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Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) said he is cancelling his recent order to disband the county's all-volunteer Firefighter Commission after a productive meeting with the group last week resolved long-standing complaints.

"Sometimes you have to do things in order to get people working together," said Johnson, who confirmed that he is no longer interested in replacing the elected volunteer group with an appointed mix of nine residents, career firefighters and volunteers.

"I have confidence that they will do the things that need to be done," Johnson said.

Johnson published the order earlier this month, raising an immediate protest from about 76 volunteers who turned out at the County Council on Oct. 7 to oppose the change. The county fire department is one of the largest in the United States that uses a blend of full-time career firefighters and local volunteers to man engines and ambulances.

While County Fire Chief Lawrence H. Sedgwick handles day-to-day operations and budgets for the department, each volunteer station raises its own money to buy equipment and ambulances and recruit members. According to volunteers, the free labor arrangement saves the county an estimated $240 million a year in costs.

Since the 1970s, the nine-member commission elected by the county's volunteer stations has handled the capital budget for new equipment and facilities, while the chief handles the operations funding.

Over the years, the two contingents have had disagreements over administration and funding issues in the department. The executive order came a month after state officials published an audit listing concerns about how individual stations handled a $2 million grant for equipment.

Volunteers, fearing that the commission shake-up would threaten their autonomy, met with Johnson Oct. 20 to voice their concerns. Both sides described the meeting, which ran more than two hours, as "productive."

"Ninety-nine point nine percent of those issues were addressed," said John Alter, president of the commission.

Johnson said issues with the audit have been addressed and he has agreed to give the commission greater oversight over accounting for the grant payments in the future. Alter said that issues listed in the audit report have been resolved and that no money was missing or misspent.

"The commission is going to take that over," Alter told the County Council last week.

Johnson said Alter and volunteers have also resolved questions about how to allocate money raised by billing patients for ambulance transport. In the past, individual stations handled the billing to patient auto and medical insurance and kept the payments to help fund each station.

Fire department officials announced this year that they are taking over the billing system, raising concerns that stations would no longer get the money. Johnson said he has reassured members that each company will receive payment.

"Once we get a system in place, we will ensure that every firehouse gets its proportion of its share," Johnson said. "They have depended on that money."

In another sign of progress between Johnson and volunteers, County Council members are scheduled to vote next month on two bills that would waive special permits for bingo games and other events in county fire halls. Volunteers had complained that county requirements for special permits were disrupting the ability of companies to raise money through events in their halls.

Both Alter and Johnson said that though they've made progress, communication issues in the department still require work to make sure disputes don't grow worse in the future.

Johnson said the two groups plan to meet again in April.

"We'll make sure the fire department chief works with them better," he said.

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