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City Council Meeting <br />Aug. 12. 2002 <br />Page 16 <br /> <br />expenses over collections. Mr. Shaver said this is called an interlocal <br />cooperation agreement. As such, it has specific statutory obligations to follow. <br />The Interlocal Cooperation Act says that parties (local governments) can <br />cooperate on governmental functions. The Act is clear that provision of the <br />emergency medical services is appropriate subject to the interlocal agreement. <br />Mr. Shaver said that there is another statute that allows counties to provide <br />county-wide emergency medical service, but there is no statute that cities have <br />an obligation to provide county-wide service. Mr. Shaver said another thing <br />about the Interlocal Cooperative Act that is important is that the party <br />providing the service must be compensated in an amount that fairly <br />compensates them for the services or functions performed under the contract. <br />If the contract does not provide for you to collect a fair compensation, then you <br />are violating the Texas Constitution because it is illegal for the City of Paris to <br />provide services outside it's boundaries without charging fair compensation. <br />That would violate the Texas Constitution, which prohibits donating or giving <br />your services away to either the county or individuals citizens outside your <br />corporate limits. <br /> <br />Mr. Shaver said a question that has arisen on many occasions is the fair <br />compensation requirement. Mr. Shaver said the Attorney General has ruled <br />that fair compensation means a suitably equivalent compensation. There is not <br />requirement that it be dollar for dollar for the value of service provided. The <br />idea in the Interlocal Cooperation Act, and you can see this in a lot of the <br />Attorney General's opinions that has been written on this subject, is the <br />promotion of cooperation between governmental entities on a wide range of <br />services. Mr. Shaver said he finds it interesting that the city has proposed the <br />idea of a city-county meeting where a large variety of services are to be <br />discussed in order for the parties can cooperate to reduce charges to all the <br />citizens. He felt that is part of what the Interlocal Cooperation Act is trying to <br />promote so that instead of dollars for services, you can have services for <br />services. If you are receiving dollars, those dollars have to be suitably <br />equivalent to the value of the services provided. Mr. Shaver said the question <br />has come up as to what is the value of the services provided and that has been <br />discussed this evening. He said there is no question that the direct services of <br /> <br /> <br />