Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

A.  Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the governing authority of the parish of Bossier, may, upon its own initiative, form and create a single parishwide ambulance service district, excluding incorporated municipalities, except that any incorporated municipality within the parish shall be included within the single parishwide ambulance service district upon concurrence by resolution of the governing authority of the municipality.

B.  The creation by the parish governing authority of a single parishwide ambulance service district shall have the effect of abolishing any existing ambulance service district in the parish; however, no such action by the parish governing authority shall cause any impairment of the obligations of any contract of any existing ambulance service district abolished by the creation of a single parishwide ambulance service district.

C.  The parish governing authority may establish, with approval of a majority of the electors of the single parishwide ambulance service district voting on the proposition at an election held for such purpose, user fees to be assessed persons owning each residential or commercial structure, whether occupied or unoccupied, located wholly or partly within the boundaries of the single parishwide ambulance service district, subject to the provisions of Subsection D of this Section.  For the purposes of this Section, each residential or commercial unit in a structure and each housing unit within a multiple dwelling structure shall be considered a separate structure, and a mobile home, as defined in La. Rev. Stat. 9:1149.2(3), shall be considered a structure.  Such user fees shall be established by the parish governing authority and shall be used for the cost of any and all emergency medical transportation and all emergency services incidental thereto.

D.  The user fees established shall be assessed by resolution of the governing authority of the parish.  However, the resolution assessing said user fees shall be adopted by the governing authority of the parish only after the question of the assessment and the amount of the user fees to be assessed has been submitted to and approved by a majority of the electors of the single parishwide ambulance service district voting on the proposition in an election held for that purpose.  Such election shall be conducted in accordance with the election laws of the state and shall be held at the same time that an election authorized by the provisions of La. Rev. Stat. 18:402 is held, or the governing authority may call a special election at a date determined upon its own initiative.

E.(1)  The governing authority of the single parishwide ambulance service district shall have the authority to use any reasonable means to collect and enforce the collection of such user fees established in accordance herewith, including any means authorized by law for the collection of taxes.  Such means shall include the assessor carrying the ambulance service district user fees on the tax rolls for the parish and the sheriff of the parish collecting such user fees at the same time as ad valorem taxes are collected and with the same authority with which such taxes are collected.  If the ambulance service district user fees become delinquent and unpaid, the sheriff shall send a “final notice” to the delinquent property owner by registered or certified mail.  The sheriff shall also publish notice of the pending delinquent property sale in the parish journal, setting forth the names and addresses of the delinquent property owners and the date and place of the sale to enforce collection and shall enforce the collection in the same manner as ad valorem taxes are collected.  Any lien for collection of such charges shall prime all other liens, mortgages, and privileges against the property, except those for taxes and prior recorded local and special assessments.  The governing authority may compensate the sheriff and the tax assessor for such collection upon mutual agreement of the governing authority and the sheriff and the tax assessor.

(2)(a)  The governing authority of the district shall also have the authority to place liens for the nonpayment of the user fees authorized herein upon any structure subject to the charge, upon the building, if any, in which the structure is located if it is owned by the owner of the structure, and upon the lot of ground not exceeding one acre on which the structure is situated if such lot of ground belongs to the person who owns such structure; however, if such structure or building is owned by a lessee of the lot of ground, the lien shall exist only against the lease and shall not effect the owner of the lot.  Such lien shall be placed upon property only in the event of failure of the owner of a structure to pay such user fees charges when requested to do so by the ambulance service district governing authority within thirty days of receipt by the delinquent property owner of such a request by registered or certified letter.

(b)  The governing authority of the district may file a statement reflecting the amount of unpaid charges in the mortgage office of the parish, which, when so filed and recorded, shall operate as a lien and privilege in favor of the ambulance service district against the property as provided herein.  The privilege shall prime all other liens, mortgages, and privileges against the property, except those for taxes and prior recorded local and special assessments.

(c)  In addition, the governing authority of the district shall be entitled to recover the amount of said charges, together with all costs of court and attorneys’ fees, by ordinary process in the district court of the parish.

(d)  The district governing authority may also provide, by resolution for interest on the amount of said charges, which shall be paid prior to cancellation of the lien.

Acts 1993, No. 803, §1, eff. June 22, 1993; Acts 2011, 1^st Ex. Sess., No. 20, §1, eff. June 12, 2011.