The city of Gardendale has filed a counterclaim in a lawsuit originally filed against the city by the Mt. Olive Fire and Rescue District.

The original lawsuit by the district claims that Gardendale did not pay dues owed by property owners when those parcels are annexed into the city. State law requires that when a parcel is annexed from an unincorporated area served by a fire district, either the city or the property owner must pay six years worth of dues to the fire district before the annexation is finalized.

Gardendale’s counterclaim specifically addresses a practice that Mt. Olive Fire has employed for some time, in which the district requests and bills annual “donations” of $20 from residents who are exempt from paying property taxes. Fire dues are usually based on those taxes, so those who are exempt — normally senior citizens who don’t owe taxes because of a statewide homestead exemption — have no taxes on which to base fire dues.

In the counterclaim, Gardendale says the district has previously referred to the $20 fee as a “donation,” and uses it as the basis for one of its claims in the lawsuit. Gardendale officials say that donation has no legal basis and should not be a part of any legal claim.

“These are senior citizens living in the Mt. Olive community. They are not supposed to be assessed by the fire district but that is exactly what is happening,” Mayor Stan Hogeland said in a press release issued when the counterclaim was filed. “We have an elderly gentleman who is being told his property has not been annexed into the city because he has not paid his $120 donation fee to the fire district.”

Hogeland said that when they checked into the issue, fire district officials claimed the man was not exempt from the donation.

“Nothing in the law allows the fire district to deny this man’s exemption by calling it a donation fee,” Hogeland said, adding that the city has never collected any taxes from residents who qualify for an exemption.

The exemption applies to homeowners aged 65 or older who make less than $12,000 a year. Those who are blind or permanently disabled, no matter their age, also qualify for the same exemption.

Jim Ward, an attorney with the Ward and Wilson law firm who’s representing Mt. Olive Fire, said Gardendale’s counterclaim was “without merit at all.”

“An election was held in 1981 to establish the district and set fees,” Ward said. “It was challenged in a lawsuit, Parker v. Mt. Olive Fire and Rescue District, and the court said we have a right to assess that fee.”

Ward said the $20 payment is not a donation at all, but instead is a flat fee that was authorized by the election and upheld by trial and appellate courts. The Parker case referred to it as a service charge and not a fee or donation, Ward added.

The case is set for trial on Dec. 17 before District Judge Joseph L. Boohaker.