Seeley Lake Fire Board
SEELEY LAKE – At their Feb. 15 meeting, Seeley Lake Fire Chief Dave Lane gave the Fire Board an update regarding the levy that was discussed last summer, proposed nearly doubling the ambulance rates to help offer a better salary for a full-time firefighter/paramedic and addressed the public concern regarding properties that could be a fire hazard. He also addressed comments made by the public at last month’s meeting that he felt were inaccurate.
The board took no action on the increased ambulance fees or paramedic position. They asked for more information to be presented at next month’s meeting.
Fire District Levy
The Fire Board met for an informational workshop June 8 when Lane explained the department’s current volunteer situation and outlined possible solutions. One of the solutions was running a levy to support six paid responders to supplement the volunteers. He also presented the Board with a proposal from Campbell DeLong Resources, Inc. to do outreach with the community.
Lane said he and a couple board members on the committee spoke after the workshop. Based on the proposed levy amount and property values in the District, the Missoula County Finance Department said the levy amount would need to be $300 - $400 taxed annually to raise enough funds.
“That is pretty significant to ask in this small community for six people,” Lane said. “The process did not go further, there was no approval to hire a company, there was no money spent on a company or going through any of this process contrary to what was said in last month’s meeting. We will not be asking for a levy as we were discussing before.”
Ambulance rates and firefighter/paramedic position
Lane presented a survey of rates charged by 354 ambulance services across the county that was compiled by the District’s billing company. The average rate for an Advanced Life Support (ALS) call is around $1,340 - $1,440 depending on the care received. The average Basic Life Support call is around $1,180. On average, the mileage rate is about $17 per mile.
Currently, the Seeley Lake ambulance service charges $700-750 for an ALS call, $600 for a BLS call and $20 per mile.
Lane requested the board raise their ALS and BLS rates to the surveyed average. He said raising the base rate would only affect people without insurance. There would be no change for patients with Medicaid and Medicare because they have a contracted amount. Also, rates for insurance companies that have a contract for service with the District will not change. However, people with insurance companies that do not have a contract with the District, would pay the new amount.
Lane said based on the 145 medical calls that they transported in 2020, only eight patients did not have insurance. Using data from 2020 and the first 10 months of 2021, Lane estimated the ambulance service would see a net increase of $16,000 - $45,000 with the average being $30,000-$35,000.
Vice Chair Gary Lewis pointed out that if they approved raising the rates to the average, the District would be nearly doubling their base ambulance rates.
Trustee Jon Kimble asked if there were any qualifiers in the survey like population or call volume.
Lane said there was nothing put in to disqualify a company from the survey.
Seeley Lake resident Susan Monahan commented that the board should be careful raising the rates so much without researching how much some of the larger insurance agencies in Montana are willing to pay.
“I’m not saying don’t raise your rates because it does look like they are low, but make sure, even people with insurance aren’t going to get stuck with a huge bill that their insurance company won’t pay,” Monahan said.
Rossi motioned to raise the rates to the average. It died without a second.
Lane explained the main reason for raising the rates is to help fund a firefighter/paramedic position. The current job posting is for $40,000 per year and they have not received a single application.
Lane said the state average for the position is $47,000 starting. To be competitive and get someone that would hopefully stay in the position, Lane would like to offer $50,000 starting.
“If we raise our rates and get that extra revenue and raise [the position] up to $50,000 that will still leave us a surplus in the ambulance revenue increase to do other things,” Lane said explaining the current budget can support $40,000 starting.
Kimble said while there is a lot of merit in the proposal, he would like more information specifically a population-based comparison on the rates. That way it would tighten up the average for service districts with 2,500 – 3,000 people.
Lewis said he doesn’t like the idea of doubling it.
“Nobody wants to pay anything if they don’t have to,” Lewis said. “But if you want a service that is going to take care of our community the way it needs to be taken care of, it needs to be paid for, unless we do the levy.”
Rossi said she would rather not see a levy where everyone has to pay. Increasing the fees would only impact those that use the service.
“Right now we have a couple active EMTs that are running all the calls,” Lane said. “We are getting people through school, we are trying to get staffed up well enough to be prepared but still looking in the future, I think ALS is a good thing for the community.”
Lane will present the more targeted survey results and information from the insurance companies at the next meeting. No action was taken.
Fire hazard properties
Monahan spoke about properties that she considered fire hazards. She identified a property in town that she drives by every day that has fire hazards visible from the road including extension cords that were plugged in and being used to hang laundry and a wood stove being used in a mobile home that is supposed to be unoccupied. Based on her research, she felt that Lane can address these fire hazards by talking with the people living on the property. If they don’t comply, the issue could be turned over to law enforcement.
Monahan added the board also has the authority to advise of the issues or reach out to Missoula County.
“It is not the only fire hazard in the community but we had what happened on Juniper and we lost two homes,” Monahan said. “To me this is not an if it catches on fire, it is when that catches on fire.”
Monahan said she spoke with a long-time fire chief from Lincoln County. He was part of a committee made up of the fire chief, law enforcement representative, commissioner, someone from the Lincoln County planning department and one from the county sanitation department. They met monthly to address concerns regarding fire hazard properties in Libby, Montana. This effort cleaned up 116 properties.
Lane said Board Member Connie Clark asked him to put this on the agenda but it falls under code enforcement, an operational issue.
“When you say to get everybody involved, you are basically overstepping me to talk to the board without me knowing about what is happening,” Lane said. “I appreciate you speaking up and allowing me to hear what you have to say, but if you have more to let me know, please do let me know before a board meeting.”
Monahan responded that she felt addressing it in a public forum was the most appropriate way. She is sure there are other properties in the community that present similar fire hazards. She felt bringing it to the board was helpful so they could give him direction.
“They don’t give me so much operational direction as much as administrative,” Lane said. “If it doesn’t happen to your satisfaction then bring it to the board and say, ‘Hey, he is not doing his job.’ That is probably more appropriate and I guarantee you I will be doing my job because I now know my story better, who to call and how to approach this.”
Transparency
Lane said there were statements made at the January meeting about transparency that he wanted to address. He said transparency is how the District shares information as it related to the community about things they are doing. It is not opening the door for criticism, attacks or calling the District out on an error. Lane highlighted that the District has improved their transparency over the past few years including providing board packets at the meeting.
Lane said Kristy Pohlman’s statement regarding the budget increasing exponentially was erroneous. In 2014-2015 the budget was $394,048, in 2017 it increased to $441,414 due to the Rice Ridge Fire and this year it dropped to $372,663.
“This is total transparency, I’m telling you pulling from past budgets, we have not increased our budget exponentially or at all,” Lane said. “We have actually decreased our budget.”
In the Dec. 14 meeting, Shirley Goudzwaard asked some clarification questions. Even though she met with Lane and Chair Scott Kennedy following the meeting and they all felt her questions were addressed, she asked they be addressed publically in a meeting.
Most of Goudzwaard’s questions dealt with the Chief’s responsibilities being operational and the board’s responsibilities being administrative.
Regarding communication between the Chief and the board, only two board members can meet with the Chief and he can talk to any of the board members individually. Because it is a small community with limited businesses, there may be board members in the same business and they can even sit together. However, they cannot discuss board business or they are violating open meeting law.
Updates and public comment
In the Chief’s report, Lane said they currently have three volunteers working on their task books, one of which is nearly complete, and another one that will start their task book this week. It takes a week to six months to complete the task book.
The District also still has a lot of at-home COVID tests available. The public is invited to come and pick them up.
In public comment, Pohlman asked about the amount of notice for the Feb. 15 meeting. While the agenda is typically posted on Friday before the Tuesday meeting, it was not posted online or posted at the Fire Hall over the week.The agenda was posted online early Monday afternoon. This only gave 28 hours notice. She said this is significantly less that the recommended 48 hour notice per the Attorney General’s opinion of Montana Code Annotated 2-3-103.
Pohlman felt this is a transparency issue since there were items on the agenda of potential major significance to the community.
Administrative Assistant Lakaya Lemons apologized for not posting the agenda sooner. Vice Chair Gary Lewis also apologized.
Also it was noted by several members of the public how refreshing the last two meetings have been where they were able to ask questions and have an open discussion without fear of reprimand or being shut down.
The board will discuss the ambulance fee increase and firefighter/paramedic position at the next meeting, Tuesday, March 15 at 6 p.m. at the Seeley Lake Fire Hall. For more information and the agenda visit seeleyfire.org.
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