High court backs BLVFD

The Montana Supreme Court has decided that the Bull Lake Volunteer Fire District has the authority to respond to emergencies within the district’s boundaries as it sees fit.

The decision, supported by five of the seven justices, overturned a previous ruling in district court that gave Lincoln County commissioners the authority to determine the scope of services provided by the Bull Lake Volunteer Fire District.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike McGrath wrote in the majority opinion that the district has a right to self-determination because the laws governing political subdivisions have been amended since the county created the Bull Lake Volunteer Fire District in 1989. The state Legislature amended existing statutes in 1992 to give fire districts more authority to respond to emergencies within their jurisdictions than they had previously.

McGrath noted that District Judge C.B. McNeil’s March 5 ruling in favor of the county failed to recognize that the expanded authority for fire districts applied to those already in existence prior to the passage of the 1992 law.

“This is not an issue governed by the rules on retroactive application of statutes,” McGrath wrote. “Impermissible retroactive application of a statute occurs when it is applied to divest or impair vested rights acquired under prior law, or when it creates a new obligation, imposes a new duty or attaches a new disability in respect to transactions already passed ... There has been no showing that the amendment at issue here, empowering the trustees of a district to provide emergency services, divested or impaired any vested right or adversely impacted any transaction already passed.”

The case pitted the Bull Lake Volunteer Fire District against Lincoln County, Sheriff Roby Bowe, the Troy Area Dispatch Board, the Libby Volunteer Fire Department, the Libby Volunteer Ambulance Service and the Troy Volunteer Ambulance. Attorneys representing the fire district argued that the host of defendants conspired to prevent the district from dispatching emergency personnel within its legally defined jurisdiction, an 11-mile stretch of Highway 56.

While the high court’s ruling favors Bull Lake on self-determination, McGrath writes the decision to dispatch still falls with the county, specifically Bowe as the county’s top safety officer. Since, Bowe said he has taken steps to move the county ahead.

 “We already implemented a new fire-dispatch policy back in September that was well-received by all the county fire chiefs,” Bowe said. “The Libby and Troy (Public Safety Answering Points) are operating under that policy now. This was the first of several steps we’re taking to develop a comprehensive countywide policy that works for everyone.”

Bull Lake Volunteer Fire District Chief Clyde Miller is grateful for the Supreme Court’s decision, and he said it’s time to put all this behind and move forward.

“We’re delighted with it,” Miller said. “All we ever wanted to do is serve our district. We have never put down any other agencies, and have tried to work with them. It’s time to move forward for all in Lincoln County. I don’t have any animosity for anyone. We’ve been doing a lot of praying,” said Miller, a pastor at Majestic View Ministries.

Critical to the high court’s ruling and overturning of the McNeil decision, McGrath writes “contrary to the District Court’s conclusions, the statutes are clear that when a district is governed by a board of trustees, as is the case with the Bull Lake Fire District, the trustees and the fire chief determine the scope of the district’s services under Montana law.”

Further, citing the 1995 case between the City of Cut Bank v. Glacier County as precedent, the chief justice writes, “Montana law contains no requirement that a district seek prior approval of the county before it can provide any of the emergency services provided in Montana law.”

McGrath, however, on Page 9 of the 11-page decision, wrote “under certain circumstances the county may dissolve a district.”  McGrath cites MCA § 7-33-2128, in which residents with a jurisdiction may petition the county for dissolution.

Presiding Commissioner Tony Berget said the county is moving forward after the ruling.

“We are looking at providing a unified quilted blanket of service in Lincoln County,” Berget said. “The sheriff is establishing a protocol that will define response. We will support him as he has to make the call who to dispatch.”