By Lindy Browning | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice
Emergency responders and firefighting agencies in Southwest Colorado are sounding the alarm and calling for immediate resolution to unpaid invoices going back, in some cases, to July 2024, because of, some say, utter incompetence by the State of Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control’s (DFPC) billing processing office.
In a Jan. 27 meeting at the Upper Pine Fire District in Bayfield, county emergency management personnel, regional fire district leadership teams, representatives from multiple counties and state and local officials met to discuss the dysfunctions that could lead to an all-out crisis as the 2025 fire season approaches, because of a huge backlog in getting collective invoices for payment processed.
For example, Hinsdale County is owed about $4 million dollars in reimbursement payments, and has 238 invoices in queue. Upper Pine Fire District is owed $64,000, Durango Fire Department is owed $361,000, Telluride Fire is owed $252,000, Purgatory Fire is owed $783,000, and Delta County Ambulance is owed $1.1 million dollars in reimbursements. This is not a complete list of reimbursements that are owed.
The process for payment for all of these emergency responders should be fairly simple. Each agency submits their receipts, mileage, hotel and travel expenses, and all related documents to DFPC.
DFPC acts as a financial pass-through agency — between the hundreds of emergency responders statewide — and as a “central billing” agency. DFPC acts as the point of contact for billing to other state and federal agencies that pay those local emergency responder agencies and counties.
Given the sheer number of emergency responder agencies and county entities in the U.S., there is no way for example, for the federal government to staff enough people to review invoices and cut checks back to the millions of agencies in the nation who would submit invoices for reimbursement.
Given that most of western and southwestern Colorado consists of federal lands, these agencies provide services to the federal government that protects against fires, floods, ambulance responses and other services. The federal government is one of the largest entities that reimburse local agencies when they respond to disasters. Local fire agencies also respond to national and regional fires, and public emergencies, and are reimbursed for those expenses.
Local emergency responders said in the meeting in Bayfield, “We use our own money and credit cards up front to pay for all those things, that money is primarily taxpayers’ dollars. The state has verbally told us to expect a 60-day turnaround, but that isn’t what is happening.”
Phil Graham, the emergency manager for Hinsdale County, added, “DFPC is fighting us over ridiculous things like emailing us and asking us about why one state or another is charging a specific tax rate, or telling us that the rental car receipts to Hertz are too high. We give them the receipts. It’s not within our control what taxes and rental car businesses charge us.”
Amanda Chavez of Purgatory Fire District notes that she “doesn’t think any of these people (DFPC billing) have any idea what we do or what it takes to do what we do. They kick our invoices back for the simplest thing.”
Part of the problem is that DFPC answers to no one, Graham said, and there is no accountability or oversight of the current process.
Chavez relays a story about someone at DFPC emailing her to tell her that their mileage to an out-of-state fire was incorrect. Chavez explained that because of things like winter road closures or road closures due to the large fires, they often have to take a different route to the fire.
“They are using Google to check our miles and if Google says it’s so many miles, they can’t comprehend why our receipts are showing different mileage,” she said. “They have the actual receipts, and they want to argue with us using Google.”
The agencies attending the meeting said they have been trying for weeks and months to work with DFPC to be responsive to the corrections that the state wants. They have resubmitted their invoicing with the corrections DFPC asks for, only to have their corrections sent back, or to hear no response for weeks and months. They have asked for standardized training, as the current training offered by DFPC is inadequate and not consistent throughout the system and agency to agency.
Many of the agencies have sent people to DFPC for their training on billing, but still have about 50 percent of their invoices kicked back.
“The training doesn’t show you about 50 percent of what you need to know to comply with their requirements,” Graham said.
They have even asked the Colorado attorney general’s office for help.
“At first, they were communicating with us, but the most recent emails indicate that the attorney general’s office has ‘reprioritized’ our issue,” Graham said.
The group has asked for help from U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, to no avail.
They have recently reached out to U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert and Jeff Hurd along with Colorado Sens. Marc Catlin and Cleve Simpson, who recently engaged and are trying to help find solutions.
Although the problem is relatively simple — pay the invoices — the solution is a bit more complex, because of the lack of accountability at the state level. Catlin and Simpson both serve in the minority party in the state legislature. That is not to say that, with time, they may be able to get some help from other rural legislators on both sides of the political aisle.
Federal legislators are somewhat limited in what they can do as their federal authority does not allow them to direct state government under the 10th Amendment.
However, since the federal government is eventually paying a significant number of the bills submitted by the state, the group hopes that the federal legislators can find a way to help streamline the process.
According to Graham, the issue around the delay in reimbursement is quickly creating a situation where local agencies are soon going to be losing firefighters, lose the ability to provide services, maintain their equipment, having to shut down programs and services such as home and property evaluations and inspections, fire mitigation programs for private and commercial properties, and other services.
“We are approaching a time where we will be facing consequences that could result in losses to Sheriff’s Offices, EMS responders, health benefits to emergency responders, pay cuts, maintenance and training, if this payment and billing process isn’t resolved,” Graham said.