The city of De Soto and the De Soto Rural Fire Protection District have reached an intergovernmental agreement that ends a dispute that began in 2018 when the city moved to annex the Union Pacific Railroad car shop property.
De Soto never annexed the approximately 55-acre parcel, which sits on a narrow strip of land between Main Street and Joachim Creek in unincorporated Jefferson County just east of the city, and City Manager Todd Melkus said De Soto no longer has plans to annex it.
The dispute involved years of litigation that culminated in a 2021 Missouri Supreme Court decision that allows the city to annex property without De Soto Rural Fire’s approval.
That decision came after the fire district lobbied for a state law that was passed in 2018 and would have forced the railroad to pay taxes to both the city and the fire district if the city had annexed the car shop property.
Then, the city filed a lawsuit against Gov. Mike Parson and Attorney General Eric Schmitt to overturn the law, and later the fire district joined the case on the side of Parson and Schmitt.
Circuit Judge Jon Beetem ruled against the city in November 2020. However, the city appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which handed down a unanimous ruling in July 2021 that found for the city and ordered the circuit court to reverse its decision.
De Soto Mayor Kathy Smith said the new intergovernmental agreement will allow De Soto Rural Fire to retain a certain percentage of real estate tax revenue the city might annex in the future. Without the agreement, the district would lose 100 percent of the real estate taxes from a parcel once it’s annexed into the city.
The percentage of revenue De Soto Rural would continue receiving on an annexed parcel is an important benefit for the district because it relies solely on real estate taxes for its funding, Melkus said.
The agreement also calls for De Soto Rural to retain primary responsibility for providing fire service to parcels the city may annex in the future.
Fire districts have mutual-aid agreements, so the city’s fire department also would respond to fires on land annexed into the city and would receive the rest of the real estate taxes from those properties.
The intergovernmental agreement, which had been discussed since early 2021, went into effect immediately after the De Soto City Council approved it on Oct. 17. De Soto Rural Fire previously had signed off on the agreement.
Smith said she’s happy with the agreement.
“I believe both entities can move forward in working together and provide the best service that we can to the residents in our city and district. That is most important, and I think that is why both parties came to the table and worked this out.”
Melkus said he and De Soto Rural Fire Chief Tom Fitzgerald spent a lot of time working on the agreement together.
“There is a lot of history between these two departments and although some of that history was not always positive, myself and Chief Fitzgerald wanted to put those negative times in the past and move forward,” Melkus said. “Our departments work together daily responding to emergency calls, so there is no reason that we shouldn’t be able to work together administratively as well.
“I commend both the City Council as well De Soto Rural Fire’s board on the ability to put the past behind them and work for the better good of the city and district.”
Chief Fitzgerald agreed.
“I think it’s just a sign that both the city and the rural district moving forward have a renewed commitment to doing what’s best for the citizens, and trying to make the best use of the revenues and the growth to our area,” he said.
Mark Mahn, chairman of the De Soto Rural Fire board who has been with the district for the last 24 years, said he is glad to finally see the two entities reach common ground after years of contention.
“We both fight the same fires. We help them; they help us,” he said. “I give everybody compliments for coming to the table to come together to try to move the situation forward instead of fighting each other.”