The Boardman Fire Rescue District has filed its response to the lawsuit from the Morrow County Health District in the fight over ambulance service in Morrow County.
The health district on May 10 filed a $4 million lawsuit in Morrow County Circuit Court against Morrow County and the fire district in Boardman, claiming the local governments are jeopardizing public safety and breaking the law to create a new special district for ambulance services in Boardman. The health district in its pleading asked the court to prevent the county and fire district from forming a new ambulance service district out of fear of losing money to competition from the fire district.
Attorney Timothy Coleman of Sussman Shank in Portland is representing the fire district and on Wednesday, June 7, filed a request in Morrow County Circuit Court seeking a review of the ambulance service situation and to block the health district from any actions against the fire district during that review. The 22-page request argues the health district has violated state law and time and time again acted without legal authority against the fire district.
Oregon law requires counties to adopt an “Ambulance Service Area Plan,” according to the court filing, and Morrow County adopted its plan in 1998. But the health district “erroneously contends” the county board of commissioners in April 2021 adopted a draft of an ASA plan. The county, however, never did that, according to the request.
Since the enactment of the 1998 plan, a single ambulance service area has covered Morrow County with the MCHD being the sole ambulance service provider.
As a result, the fire district’s attorney states, “MCHD has acted under the erroneous impression that it was granted an exclusive and perpetual license by the Morrow County BOC under the 1998 ASA Plan to both provide and regulate ‘ambulance services’ within the Morrow County ASA.”
But it’s the Morrow County Board of Commissioners that have the authority to regulate ambulance services under the 1998 plan.
The filing also contends the 1998 ordinance specifies the county commissioners have the authority to appoint members to the Morrow County Emergency Medical Services Advisory Committee, but the Morrow County Health District Board of Directors instead has been making those appointments. “Accordingly, the formation and composition of the EMSAC is illegal,” the filing claims, “and procedurally invalid under the express terms of the 1998 Ordinance and ASA Plan.”
Oregon law authorizes the fire district to “operate or acquire and operate, or contract for the operation of, emergency medical service equipment and vehicles both within and without the boundaries of the district.” But the fire district contends it does not provide an ambulance service, which Oregon law defines as “the transportation of an individual who is ill or injured or who has a disability in an ambulance and, in connection therewith, the administration of prehospital and out-of-hospital medical, emergency or nonemergency care, if necessary.”
Instead, the fire district responds to the scenes of medical emergencies and situations in Morrow County as an initial responder, so that its employees and volunteers can stabilize patients for transport by ambulance. Once an ambulance service provider arrives, BFRD continues to provide emergency medical services only at the direction of the ambulance service provider. Because the fire district does not provide ambulance service, the fire district contends it is not a party to the 1998 plan nor the 2021 plan.
The Morrow County Health District, then, has no jurisdiction or authority over the fire district, the filing states, but that has not stopped the health district from trying to “enforce its unlawful and improper findings and orders against BFRD.
Boardman Fire Rescue also took issue with the Morrow County Health District’s move at a public meeting in March 2022 to prevent the sheriff’s office 911 center from dispatching the fire district to all medical emergencies aside from vehicle crashes and when the health district asks for the fire district. Beyond the health district lacking the authority to dictate 911 call terms, according to request, that “improper and illegal effort” also is “directly contrary to the express terms” of the 1998 plan.
The next month, the health district, the Emergency Medical Services Advisory Committee and the Quality Assurance Subcommittee entered a “determination” that “inaccurately and maliciously” accused the fire district of “call jumping” and failing to “adhere to appropriate protocol and procedure,” the filing states. Call jumping is the practice of an emergency services provider responding to the scene of an emergency without receiving a dispatch from the relevant 911 center. But the determination, according to the fire district, violates the 1998 plan and thus has “no binding effect on, or enforceability over” the fire district.
Moreover, the health district, advisory committee and the subcommittee made the determination in bad faith based on the “MCHD’s personal motives and biases in protecting its monopoly over ‘ambulance services’ in Morrow County rather than for any legitimate reason under the 1998 ASA Plan.”
The health district in July and again in September sent the fire district notices threatening sanctions for violations of the ambulance plan. The fire district asserted those notices were improper and illegal, yet the fire district agreed to mediation. That took place in September, but the two taxing districts were unable to resolve the dispute.
The health district “continued to escalate its efforts to improperly and unlawfully prevent BFRD from being dispatched to 911 calls for medical services within its district,” according to the filing, and Boardman Fire Rescue District Chief Michael Hughes in February asked the county board of commissioners to repeal the 1998 Ordinance and ASA Plan and replace it with a new ordinance and Plan. County counsel Justin Nelson in March hired Bob Blackmore at Innova Legal Advisors PC, Lake Oswego, to review documents and answer questions from the county board.
Blackmore concluded the county never adopted the 2021 plan and therefore the 1998 plan was in effect. The county board at its public meeting April 5 adopted Blackmore’s findings and decided to develop a new ambulance service area plan for the county.
“Despite the Morrow County BOC’s findings against them, MCHD decided to nonetheless proceed with the prosecution of its illegal, improper and baseless charges against BFRD,” the filing states, including “numerous defamatory and incendiary public statements against” the fire district.
Hughes nor other representatives showed up for the hearing. The filing states the health district “had no jurisdiction or authority to demand BFRD’s appearance at such a hearing, nor any jurisdiction or authority to issue any findings, or assess any penalties, against BFRD under the 1998 plan or the inoperative 2021 plan.”
The health district on May 2 issued a “final order” against the fire district and ordered it to pay a $169,000 fine by May 10. Then the health district filed its lawsuit.
The fire district’s request ultimately contends the health district has no jurisdiction or authority to enter the default order and asks the court to order the health district to desist from any further proceedings.
Boardman Fire Rescue District also asks the court for a writ of review — that is, a review of the judicial actions in the ambulance service dispute.
