By Mike Gangloff, The Roanoke Times, Va.
LEXINGTON, Va. — Lexington’s volunteer firefighters are hoping a federal lawsuit will help extinguish a different kind of blaze — an ongoing tussle with city officials over who controls the 212-year-old company’s finances.
The immediate goal of the lawsuit that the fire company filed this week against the city and several officials is to recover a $199,000 gift the lawsuit says the city hijacked.
“For the last 200 years, donations have come straight to us,” explained Ronnie Williams, the fire company’s chief engineer and safety officer.
The larger squabble, though, is not uncommon in localities where volunteers provide emergency services, but tax dollars pay for most expenses. That’s the question of how much say public officials have over volunteers’ activities, and how much control they have over money the volunteers raise.
In Lexington, the city provides fire trucks, buildings and most of the equipment that about 40 volunteers use to answer about 800 calls per year. The volunteer company is the city’s sole fire department and also serves the campuses of Washington and Lee University and Virginia Military Institute, stretches of Interstates 81 and 64, and parts of Rockbridge County. Firefighters also provide some emergency medical services.
Disputes about who controlled the fire company’s money came to a head after Dorothy Powell Osburg died in 2006, leaving firefighters a piece of her $2.8 million estate.
The fire company had been trying to persuade the city to buy a utility truck, Williams said. When city officials refused, the fire company bought its own, anticipating that the Osburg money would pay for it. The city would get the title once the new truck was paid for, Williams said.
Then Osburg’s bequest to the fire company was transferred to the city, which declined to release it. Firefighters launched a lawsuit against the city, the city manager and attorney, and a Lexington accountant who was co-executor of Osburg’s estate.
The first hearing in the case was Friday in Lynchburg, where U.S. District Judge Norman Moon told the city to make payments on the truck pending resolution of the lawsuit.
Attorney Jeremy Carroll, who is representing Lexington in the case, said after the hearing that he will soon draft a response to the lawsuit.
Lexington City Manager Jon Ellestad, City Attorney Laurence Mann and accountant Greg Raetz of Raetz & Hawkins either could not be contacted Thursday or Friday, or said they had no comment on the lawsuit. Roanoke attorney Harry Brown, who is representing the fire department, also could not be contacted Friday.
Lexington Mayor John Knapp said the city council will discuss the lawsuit in a closed session at its regular meeting Thursday.
Similarly, firefighters will meet Tuesday, Williams said.
Williams said one way to resolve matters might be for the city to begin paying a fire chief, something the company has asked for before.
“Hire us a chief. Then you control us,” Williams said.
Copyright 2008 The Roanoke Times