City council is looking to make a countywide mutual aid agreement for fire protection a little more mutually beneficial.

Councilman Kathy Kline said at council’s meeting Tuesday night that the agreement, which guarantees the city’s paid fire department will respond to calls in other municipalities when needed, comes at an unfair cost to the city.

“I’m all about safety,” Kline said. “But with the diminishing number of volunteer firefighters, it seems the volunteer departments are relying more and more on the city’s paid department. And that’s not fair to city taxpayers.”

Fire Chief Nick Ban told council his department in 2014 responded to 89 calls outside the city — 83 of which were in Butler Township.

Meanwhile, the city only called in support from the township’s volunteer fire departments twice out of its more than 3,000 total calls.

“That’s very lopsided,” said Councilman Bill May.

To bring a balance to the service provided, Kline suggested that the city charge other municipalities for its fire protection services.

Council is proposing adjusting the agreement so that it would send an invoice to other municipalities when the city firefighters respond to a call.

Ban recommended the city take its total budget for the year and divide by the number of calls it has to determine a response price.

Last year the fire department had a budget of about $1.7 million.

“It comes out to about $573 per call,” Ban said.

The city’s 89 outside calls would have added up to about $51,000 at that rate.

Ban said it would be important for the city to agree to pay whenever its department calls for support from other municipalities.

“We likewise should incur a charge based on the same formula,” Ban said.

The proposal would not apply to the agreement with the VA Butler Healthcare fire department.

“That’s a separate mutual aid agreement,” Kline said.

The VA fire department responds to many of the city’s calls.

While most of the city’s outside responses are to Butler Township, the agreement is with each municipality in the county.

Council said the invoice would likely apply to each individual municipality.

When firefighters go outside the city, the city has to call in off-duty firefighters to be on standby at the station in the event of another alarm.

The four off-duty city firefighters are paid for at least three hours of overtime as soon as they are called in.

Ban said the department recently had to call in off-duty firefighters due to a fire call in Butler Township. The alarm turned out to be a broken water line.

Kline said it’s not fair to city taxpayers to fund fire protection for neighboring municipalities.

“The city is the low man on the totem pole in the county when it comes to income per household,” she said. “So why are we struggling to keep a paid fire department for residents outside the city?”

May said he thinks other municipalities will be open to contributing for the fire protection provided by the city.

Talking about the current fire agreement, May said, “I can’t see how any reasonable person would look at this and think its fair.”

Councilman Richard Schontz Jr. questioned what the city would do if a municipality declined to pay.

Solicitor Jim Coulter said he is not aware of any requirement that a municipality respond to another municipality’s alarm, but he was not sure.

Coulter advised council to have Ban talk to Butler Township Fire Marshall Larry Christy to discuss the agreement.