ARLINGTON – A legal dispute over ambulance coverage in the Stillaguamish Valley continues between the city and Fire District 21 after more than a year.
The two sides recently decided to restart negotiations, this time between Mayor Barb Tolbert and the elected fire commissioners.
The city says it’s been subsidizing the district with ambulance crews and is demanding more than $300,000. The district says Arlington overcharges for emergency medical services and is holding “hostage” the state license that allows a fire department to operate ambulances.
“It is extremely frustrating for our people and our citizens when they have a medical or trauma emergency to sit and wait for an ambulance to come from (Arlington),” district Fire Chief Travis Hots said.
Arlington officials issued a five-page statement. It starts with a quote from Public Safety Director Bruce Stedman.
“It is disappointing that District 21 will not pay the fair cost for delivering critical lifesaving services to their residents, while they continue to collect tax dollars to pay for those services,” he said.
The most-recent settlement offer was sent by the city April 5. The city offered to relinquish its right to send ambulances into district boundaries if the district agreed to pay nearly $354,000. The district could have started running ambulances immediately for more-routine calls. Serious incidents, requiring paramedics, wouldn’t have been handled by the district until 2018. That offer expired April 18.
The city says there are “geographic areas the district cannot realistically serve.”
District leaders maintain that they have the right to decide how services are provided in their taxing area.
In recent months the district sent the city a check for $190,320 as part of a settlement offer, saying it intended to send additional installments. In April, the district made a new settlement offer, with another check that Hots said would pay off the 2015 balance. The city said the amount was “not acceptable.”
The arrangement between the city and district has existed since the 1990s and had been governed by a contract that expired in 2014.
Under the now-expired contract, city crews responded to all medical emergencies and some fires in the district. The contract also required the fire district to turn over to the city all the money it collects under its emergency medical services levy. That’s about half of the district’s annual income.
Now the fire district is trying to re-assert control within its boundaries.
Since 1999, the city fire department has overseen paramedic service from Silvana to Darrington.
Fire District 21 is moving toward forming a regional fire authority with fire districts 22 in Getchell and 19 in Silvana.
The city maintains that by law it has to provide medical service in the fire district because it holds the trauma license from the state Department of Health. The district sought a review of the license in recent months.
The city has said that if the fire district pays what it considers overdue bills, the city will release part or all its license for areas within district boundaries.
The fire district’s attorney, Brian Snure, wrote the city in June 2015, saying the district was “unwilling and unable” to pay the amount the city sought.
In July 2015, the city’s attorney wrote that “we obviously strongly disagree” with the accusation of overcharging. But Steven Peiffle made a new settlement offer from the city. If the district paid 85 percent of what the city claims it is owed, or $171,415, for the first half of 2015, and provided proof it could run its own ambulances, the city would be willing to renegotiate the state license.
