1 week Ago By MIKE SMITH [email protected]
A Montana Senate committee advanced legislation Monday that has stirred new controversies amidst decades of rifts and feuding between paid and volunteer firefighters in Butte-Silver Bow. A few tweaks were made to House Bill 547 before the Senate Local Government Committee endorsed it on a 6-4 vote Monday, but a primary backer, Democrat state Sen. Derek Harvey of Butte, says its end result is the same.
It would effectively give the chief of Butte’s paid firefighters clear command over that department and the nine volunteer departments in Butte-Silver Bow County. Many volunteer firefighters here are vehemently opposed to it. House Bill 547 passed the full House on a 72-26 vote in late February and it got a hearing before the Senate Local Government Committee on March 28.
It cleared that committee late Monday afternoon and now goes to the full Senate. If the full Senate approves the bill, it must still go back to the House since there were recent changes made. Harvey said there is enough time for all of that this session.
In this file photo from July 2022, Firefighter Matt Doble sprays water from the firetruck on to the roof of a home located on West Daly Street in Walkerville. “I hope this is just the first step into bringing some good definition and ultimately I think it’s going to bring folks together,” Harvey, a paid firefighter in Butte, told The Montana Standard on Monday. “This is going to be tough and good things often go through hard times, but I think ultimately we are going to end up with better (firefighting) service in the end.
” The Standard has detailed the fight over House Bill 547 at length in previous stories. In a nutshell, Butte-Silver Bow’s charter gives the chief of the paid fire department administrative authority over all departments, including the volunteer ones. But a state law enacted in 1979 effectively allows volunteer departments to retain their own elected trustees and some autonomy in Butte-Silver Bow.
House Bill 547 aims to repeal that law, giving the paid fire chief clear command of all departments. Supporters of House Bill 547 say it is needed to clear up 47 years of disputes over who has final say on matters such as training requirements, response plans and chain-of-command decisions at fire scenes. The bill gives final say to the chief.
Harvey, Butte-Silver Bow Fire Chief Zach Osborne and county Chief Executive J.P. Gallagher back the bill, saying it could end 47 years of animosity and improve fire protection.
Volunteers say the bill will strip away any sense of their autonomy and decision-making, a lot of that currently resting with elected trustees. Many volunteer firefighters and department chiefs have testified against the bill for those reasons. They also claim that county officials must have known for months that the bill was in the works but only told the general public, commissioners and volunteer departments about its existence in late February.
Harvey said amendments added Monday address a couple of things. He said more research revealed that Montana law authorizes two ways to consolidate city and county governments. One option is to rely heavily on a local charter, the path voters in Butte-Silver Bow chose 1977.
The other option relies more heavily on state law than a local charter. Anaconda-Deer Lodge chose that route decades ago, Harvey said. Butte-Silver Bow and Anaconda-Deer Lodge are currently the only two consolidated local governments in Montana.
Harvey said the language of the 1979 law that House Bill 547 aims to repeal was actually put under option two decades ago. The amendment puts the provisions under option one as intended, he said. Another amendment puts guarantees of pension protections for volunteer departments in the right section of Montana code, he said.
Sen. Becky Beard, R-Elliston, was among four committee members who voted against the bill late Monday afternoon. She said local governments fervently guard powers to direct their own destinies and she suggested local officials in Butte “go back to the drawing board” and figure out a solution on their own.
Sen. Christopher Pope, R-Bozeman, voted in favor of the bill, noting the conflict between Butte-Silver Bow’s local charter and state law. “It is my sense that with everything described to us, that somehow the statute, the construct, the framework for the community at large is broken, and without us passing this bill, there can be no healing, no progress forward after 47 years,” Pope said.
It wasn’t immediately clear when the full Senate might act on the bill..
