On Monday, October 21, Greenbelt was dealt another blow in their battle to see career firefighters return to the city’s station. A circuit court judge granted Prince George’s County (et al.) their request for a dismissal of the complaint filed by Greenbelt, Berwyn Heights and College Park on June 28. The complaint was for a declaratory judgment against Prince George’s County, Prince George’s County Fire/Emergency Medical Services Department (PGFD), County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks and County Fire Chief Tiffany D. Green and related to the “temporary summer staffing reallocation” of career firefighters from Station 814 (Berwyn Heights) and Station 835 (Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department).
Response Time Data
Meanwhile, on Friday, October 18, in a letter to Mayor Emmett Jordan, Green shared the average response times from June 30 through October 12. The response times show an increase over the previous year in all but the non-emergency category. Green shares only the average times. “The majority of emergency response times in Station 835’s first due area, on average, fall within the eight (8) minute response time standard, with Basic Life Support being the only exception,” notes Green. “This exception is due to the variety of call types that fall into the ‘Basic Life Support’ category,” she explained. “Many Basic Life Support calls are ‘proceed’ calls only, which means that the ambulance continues toward the incident location within normal traffic flow while obeying all traffic laws, speed limits, signals and devices. Additionally, some calls are ‘combined calls’ with the Prince George’s County Police Department. When responding to these calls, EMS providers ‘stage’ nearby until the scene is deemed secure and safe by police, at which time the providers respond to the emergency scene. The response time includes the amount of time staged for combined call types,” said Green. It is not possible to tell how many of the 223 calls in that category were proceed calls or combined calls, but average response time for Basic Life Support calls rose from 8 minutes 44 seconds to 9 minutes 12 seconds. Response time for Advanced Life Support calls increased from 6 minutes 23 seconds to 7 minutes 19 seconds. The average response time for fire calls increased by 23 seconds and for rescue it increased an average of 44 seconds.
Green said the department would continue to monitor and assess the effectiveness of their staffing plan and modify as needed. She also noted the Fire/EMS Department placed an additional Peak EMS Unit in service effective October 13, so there are now two Peak EMS Units positioned in Greenbelt to enhance coverage. Additionally, effective October 13, “The Fire/EMS Department implemented system status management as needed to deploy fire suppression resources from other regions of the County into the Greenbelt and Berwyn Heights areas to ensure enhanced coverage for service demand. This process will be utilized when Station 814 (Berwyn Heights) is unable to provide volunteer staffing on fire suppression units,” states the letter.
Loss of Previous Benefit
The circuit court judge found that Greenbelt’s loss from the removal of the career firefighters was not an injury but rather the loss of a benefit they’d previously enjoyed. She stated in the order, “Plaintiffs allege that the staffing plan has ‘taken an understaffing issue, which applied in certain parts of the County … and spread it to now encompass’ the Plaintiffs. Assuming the truth of these relevant and material facts, Plaintiffs’ own Complaint establishes they do not have any injury greater than the general public, in this case defined as other communities and other fire stations in Prince George’s County. The Complaint argues the proposition that challenges faced by other communities as a result of understaffing, from which Plaintiffs were previously immune, would now also include them. Sharing the burdens of neighboring communities does not create a special damage, but does, perhaps, eliminate a special benefit previously received.”
No Actual Harm
In addition, the judge found “no actual harm caused by implementation of the staffing plan.” Though Greenbelt argued the staffing plan failed to provide data to show acceptable drive times for emergency responses would be maintained, the judge found that the complainants failed to provide data showing they wouldn’t.
“Plaintiffs allege that under the plan ‘response times will … exceed 8 minutes,’ and ‘the average fire and emergency medical services call time … will at least double,’ but provide no factual support for those hypothetical conclusions. … Plaintiffs have therefore failed to show any actual harm,” stated the findings.