Brothers and Sisters,

As an update to the EMS issue, we have been meeting with all of the EMS stakeholders over the last few days to see if we could resolve our differences over SB1391. This was at the direction of the Senate Health and Welfare committee, whose message has been that if we cannot find a solution, they will. This is an ultimatum I don’t want to see played out as it is uncertain what they would deliver. The best case scenario would be SB1391 which is totally unacceptable as written.  Obviously, the choices get worse from there. 

I think we have been very successful in our meetings, having come up with a compromise that appears to be acceptable to all parties. The lawyer for the Idaho State Fire Commissioners Association, Bill Gigray, drafted a compromise proposal over the weekend based on our discussions at a meeting on Friday. We reviewed that proposal today and it appears to be one that we should be able to sign on to. The PFFI EMS committee will discuss the proposal tomorrow on a conference call to determine our support. 

In order to allow time for the negotiations over SB1391, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee will not hear the bill again on Tuesday (tomorrow) like I had said before. Instead the hearing will tentatively resume this Wednesday at 3:00 pm in the same committee room. Please plan on attending if you can.

Thanks. 

 

Mike Walker

Professional Firefighters of Idaho

Executive Vice President

(208) 869-6469