Saying no

Newport council remains opposed to county-wide EMS

NEWPORT – The Newport City Council continued their opposition to the formation of a county-wide Emergency Services District during a workshop following their regular meeting Monday, Aug. 4.

EMS in the county is working fine, therefore it is not needed, according to the council. How would it be funded? How could it be dissolved?

These were some of the remarks council members made Monday night in reaction to county commissioner Robert Rosencrantz’s proposed bylaws. The workshop was held to respond to the draft bylaws released last month by the Pend Oreille County commissioners, who have the power to form an EMS district by themselves. It would be a taxing district but to have a tax, a supermajority of the county’s voters would have to approve it.

“Where is the funding coming from for this district?” councilmember Mark Zorica asked, a theme echoed throughout the workshop.

Newport City Administrator Abby Gribi said the creation of the district would cost something. There are incidental costs for things like funding of meeting places, agendas, mailings as well as time spent by staff. Forming an EMS district was a waste of time and resources, she said.

“You have the (fire) districts, you have the electeds, it’s duplication of work that’s already being done,” Gribi said. She said there was no clear intent of what the money would be used for if a district were formed and a tax levy passed.

“I asked a lot of questions, I was told wait until you read the bylaws,” Gribi said. “None of my questions were answered through the bylaws.”

South Pend Oreille Fire and Rescue Fire Chief Shane Stocking said SPOFR remains opposed to the creation of the county-wide EMS district, although SPOFR elected commissioners haven’t met yet to formally make a response to the bylaws, he said.

South Pend Oreille County Fire and Rescue is the fire district Newport contracts with for fire protection.

Ken Smith, the longest serving council member, was troubled about money if an EMS district was formed.

“My issue is the same as Mark’s,” he said “Where is the money? Where is it coming from?”

Smith was concerned about insurance.

“Anybody running any kind of thing that doesn’t have insurance is an idiot,” he said. “Insurance is not cheap.”

Councilmember Jamie Sears said she is opposed to having fire districts forced into an EMS district. If county commissioners formed a district with fire district officials on the board, when it became apparent that a tax levy was needed for funding, the fire districts would be the ones getting the blame.

“It’s just passing on the accountability,” she said.

She was also concerned about the requirement in the draft bylaws that actions must be taken by a unanimous vote.

“When it has to be unanimous, what’s preventing people from just stalemating and just being a completely ineffective district?” she said.

Newport Mayor Keith Campbell agreed.

“One dissenting vote and it’s a stalemate forever,” he said.

Rosencrantz said it was a conscious decision to require a unanimous vote by an EMS board before an action is taken.

“A real decision point was majority vote or unanimous vote,” Rosencrantz said. He said a majority vote could mean that people would be required to do something they didn’t want to do.

With the requirement for a unanimous vote, that isn’t the case. “No department or district will be forced to do anything because it has a veto vote.”

He said that could mean someone could just say no and bring action to a halt. He said that he’s seen in the private sector times when a unanimous vote was required by a group and it happened. When things go right or wrong enough, that unanimous vote was achieved, he said.

When there are people on the EMS District board who want or need to make things happen, they’ll happen, Rosencrantz said.

Councilmember Nathan Longly said that if no action can happen without a unanimous vote, it is essentially just an advisory board. He asked if it the EMS board was just an advisory board, was it worth the time.

Rosencrantz said it would be a legal board, able to act if things got worse in the future. He didn’t see it as an advisory board. He said he didn’t think commissioners would vote on forming an EMS district until October.

He said he was optimistic if people were on the board who made a commitment to make the best of a situation, that would happen. He wants to have an EMS district to deal with an unpredictable future.

“We don’t know when that might be, we don’t know what the condition might be, but I’d much rather have it in place and the potential for good things to happen,” he said, rather than to look back and say he wished it had been in place.

Rosencrantz was in the minority Monday night.