Hutto plans to release communiques with ESD
HUTTO –– Where there’s smoke, there’s likely to be the Hutto Fire Department controversy.
The City Council is hoping to put out some public-relations fires by releasing all emails and memos regarding the city’s conversations with Williamson County Emergency Services District No. 3 and a proposed city-owned facility to be called Hutto Fire Station 1.
Also during the June 18 session, council members discussed a potential tax increase. These are the early days of financial planning, but under state law a municipal budget has to be in place by Oct. 1.
Meanwhile, the vote to release the fire-station documents also prompted Mayor Mike Snyder to say he will propose a similar agenda item at the Hutto Economic Development Corp. meeting.
Discussions over the ESD, which is a statesupported political subdivision, and a possible cityrun fire facility continue to spark debate, both online and in the council chambers.
“Every legal memo, every email, everything we have from Jan. 1, 2022, to June 1, 2026, related to ESD No. 3... and any emails we have regarding anything,” Snyder said.
Once complete, the documents will be available on the city’s emergency services website page, huttotx.gov/314/ Fire-Department. Council members say the documents will give the community insight into what they classify as a “broken” relationship between the city and the ESD.
“This has been going on for two years and we can see this consistent unresponsiveness. I just see, just in a year, over and over and over, the lack of good faith negotiation tactics by some individuals,” said Councilman
Jim Morris.
ESD RESPONSE
Cassie Balderas, public information officer for Hutto Fire Rescue, said ESD 3 remains committed to working with the city and welcomes the public release of communications.
“The relationship between Hutto Fire Rescue and the city of Hutto is not defined by emails, but by the work that takes place between our organizations every day. We collaborate with city staff not only in response to emergencies, but also through ongoing efforts to support and serve the Hutto community,” Balderas said in a statement to the Taylor Press.
She added, “Public service is not about avoiding differences in perspective; it is about working through them respectfully while keeping the needs of our community first.”
A voter-approved ESD in Texas provides fire protection and paramedic services, usually in unincorporated areas or near the boundaries of a city. In general, an ESD can collect property or sales taxes to fund operations. A city fire department, however, is wholly maintained, funded and operated by a municipality.
Hutto officials want to build a city fire station close to the Hutto Megasite and not far from Taylor’s Samsung Austin Semiconductor to serve growing industries and residential development. It would be located near U.S. 79 and CR 3349, about 4 miles away from Samsung.
ESD officials in May told local media they also want to create a new facility in the same area, which could lead to a duplication of services. There are four existing ESD stations and a fifth is planned on land acquired from the Hutto Independent School District.
The city’s proposed fire station could cost $9 million to $10 million, according to various reports.
RECORDS REQUEST AND TAX THRESHOLD
Hutto resident Daniel Arenas submitted a Freedom of Information Act public records request on May 13 seeking the communications between Snyder and all council members regarding establishing the fire station, an initiative that had not previously appeared on any council agenda.
He worries residents are not getting enough of say in what is transpiring.
“The motion that Mayor Snyder put forward and was voted on is not for the same documents I have requested,” Arenas said. “What they voted on releasing are their conversations with ESD 3, not their conversations about standing up our own Fire Department.”
The council also received the preliminary budget for opening the new fire station.
The figures do not include land or construction, since that will come through the Hutto EDC.
Finance Director Alberta Barrett presented a nine-month estimate (January through September 2027) that will be included in the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget.
Barrett said the expense for the new fire station would be just more than $1.5 million, broken out as: personnel, $1,152,914; operating cost $215,923; and capital (fire truck and equipment) $200,000.
If approved, this would add a 2 1/2 cents per $100 of appraised property value to the city’s tax rate, increasing it from the no-new-revenue rate to just below the voter-approval rate.
Arenas, who started a website called HuttoTransparency.org, says the nine-month budget was a way to raise taxes while still keeping it under the threshold that would trigger an election allowing voters to decide.
He also believes it is unrealistic to say the fire station would be operational by January, and if the budget is approved taxpayers would begin paying for it before it is in service.
That’s not the only issue Arenas has with the proposed budget.
His breakdown of the personnel cost questions the amounts allotted to overtime and insurance as being much too low. There is no budget for a specific fire chief, instead giving an $18,750 stipend to an existing director to oversee the fire operations.
He is also concerned that $200,000 for a fire truck would not indicate a model comparable with what ESD No. 3 provides.
For comparison, in 2022, Taylor ordered a new fire engine at a cost of $667,000. The apparatus took three years to deliver, and officials said prices have risen around 30% since then.
“The city is deliberately underfunding essential public safety equipment and personnel on paper just to deny the taxpayers their legal right to vote on this tax increase,” Arenas posted.
Snyder, generally a proponent for lower property taxes, said the city likely will see a tax-rate increase this year but hopes to find a way to shift more of the burden away from homeowners and on to commercial properties.
“If we keep doing nonew- revenue, the data centers are not going to be kicking in the amount of money they’re supposed to. Now we’re not talking tens of thousands, we’re talking millions,” Snyder said.
