Even at the Beach, You Can’t Escape the Burning Issues of the Day

They are apparently looking for clarity in Ocean City, Maryland. The Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company has been trying to figure out the intentions of town leaders after concerns were raised over who’s in charge.

This is a story that fits right in with some of the other issues you’ve been reading about on STATter 911. It has a bit of the career versus volunteer growing pains of the Stafford and Kentland stories. It also has some of the fire versus EMS issue illustrated by the Kentland problem. It also reminds me of the battle in New York between NYPD and FDNY over who is the lead agency following a terrorist attack or other major emergency. But unlike some of these other cases, this one was apparently settled pretty quickly, in what is being described as a somewhat confusing meeting with the Mayor and Council.

According to the Maryland Coast Dispatch, the OCVFC met with Ocean City leaders to clear up “a lot of mistrust and misconception” after two “unrelated documents” surfaced proposing that the career, Emergency Services Department would become the “senior partner” in the resort town’s pecking order. Here are some excerpts from the article:

Public safety for Ocean City is the top priority for each of the allied agencies that collaborate in the resort, but it was called into question recently which should be the lead agency, or “senior partner” as it was often called on Tuesday. A plan circulated in January that never saw the light of day called for the paid emergency services group to become the lead agency, while the 102-year-old OCVFC would be relegated to a lesser role, or, at the very least, an equal role with the paid emergency services agency.

After the cordial, but somewhat terse meeting with the Mayor and Council on Tuesday, the OCVFC was assured its leadership role was not being diminished, at least in the short term, and the volunteer group agreed to work with the paid Emergency Services group in the coming months to get a better understanding of each agency’s role.

The first (document) was a plan presented to the council by City Manager Dennis Dare that called for a lesser leadership role for the OCFVC and an expanded role for the town’s paid, career firefighters. The second, and likely less offensive document, is a memorandum of understanding between the volunteer fire company and the town’s paid Emergency Services Department, which essentially calls for a gradual melding of the two agencies, along with other emergency services providers in the resort such as the paid paramedics and the Fire Marshal’s Office, for example.

As the discussion moved back and forth between the ongoing memorandum of understanding between the OCVFC and Emergency Services, and the rather mysterious plan floated by Dare in January, many in the audience and more than a couple on the council became increasingly confused.
At one point, Councilman Jim Hall said it was uncertain, after all the discussion, just who was in charge of providing fire service for the town. “This is as clear as mud for me,” said Hall. “I don’t think we’ve got an answer still about who is in charge.”

Councilwoman Nancy Howard agreed it was still uncertain who was going to be in charge of providing fire service. While everybody appeared to be in agreement, there was still some confusion about who had the authority.
“If everything is going along swimmingly, when did the wheels come off the wagon?” said Howard. “I sense everything has changed in the last week. Can somebody explain this in plain English?”

In the end, the Council voted unanimously to re-affirm the authority of the OCVFC in the town’s fire service and also agreed to extend the memorandum of understanding between the two groups into the future.