The Medicine Bow Town Council has agreed to sign the proposed amendment to the South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Service (SCWEMS) Joint Powers Board (JPB) agreement that will allow the town of Hanna as a member entity.
The hour-and one-half long special meeting on Monday was focused on concerns raised by the town of Medicine Bow about the geographic composition of the JPB and repercussions if a member entity does not pay their dues in a timely fashion. Twenty-five people were in attendance at the meeting including the entire Medicine Bow town council, county commissioners, representatives from the town councils of Hanna and Elk Mountain, SCWEMS JPB representatives, the ambulance director and citizens.
After a concern about the possible overrepresentation of any one community based on where the representatives to the JPB may live was mentioned, attorney for the town of Medicine Bow Kelly Neville clarified that the town was no longer pursuing a geographic requirement for JPB representatives. Medicine Bow’s current concern at the meeting was a lack of ability to remove a representative who is not adequately serving their entity.
Carbon County Commissioner Sue Jones stated her opinion that the ability to remove a JPB representative would be best addressed in the by-laws of the JPB or in a town’s by-laws, not in the Joint Powers Agreement.
The second major concern brought forth by Medicine Bow is that neither the JPB agreement nor by-laws address non-payment of dues to the organization. Their fear was apparently stemmed from a recent commissioners’ meeting where a 30 percent across-the-board funding cut was proposed. The county commissioners present all stated that it was never the intent of the county to reduce their payments to SCWEMS.
Jones stated that JPBs are meant to function with the same revenue producing and fiscal responsibilities as any town or the county. Jones said her opinion was that any financial concerns should be addressed by the SCWEMS JPB and not be mandated by the member entities in the joint powers agreement.
After much discussion, Medicine Bow Councilperson Cynthia Chace said, “You know guys, maybe we ought to rethink and sign this agreement,” adding that she wants to ensure that her town does not come under obligation to pay more than their fair share in the future.
When there were no more questions from attendees, Medicne Bow Councilwoman Kenda Colman said to the crowd, “I guess the question is ‘Where are we in this?’ That’s the question. We have told you what our concerns are.”
Elk Mountain Mayor Morgan Irene responded with, “Everyone in this room, other than the folks from Medicine Bow, have signed and are ready to move forward. So the question is ‘Where are you?’ That’s the question. Are you willing to sign it and then move forward working with the board to address the questions that concern you?”
At that point Medicine Bow councilwoman Sharon Biamon moved to sign the amendment and Chace seconded. There was no opposition to the motion.
The next hurdle for the SCWEMS JPB will be to address the issue of penalties for member entities that do not pay their dues. One suggestion has been the suspension of an entity’s voting privileges on the JPB. Both the county and Medicine Bow directed their representatives to bring this issue before the JPB immediately.
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