Miller County Judge Cathy Hardin Harrison seeks to adopt new guidelines for the county's volunteer fire departments, a move that she says will help give additional oversight to the stations.
However, the proposal is getting some mixed reviews.
"I think this is the perfect solution for Miller County," Hardin Harrison said. " We're both giving and taking. It's a meet in the middle."
The proposed guidelines are an emergency services district model based on a document used by Conway County's fire department. In the past, local departments operated under handbooks prepared by the firefighters and the Miller County Rural Volunteer Fire Association.
The county's Quorum Court VFD committee members had been reviewing the handbooks earlier in the spring to prepare a new one when Harrison became aware of the Conway County guidelines during a meeting in Hot Springs.
George Goynes, Miller County Fire Association chairman, said he disagrees with Hardin Harrison presenting the handbook for approval without asking them their opinion on the guidelines contained therein.
"What she's doing is cutting us out completely," he said. "We have no say so. We don't have a choice. We have to live with whatever she does. She should have gotten us involved. We know that she is the judge and she is over the fire department. We know that and understand that. But all the other judges in the past have always worked with us and helped us. She apparently does not want to work with us."
Hardin Harrison said that she will work with the departments to implement the new procedure. She confirmed she did not ask volunteer firefighters their thoughts on the Conway model prior to deciding to put it in place.
"What they're wanting is to keep it the way it's always been, and the way it's been in the past is not working," Hardin Harrison said. "They've proven that themselves this year."
She said when she became judge at the first of the year, she asked for reports from the departments and told firefighters that state auditors would be reviewing the books in March.
"I went to ask for reports, telling them auditors are coming, and they still can't get the job done," she said. "There's a problem that we're getting bills turned in from last year. There is a problem when a chief holds a special class to make sure everyone has their training and never takes time to contact the Arkansas Fire Department Academy to make sure they get credit. When you've asked for this for five meetings and went to the board and had meetings and still can't produce it, there's a problem. Inventories are required by the state and I am liable for that. And the people of Miller County, I believe, should want to know what property does the county own. Do they want these firemen out buying inventory and not report? I'm just trying to make things right. The state requires this. They're good guys, but it's time for a change."
She said some fire chiefs have told her there are things on the run sheets that she is not allowed to see.
Goynes did not return phone calls seeking comment about the judge's statements regarding bills, training, inventories and run sheets.
Gary Sumner, who serves as Miller County fire marshal and chief of the Mandeville VFD, said he thinks the new procedures will work well.
"I believe it will be fine," he said. "It's like any time you get that big of a change. It'll take some adjustment and some tweaks here and there, but I think it will be fine."
Hardin Harrison said Mark Whitmore, lead counsel with the Association of Arkansas Counties, told her about the Conway procedures, which were prepared by Charles Gangluff, program manager with the Rural Fire Protection Program.
"Everything they were doing in their county sounded like something we needed to do in ours," Hardin Harrison said. "It's kind of a meet-in-the-middle policy. They still run their departments. They still have their own chief. They still have their own money, yet there is accountability because of the board."
That proposed board from the Conway model would include five judge-appointed members. Two would be nominated by the justices of the peace, two by Hardin Harrison and one by the volunteer fire department.
"I'm looking for business-minded people that look at budgets," the judge said. "We want somebody that can look at the whole picture, not just from one station's point of view. It's about Miller County as a whole, not just one station. Hopefully, this will do that."
The stations would bring budget items over a certain amount to be approved by the administrative board. If the board denies the item, the department could then appeal to the VFD committee, which then has the option to deny the item or to bring it before the Quorum Court.
"I think the board will be a good oversight," she said. "I think the board will be able to help administratively with the paperwork that's not being done. I realize these men and women all have full-time jobs and I think this will be an asset to them."