Medicine Bow only hold out on SCWEMS JPB amendment

The town of Elk Mountain held a special meeting Monday night at which they approved the proposed joint powers agreement (JPA) amendment to allow Hanna onto the South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Service (SCWEMS), leaving Medicine Bow as the only SCWEMS member to not sign the amendment as written.

Member entities Carbon County, Saratoga, Encampment, Riverside and hopeful member Hanna had all approved the JPA amendment prior to Elk Mountain’s special meeting.

The town of Medicine Bow did not approve the amendment at their Oct. 12 town council meeting and sent a list of the revisions they want to Carbon County, whose attorney has taken on drafting the amendment.

Medicine Bow’s proposed changes can be summarized as:

A requirement for member entity representatives to live within 10 miles of the municipality they reside in.

Suspending voting privileges to entities that use in-kind contributions, such as free use of ambulance garages or donations of equipment, if that entity is in arears for their yearly SCWEMS fee.

Disallowing the SCWEMS Joint Powers Board (JPB) to seek grants that require matching funds without the approval of the member entities.

The Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCC) has sent a letter to the town of Medicine Bow stating their disagreement with the perceived need to change the JPA amendment as written. The BOCC letter, authored by BOCC Chairman John Espy, states, “Once the SCWEMS Board was created, it was tasked with how to best carry out this purpose, and it has created by-laws to facilitate this purpose.”

The BOCC backs up this position noting that the JPB is tasked with determining appropriate fees for the service and is in charge of collecting those fees or services in kind. The BOCC states in the letter that any language in the JPA regarding fees to be paid or removal from the agreement, “Including such language takes the power to charge for medical services to this area from the SCWEMS Board. We created the SCWEMS Board for this purpose, and tasked them with this responsibility instead of each of the individual agencies providing this service on their own.”

The BOCC also contends that the demographic requirement that representative live within their jurisdiction would affect several of the member entities whose current representatives live outside their municipality. Furthermore, the demographic requirement would potentially hamper a municipality’s ability to choose who they believe is their best candidate for representation.

The BOCC states in its response to Medicine Bow, “We also believe it is necessary to allow the SCWEMS Board to apply for grants which do not require a sponsor, without approval from each participating agency.” The BOCC cites instances where the SCWEMS JPB has missed grant deadlines while waiting for member entities to approve the grant request. According to the BOCC some of the equipment the JPB was seeking grant funds for was required by the state. The lag time of waiting for entity approval of the grants meant that SCWEMS was unable to obtain the required equipment.

The BOCC finished their argument by explaining the difference between a JPB and an advisory committee. JPB’s are supposed to have enough autonomy to carry out their necessary function in an expeditious manner.

The adoption of the proposed SCWEMS JPA amendment requires a unanimous vote by all member entities. This means that Medicine Bow can delay the process or effectively kill the amendment if they do not agree to what the other entities have approved.