Chicken and Schlotzkys for meetings.
While ESD No. 7 provided the most information about spending, no one there would talk about the expenses and who approves them.
The Defenders called and emailed other ESDs as well and searched online for information.
Some ESDs could be found online; others could not. In at least one instance, Bexar County did not have the correct information for an ESD.
The Defenders attended a meeting at one ESD and yet could find no one would talk about spending.
Wolff is concerned not only about the lack of information provided by the ESDs but by the fact that each ESD operates differently.
Spending is different as well.
ESD No. 6 spent more than $100,000 in legal fees in 2013 while others spent zero. ESD No. 11 spent $33,000 in administration fees in 2013; others had none.
Wolff wants to make all ESDs uniform and possibly put them under the county fire marshal.
"Each ESD is just slightly different," Wolff said. "One of the things we've talked about at the county is how can we put them under the same sort of policies and procedures. The idea that I've had at the county is to utilize the fire marshal's office as sort of a service that the ESDs can go to."
He said with an established set of policies, each ESD would be transparent to anyone who wants to see where the money is spent.
"You want it transparent, you want to see that it's doing it efficiently, you want to see that they're delivering services to the areas they're responsible for," Wolff said. "They can always rely on the fire marshal's office to come in and say here's how all other ESDs do it. I call that the friendly way."
He wants a list of approved policies and procedures so that information about ESDs that spend millions of dollars in tax money is easier to find.
There is no timetable on any possible changes to the structure or function of ESDs, which are authorized by the state, not the county.
However, a state association that is supposed to get the financial reports from ESDs reports that only three of Bexar County's ESDs filed their annual reports last year.