ARLINGTON — In a valley known for pulling together in times of crisis, a nasty fight has been brewing over who can help people during medical emergencies and who should pay for it.
The city of Arlington and Fire District 21 have been embroiled in a legal dispute for more than a year over ambulance coverage to certain areas of the Stillaguamish Valley.
The city says it’s been subsidizing the fire 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.
Two weeks ago, the city said the fire district “does not want to pay their fair share.” In response, the district said Arlington “needs to sharpen their pencil significantly.” Both sides had already unleashed their lawyers.
Then last weekend, the two sides decided to restart negotiations, this time between Mayor Barb Tolbert and the elected fire commissioners, with the goal of finding a resolution by month’s end. The fire chiefs will be in the background.
The arrangement between the city and fire district has existed since the 1990s and had been governed by a contract that expired at the end of 2014. Since then, lawyers representing the two agencies have exchanged a flurry of letters, with both sides threatening litigation, according to public records obtained by The Daily Herald. At stake are hundreds of thousands of tax dollars a year. The dispute also is raising questions about the sustainability of a decades-old EMS system that was created piecemeal as rural fire departments developed and populations grew.
The city’s public safety director is Bruce Stedman, a former fire chief from California. He’s been working since 2014 under a contract to oversee the Arlington police and fire departments. His contract expires in June.
Fire District 21 is headed by Chief Travis Hots, who grew up in Marysville and now leads two local fire districts, the other being Getchell. In the days immediately after the devastating Oso mudslide, Hots became the public face of the emergency response, delivering daily press briefings in Arlington. Stedman also was a constant presence during those difficult days, when Arlington and Darrington and everyone in between pitched in whatever they had to get each other through.
Those efforts haven’t stopped. In April, both cities’ mayors presented their shared economy recovery plans at a national competition where they won $100,000. Together, leaders from the Stilly Valley now are among the finalists competing for a $3 million prize next year.
At the same time, they’re arguing about ambulances.
The city fire department and the rural fire district are separate agencies with their own budgets and tax bases. 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 fire district’s annual income.
Now the fire district is trying to re-assert control within its boundaries.
“Impasse was reached in March 2015, and the matter was then put in the hands of the agency attorneys,” city spokeswoman Kristin Banfield said.
Since 1999, the city fire department has overseen paramedic service in an area that stretches from Silvana to Darrington. For decades before, EMS was run by Arlington’s Cascade Valley Hospital.
Fire District 21, also known as Arlington Rural, is shaped like a donut that nearly surrounds city limits. The district serves 8,214 people living in 68 square miles, including Arlington Heights, Trafton, Jim Creek, Jordan Road and Burn Road.
The dispute in Arlington is happening as conversations take place all over Snohomish County about the future of the fire service. Many departments are trying to work together and reduce overhead. Those efforts often get hung up on money and power. Police and fire departments account for more than half of all government spending in the county, and fire departments can charge varying rates for ambulance rides.
In 2011, a change to ambulance services in Darrington created a public outcry. That was after the Darrington fire district decided to run its own ambulances and break up a 20-year-old partnership with the town’s volunteer ambulance association.
The Arlington dispute involves patient care but also revenue and politics.
Fire District 21 is in ongoing merger talks with two other north county fire districts. They are moving toward forming a new supersized agency, called a regional fire authority. The talks are underway with Fire District 22 in Getchell, which Hots already runs, and Fire District 19 in Silvana.
District 21 has an annual budget of $883,600. The district’s last levy proposal failed to win voter approval in fall 2014.
The district’s most recent contract with the city of Arlington was up for renegotiation in summer 2014. That didn’t go so well.
From the onset, “it became apparent that the two sides were approaching the issues from completely different perspectives and needs,” wrote Steven Peiffle, an attorney who frequently represents Arlington, in a March 2015 letter.
The city maintains that by law it has to provide medical service in the fire district because it holds the necessary trauma license from the state Department of Health. The fire district sought a review of the license in recent months. The state told the district and the city to work it out among themselves.
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.
When asked for comment on the dispute, Arlington officials issued a five-page statement. The statement started with a quote from 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.
Meanwhile, Hots says his fire station has adequate staffing.
“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),” he said in an interview. “It’s more efficient and those dollars stay right here in our community.”
The barbed language isn’t a new development.
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. The exact number has been a moving target, but remains in the six-figure range, records show.
Snure offered a settlement in which the fire district would start paying the city a lower percentage of its levy each year through 2017. In exchange, the proposal would allow fire district crews to handle all lower-level medical emergencies in district boundaries — such as someone with a broken arm. Under that proposal, city crews would still handle the district’s most serious medical incidents, such as someone having a heart attack.
“We felt that we had gotten ourselves into this situation years before I was there, and we were overpaying,” Hots said. “We felt that we should help resolve the problem by weaning the city off of those dollars over a period of time, so they could make the necessary financial adjustments.”
In July 2015, the city’s attorney wrote that “we obviously strongly disagree” with the accusation of overcharging.
“It’s unfortunate that to date we haven’t been able to find common ground,” Peiffle wrote. “I have been authorized to commence litigation, if necessary, to bring this issue to a head.”
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.
The district in September offered up another set of settlement terms and threatened to take legal action if the matter didn’t get resolved. It accused the city of using the state ambulance license as a “negotiating chip.”
Also in September, the Arlington City Council authorized the filing of a lawsuit. Council documents say at that point, the district owed more than $200,000. No lawsuit was filed, though. Instead, the city commissioned a study focused on fire departments in the region and how they provide emergency medical services. The study found that Arlington is using its general fund to support regional EMS, and its taxpayers are “shouldering this burden,” according to the city’s statement.
Hots says the study was written with the city’s interests in mind and says Arlington wants to charge an “outrageous” amount.
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. The city says the district still owes nearly twice that amount.
In April, the district made a new settlement offer, with another check that Hots says would pay off the 2015 balance.
The city received the checks but hasn’t cashed them, referring to the amount offered as “not acceptable.” The city says cashing the checks would mean agreeing to the fire district’s terms for future transactions.
The state health department weighed in during December, with advice from state attorneys. The state recommended the city provide ambulance service to the fire district until the two sides reach an agreement and obtain modified licenses.
On Dec. 24, the fire district wrote that it would follow the state’s recommendation but would not pay Arlington if city firefighters and medics continued to respond to lower-level emergencies in the district.
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.
Before the new negotiations were proposed, the most recent settlement offer was sent by the city of Arlington on April 5. The city offered to relinquish its right to send ambulances into district boundaries if the district agreed to pay nearly $354,000. Under that offer, the fire district could have started running ambulances immediately for the more-routine calls. Serious incidents, requiring paramedics, wouldn’t have been handled by the district until 2018.
That offer expired April 18.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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