Montgomery County’s fire department management, volunteers at odds

The commission’s seven members — two representatives from the volunteer departments, two from the career firefighters and three from the general public — review policy changes proposed by Fire Chief Richard Bowers and make recommendations, vetoing policies that don’t meet the majority’s approval.

If passed, the bill will eliminate the commission’s veto, making it an advisory body.

The move will allow Bowers to make decisions efficiently, said Assistant Chief Scott Graham, spokesman for the Fire and Rescue Service.

But the volunteers disagree, warning that the bill will strip the local departments of their independence and their influence.

Although the volunteers have a union-like organization in the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association, their collective bargaining rights are not established in law the way other unions’ are, said County Councilman Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg/Rockville and chair of the council’s Public Safety committee. Removing the commission’s voting powers would disproportionately hurt the volunteers, Andrews said.

But Graham said that Bowers is responsible for the services provided by all of the county’s fire departments, yet he’s the only department head whose decisions can be vetoed by his workers.

The bill is the latest move in a years-long battle between the volunteer fire departments and county leaders that has been escalated by recent budget constraints.

In preparing the current fiscal year’s budget, County Executive Ike Leggett cut $1.5 million from the local fire departments, said MCVFRA Executive Director Eric Bernard. He also proposed cutting the MCVFRA’s funding, though the council voted against it, Andrews said.

The dispute that inspired the bill was about the local department chiefs’ take-home vehicles. The volunteers paid for the vehicles, so they should keep the titles in their names, Bernard said. But the county pays for the fuel and the maintenance, so the vehicles should be considered county property, Graham countered.

The bill’s sponsors, Councilmen Marc Elrich and George Leventhal, D-at large, and Leggett could not be reached for comment.

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