By Lance Benzel
Billings Gazette
Copyright 2007 The Billings Gazette
BILLINGS, Mont. — Fire officials will wait to pursue a paramedic service in anticipation of a multimillion-dollar tab from a lawsuit over firefighters’ back pay.
The Billings Fire Department — whose firefighters are cross-trained as emergency medical technicians — was exploring adding paramedics, who are capable of advanced treatment such as administering breathing tubes and life-saving drugs.
“Paramedic engine companies are still a goal of mine, but there’s too much ambiguity with how all this is going to turn out,” Fire Chief Marv Jochems said. “This isn’t a good time for new programs.”
The class-action lawsuit, filed in 2000 by firefighters, sought $3 million in unpaid wages for current and former firefighters who said they were not paid for all the hours they worked. Under the terms of a 1995 contract, the firefighters worked 43.5 hours per week and were paid for 40 hours a week.
A District Court judge ruled in favor of the firefighters in 2001. City officials have since complained that the firefighters long ago agreed to the arrangement and were exploiting a legal loophole.
In mid-August, the state Supreme Court ruled that the city would also have to pay penalties up to 55 percent of the total award. Attorney fees, court costs and the penalties could result in a bill as high as $5.4 million, one the city has indicated the Fire Department will end up paying.
The size of the award will be determined by the District Court, although a timetable has not been set.
The Fire Department said this month that it would seek independent financing for the paramedic program after the City Council rejected a proposal to fund the service earlier in the summer.
Critics pointed out that paramedics are provided by American Medical Response, the city’s private ambulance provider. But the Fire Department argues that fire houses should also be equipped with paramedics because firefighters arrive before AMR in most cases.
Paramedics on fire engines could help save lives, especially in the case of stroke and heart attack victims, said Dr. Peter Light, the Fire Department’s medical director.
Jochems said the program would cost about $56,000 a year. He had been exploring ways to share the expense through a contract with a private ambulance company, such as AMR, but the program has been cast into doubt by the lawsuit.
“If we get the high number, we’ve got to sit around and figure out what we can afford,” Jochems said.
Earlier this month, the Fire Department rescinded job offers to seven prospective firefighters who had expected to begin training in September. The city said it could not afford to hire the men and pay for the lawsuit.
Plans for a seventh fire station, to be built on the West End, are not affected.