The Montgomery County Council's Public Safety Committee met on March 9, 2026, from 1:45 p.m. to 2:21 p.m. to consider two items: Expedited Bill 6-26, which clarifies the use of revenues from the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) insurance reimbursement program, and the FY27-32 Capital Improvements Program (CIP) for the Fire and Rescue Service. The committee unanimously recommended enactment of the bill and approved the CIP as submitted.
Well, good afternoon and welcome everyone to the Public Safety Committee work session of Monday, March 9th, 2026. Today we uh have two topics on the agenda. The first one is an expedited bill 626, fire and rescue services, emergency management, emergency medical services, insurance reimbursement program, use of revenues. The second is an FY27 through 32 capital improvement program of the Public Safety Fire and Rescue Service. As we begin, I'd like to thank Ms. Wellins and Ms. Farog for preparing the staff reports for today's topics, and once again and always assembling most informative packets for us. And unless the other committee members have anything to say, I'd like to invite the first panel to please come forward if there is a panel. Do we have a panel for this one? Well, then it won't take long for the panel to introduce themselves. Russell, you want to come forward. Um and I'm going to ask them to please introduce themselves and then Ms. Wellens, if she will walk us through the uh discussion. But if anybody has any opening statements from the panel, we'd like to hear that at this time as well. So if you all could Russell, could you please introduce yourself? Yeah. Yes, I'm Russell Hartung. I'm the president of the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire Rescue Association. I'm Dominic Del Pozo, I'm the Fiscal Management Division Chief for Fire and Rescue. Very good. Well, as we begin as we begin, I do want to certainly thank the all firefighters, career and volunteer, for everything you do in keeping us safe each and every day. And with that, Ms. Wellens. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Council Members. Good afternoon. Your item before you, uh, the first item is expedited bill 626, Fire and Rescue Services, Emergency Medical Services Insurance Reimbursement Program, use of revenues, as the chair stated. Um it was introduced on February 3rd, 2026, and a public hearing occurred on February 24th. To give you a little bit of context, the background for this bill is that uh beginning in 2013, uh, the county council, through a couple of pieces of legislation, authorized the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services to seek reimbursement for ambulance transports from private health insurance companies, Medicare, or Medicaid. Uh, the generated revenues are used to provide equipment, enhancement, and training for MCFRS, as well as the volunteer local fire and rescue departments, referred to as LFRDs, uh, without any additional costs or increased taxes for the tax for the county residents. Um of the net EMST revenues are allocated annually through the council operating budget resolution to support the LFRDs. And historically, what the county has done has been to uh the executive branch has the the council has specified the disbursement via the budget resolution, and then the county executive has entered into contracts uh with the authorized representative for the LFRD's um MCV FRA has entered into contracts with the with that entity regarding the disbursement of funds for the benefit of the LFRDs. Um in 2025, however, uh we received a report from the Office of the Inspector General indicating that the method of disbursement via the contract wasn't the way that it was being done. Uh wasn't, in the opinion of the Inspector General, consistent with the provisions of the county code as written. And so the purpose of this bill, it's really a corrective bill. It's in order to um clarify how this allocation and disbursement disbursements happen. Um, and to make sure that the steps that the council and executive are taking to you know effectuate the transfers are that the that the code provisions are consistent with what is actually happening. Um and in order to do that, what the bill does, it it provides that the annual operating budget uh may require or authorize the distribution of the uh EMST revenues for enumerated purposes to either or both the authorized LFRD representative meaning MS MCV FRA and individual local fire and rescue departments. Um the executive would expressly be permitted to enter into one or more contracts on behalf of the county to effectuate the distribution of the funds in accordance with the operating budget. And then importantly, the funds could be used for the following specific purposes. Apparatus for LFRDs, facilities for LFRDs, training for volunteers, gear and equipment for volunteers, administrative support, volunteer recruitment and retention, and volunteer standby support in terms of the impact statements. There was no impact noted, kind of across the board. And then in terms of public testimony, we saw we heard from uh Mr. Harton, the president of MCV FRA in support of the bill. And I don't have any potential amendments or other outstanding issues to note for the committee. Thank you. I think it should be noted that this committee, all three of us were the lead sponsors. So, and that all of our uh colleagues are co-sponsors. So obviously everybody wants to get this straightened out as quickly as we can, and and uh uh and I think it if it's as as much excitement as this caused, and it did cause a little excitement, as much excitement as this caused.