Volunteers want fire chief to open lines of communication

Latest rift involves his decision to cut fuel expenses for smaller fire trucks

‘‘It’s time to take it back,” said Riverdale Volunteer Fire Chief Vince Harrison, who urged other members to assert more control in the department at a countywide meeting of the independent volunteer fire companies May 27. ‘‘If we don’t lock arms and do something right now, there will not be a volunteer fire department.”

Sedgwick’s directive in early May to cut fuel expenses by mothballing the smaller trucks and cutting down the number of funded support vehicles for each station was the latest in a series of actions that volunteers say they plan to appeal to higher county officials.

According to volunteers, Sedgwick’s tenure as chief has damaged volunteer department operations and recruitment. Volunteers said he has hampered their fundraising efforts, issued directives that hinder recruitment and retention, and refused to meet informally with the unpaid volunteers since taking the post in early 2005.

‘‘We’re a combination department. That’s the way it is,” said Bob Russell, president of the Prince George’s County Volunteer Fire & Rescue Association, a group that includes members from each volunteer company in the county. ‘‘If you can’t come to our meetings, that’s a problem.”

Mark Brady, a spokesman for the county fire department, declined to comment on the complaints.

‘‘These are internal issues that we’re not going to play out in the public forum,” he said.

Brady acknowledged in an earlier interview that Sedgwick does not attend the volunteer associations’ meetings, which is an informal council of all 40 companies and interested members. However, he said the fire chief meets regularly with the elected, all-volunteer Fire Commission that controls the department’s equipment budget, and also holds open-door monthly meetings on Saturdays to hear concerns.

‘‘He has a meeting with the leadership once a month and they discuss issues,” Brady said.

Prince George’s County’s is one of the largest departments in the nation that combines a paid career force with volunteers. Today, the county fire department uses about 750 paid firefighters and paramedics but also saves costs by relying on about 1,300 volunteers who cover mostly night, weekend and holiday shifts.

The county’s volunteer stations have long operated independently, recruiting their own members and raising money to purchase major equipment like fire engines and ambulances for each station. In return, the county runs the whole department, giving funds to maintain the stations, equipment and keep the fleet of expensive trucks running 24 hours a day in addition paying career firefighters’ wages and benefits.

But volunteers say the process has become strained under Sedgwick, who has issued new regulations and directives that they say make it harder to run the unpaid volunteer force.

Last year, for instance, the central office mandated that stations could no longer rent their private halls for parties and other functions without proper permits from the county, a move volunteers said has cut into their ability to raise money because of the time it takes to get the permits. Other volunteers say county requirements that volunteers get physicals and other certifications during the day at private hospitals make it difficult on working people who volunteer in their spare time.

‘‘We’ve done this for years. We’ve probably saved thousands of lives, and millions in taxpayer money,” said Jim Collins, former president of the volunteer association. ‘‘It’s like we’re getting the carpet pulled out from under us, like we don’t matter anymore.”

Vernon Herron, the county’s deputy chief administrative officer for public safety, who oversees the police and fire departments, attributed many of the issues to ‘‘a breakdown of communication,” and said the county plans to be more proactive in the future.

‘‘The challenge is that we need to maintain the integrity of our operation, while keeping within fiscal constraints,” said Herron, who said he plans to ‘‘stay engaged” with the volunteers.

‘‘It’s important that we stay together,” Herron said.

Volunteers have said they are considering hiring a lobbyist to work with the county on their issues, though some company officials warn they are near a breaking point on their agreement to provide fire services.

‘‘If the contract stays the way it is, we will forgo that contract,” said Bowie Volunteer Fire Company President Jon Bigony.

E-mail Daniel Valentine at dvalentine@gazette.net.