Rescue squad balks at agreement
The city of Lexington’s plans to hire a full-time emergency services director have hit a snag: The Lexington Life Saving and First Aid Crew says it is not going to sign off on the proposal.
The Lexington Fire Department recently agreed to the plan, which would create a full-time joint position with the duties of fire chief and rescue squad captain assigned to the new director.
“It’s pretty cut and dried,” said Clint Conner, captain of the Life Saving and First Aid Crew, locally known as the rescue squad. “We haven’t signed up for it and we don’t plan on signing up for it.”
The fire department and the rescue squad don’t work together on a regular basis, but they do collaborate when there is a fire involving victims. A joint director would bring both of these volunteer-staffed emergency services formally under the city’s jurisdiction.
City Manager Jon Ellestad said the city already considers the rescue squad one of its departments, although volunteer. He also said he could probably hire the new emergency director without Conner’s consent, although that would not be preferable.
“But I’m not so sure the rescue squad has given it proper consideration,” Ellestad said.
The agreement between the city and the Lexington Fire Department came as part of the resolution of the department’s seven-month federal lawsuit against the city. The lawsuit was over control of the fire department’s money, an issue raised after city resident Dorothy Osburg died in 2006, leaving the volunteer fire department a portion of her $2.8 million estate.
According to the lawsuit, a co-executor of Osburg’s estate turned the donation over to the city, which then declined to pass it on to the fire department. The city maintained that the fire department was under its supervision, a claim the department fought in the court. The agreement clarifies the contested relationship, affirming that the fire department is officially under city control; that the city will assume existing fire department debt, and that the city treasurer and finance department will handle the fire department’s books, Ellestad said.
An emergency director would be hired July 1 or as soon as practical, according to the agreement. A five-person committee of Fire Chief David Clark, Chief Fire Engineer Ron Williams, Ellestad and City Council members Frank Friedman and Jim Gianinny is working on a job description for the new position.
Clark said the committee hopes to get it done in the next couple of weeks. After the description goes out, Clark said, he wants the fire department and rescue squad each to submit three or four names of possible candidates to Ellestad. The city manager will have control over the hire and “all subsequent personnel decisions,” according to a memo sent by the committee to the fire department.
Clark said the new director would make between $50,000 and $55,000. But he doesn’t believe that is enough money for a joint position that will require a lot of work.
“This new chief comes in and has to run two departments, which may end up becoming one department,” he said. “I might argue council with [the pay]. The first year or two with this new guy is going to be a whole lot of work."
It appears the biggest remaining problem is to convince the rescue squad that a director is necessary. Clark has said the fire department’s volunteer staff have had trouble staying on top of administrative and financial duties. The department has exceeded its budget for the past four years, which Clark attributed in part to having financial records kept by members of an all-volunteer department.
He says a paid fire chief would allow the volunteers to focus on the service they provide the community.
However, the rescue squad has a paid crew working during the day. And Conner, who was voted to a two-year term as captain by the roughly 40-member squad this year, says the rescue squad hasn’t run into any problems staying on top of things.
“They say we have to sign saying that we agree for this to happen. That has not been what the squad or any of the [previous] captains want, so we haven’t supported it,” Conner said. “[This is] not something that we even considered here.”
Ellestad said the next problem is getting funding for the new position into the city’s budget, and added that federal stimulus money isn’t an option. He said the city won’t get money to hire an emergency services director from that source.
“It’s going to come from the taxpayers,” he said.
Lexington City Manager's Office
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