Commissioners explain CVFSA decision
Letter to the Editor,
This week we were faced with the very difficult decision of whether to dissolve the Cabinet View Fire Service Area or to allow them to remain operating in an unlawful manner.
This has been a very contentious issue for some time.
After a petition was submitted to us to dissolve the CVFSA signed by 66 individuals from the CVFSA, we took action on the petition and held a public hearing. We also had numerous discussions with our legal counsel and the Lincoln County Sheriff.
After careful consideration of all facts and comments, we unanimously concluded we had no other option to satisfactorily resolve the ongoing unlawful conduct that results from CVFSA’s current leadership’s decisions.
We did this for several important reasons and have listed three of the major issues below for you to better understand our decision.
• Refusal to comply with Montana Law: Despite the fact the CVFSA was not originally created to handle medical calls, CVFSA’s leadership demanded to be dispatched as first responder to all medical calls in the CVFSA. However, to do so, CVFSA was required to obtain licensure from the State of Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. CVFSA’s leadership refused to obtain that licensure and continued to self-dispatch to all such calls, despite State of Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services’ March 9, 2011, letter demanding CVFSA cease responding to medical incidents unless specifically requested by a licensed emergency medical service or other authority.
Additionally, CVFSA was required to petition Lincoln County to expand its services beyond structural fire protection to include first responder medical and other services. That way Lincoln County could have heard comments from CVFSA property owners at a public hearing to determine if they wanted their CVFSA assessments to be used for those purposes.
Even though Lincoln County requested CVFSA’s leadership to submit such a petition, CVFSA’s leadership refused to do so and, instead, filed a lawsuit against Lincoln County, LVFD, LVA, Sheriff Roby Bowe, and other emergency service providers.
• Failure to work cooperatively with other emergency service providers: Historically, CVFSA worked closely and cooperatively with LVFD, LVA, Lincoln County Sheriff, Montana Highway Patrol, USFS, and DNRC.
However, CVFSA’s new leadership has exhibited an unwillingness to work cooperatively with those emergency service providers. Instead, CVFSA’s leadership has demanded that the emergency service providers do as CVFSA says, regardless of the adopted course of conduct and cooperation that has been employed for years.
That approach has detrimentally affected CVFSA’s relationship with other emergency service providers. Lincoln County is concerned the lack of cooperation of CVFSA’s leadership has impacted and will continue to impact public safety.
• Refusal to comply with Lincoln County’s lawful requests: On Feb. 13, 2012, Lincoln County requested that CVFSA and its contracted fire company, CVFD, cease self-dispatching to incidents beyond the scope for which CVFSA was created. CVFSA was created for structural fire protection only. Despite receiving that lawful request, CVFD has continued to self-dispatch to incidents beyond structural fire protection.
Two of those incidents were motor vehicle accidents, where CVFSA caused traffic hazards and jeopardized public safety.
We still remain very supportive of the many volunteers that have committed so many hours to training and responses. We are exploring options to allow those good, hard-working volunteers to continue to serve the Cabinet View community. However, the present leadership’s unwillingness to operate lawfully forced us to make this decision.
Finally, we are working to ensure the Cabinet View community continues to have structural fire suppression. LVFD intends to staff their fire station at the top of Whiskey Hill so that they may respond quickly to any structural fire calls.
LVA will continue to respond to medical emergencies. As for a long-term solution, we would surely consider any lawful petition or request which proposes a viable solution including, creating a new fire service area, but with new leadership, or annexing the area into the Libby Rural Fire District.
Unfortunately, we had no other option to address the serious problems created by CVFSA’s current leadership. Moreover, we have a responsibility to all of Lincoln County taxpayers to be sure that appointed Boards that function under the auspices of the County follow the law and do not put undue risk upon others, including the public.
— Commissioners
Marianne Roose,
Tony Berget, Ron Downey