Beaufort-Port Royal SC Fire Department Burton Fire District Dispute Firefighters

An ongoing dispute between neighboring fire department jurisdictions in northern Beaufort County could mean that, beginning Friday, the closest firefighters won’t always respond first to an emergency.

Leaders of the Beaufort-Port Royal Fire Department and Burton Fire District say their departments are equipped to keep residents adequately safe despite the latest escalation in the spat.

The municipalities and Burton Fire District have been at odds for more than 20 years over agreements for service and compensation for properties the municipalities have annexed in the Burton area, an unincorporated community in northern Beaufort County.

Under multiple agreements since, Beaufort and Port Royal have each paid Burton Fire District an annual fee for covering the properties now in city or town limits, based on established formulas.

The most recent agreement expired in December 2017. The two sides have been working on a resolution since July 2018, with the fire chiefs and a mediator meeting seven times and exchanging hundreds of emails, documents show. The efforts have resulted in more court appeals, and Burton fire officials say they will no longer respond to calls at city and town properties as of Nov. 1.

The issue has become increasingly important as the municipalities grow in numbers and area. Officials with the city of Beaufort and town of Port Royal officially celebrated the grand opening of the department’s fourth fire station on Robert Smalls Parkway this month.

The building is within reach of a growing subdivision annexed into the town of Port Royal, as well as nearby apartment complexes in the town with hundreds of units. The station also responds to calls in nearby unincorporated areas in Burton’s district.

Burton fire officials have contended that serving city and town properties without payment isn’t fair to its taxpayers. Burton Fire Chief Harry Rountree told Beaufort-Port Royal Fire Chief Reece Bertholf that his department plans to stop responding to calls at city and town properties as of the Nov. 1 date service is transferred, according to the drafted plan.

That would mean the closest fire station wouldn’t always receive the call from dispatchers.

For instance, the Picket Fences housing subdivision in the town of Port Royal is just across Parris Island Gateway from the Burton fire station in the Shell Point area. The new Beaufort-Port Royal station is closest to some unincorporated properties in the fire district but will no longer receive those calls unless they receive permission from Burton to automatically respond.

Bertholf and Deputy Chief Tim Ogden said they have begun preparing for the change with the county dispatch service, with an overlap period of one week to ensure no calls are missed during the transition.

Rountree confirmed to a reporter this week that the district’s fire commissioners have advised him not to respond to the annexed properties as of Nov. 1. Beaufort-Port Royal firefighters could still request Burton’s assistance via longstanding mutual aid agreements, Rountree said.

“The bottom line is we’re willing to serve,” Rountree said. “We’ve got a great group of firefighters; our stations are strategically located. We just can’t ask the Burton taxpayers to pick up the tab” for annexed properties.

The Nov. 1 deadline is part of a plan drafted by a committee of both fire chiefs and a mediator. The proposed plan would require Beaufort and Port Royal to each pay Burton a fee based on property taxes of annexed properties for an interim period between when the last plan lapsed and the new plan goes into effect.

Beaufort and Port Royal would also pay Burton a fee for future annexed properties, but the fee would shrink over a six-year period until the municipalities no longer pay the district.

Rountree and mediator John Hamilton Smith signed the plan in September, while Bertholf signed that he objected to the document.

Attorneys for both sides have since appealed aspects of the plan in court papers filed this month.

Among the objections by Beaufort and Port Royal: The interim payment includes annexations dating back to 1995. The municipalities said in court papers that those obligations were paid in full under previous agreements, and that paying for annexations before 2017 would create an “unlawful windfall” for the Burton department.

Burton argued in its appeal that Beaufort and Port Royal should pay the full amount of property taxes the fire district would have collected on annexed property during the interim period. The committee’s plan requires that Beaufort and Port Royal pay Burton 90 percent of 2018 taxes on annexed property and a pro-rated percentage for lost tax revenue in 2018.

Burton Fire District has taken the municipalities to court multiple times since 1995, resulting in settlement agreements requiring municipalities to pay an annual fee for annexed properties Burton continued to serve.

Following recommendations in a study conducted for the department by a nonprofit public safety organization, Beaufort and Port Royal ended a previous agreement with the fire district in 2017 and built a new fire station on a piece of Port Royal property in the Burton area.

The study was first conducted 10 years ago after indications then that Burton might stop responding to properties in the city and town, Bertholf said.

“The municipalities have been prepared for this since 2009,” he said.

Beaufort and Port Royal stopped payments to Burton after its firefighters began operating from the area in an interim station in early 2018, with the idea that automatic service to properties each jurisdiction serves would replace the money.

The number of properties that should be included in the formula used to pay Burton has been a point of contention between the sides. A third-party audit is planned to determine an agreed upon number.

The fire district is a special purpose district that collects its own taxes and manages a budget of more than $5 million overseen by a commission and approved by County Council. The district was started by state law as a largely volunteer organization to serve unincorporated areas of Beaufort County.

Its scope has grown with a professional staff and multimillion-dollar budget. Beaufort and Port Royal have each continued to grow by bringing in properties requesting annexation with established growth boundaries for the municipalities.

Burton sued the city and town for breach of contract over its most recent agreement, saying the governments used a formula based on the property’s taxable value and not assessed value, resulting in lower payments. A Beaufort County judge sided with Burton in 2016, ordering Beaufort and Port Royal to pay the difference it owed from 2011 through 2015 — $178,618 owed by Port Royal and $91,458 by Beaufort.

The ruling remains on appeal.

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