Orrington group to consider ambulance policy

ORRINGTON – After discussing with its legal counsel what authority the Board of Selectmen had to intervene, the panel Monday night agreed to appoint a committee to look into policy matters pertaining to the town’s ambulance service. The members made it clear, however, that the committee won’t address alleged internal conflicts among volunteer crew members.

The decision followed a half-hour executive session with Bangor attorney Edmond Bearor, during which selectmen learned that they had no authority over personnel matters involving members of the community’s volunteer ambulance crew. They were told that they do, however, have some say over policy matters.

That is because Orrington’s ambulance squad is not a municipal department. While the town provides the ambulance, the building that houses it and an annual contribution toward operating costs, the service is staffed and managed by volunteers.

Chairman Melvin Coombs, who did not specify what policy matters would be examined, said the committee would consist of Selectmen Douglas Fogg and Paul White, Town Manager Dexter Johnson and possibly Bearor, if his counsel were needed.

The decision to appoint the committee was a follow-up to concerns raised by L’Easa Blaylock, a former ambulance volunteer, about the ambulance service’s leadership and her request that selectmen intervene.

According to Blaylock, seven members have left the department since John Cunningham, a member for 16 years, was named squad chief seven months ago. As a consequence of the requests for leaves of absence and resignations, she claimed, Orrington no longer could provide daytime coverage.

She claimed that Cunningham’s appointment was out of step with the squad’s bylaws. She also said that a volunteer had been suspended and another terminated without an opportunity to be heard. She demanded that those disciplinary steps be overturned.

Because the matter was not on that night’s meeting agenda, selectmen deferred discussion until they had an opportunity to do some research. They agreed to revisit the issue at their next meeting, pending the availability of legal counsel.

During this week’s meeting, James Goody, the ambulance board’s president, offered a rebuttal to Blaylock’s statements, which he said were “totally untrue.”

According to Goody, selectmen appointed Cunningham chief after his predecessor resigned and the group lacked an assistant chief. The appointment was an interim step until the crew had the opportunity to conduct an election, which it did. Cunningham became chief as a result of that election.

Goody attributed all but one of the recent resignations to a variety of personal reasons – namely burnout, time constraints, risk and stress.

In regard to Blaylock’s statements about disciplinary actions, Goody said a so-called suspension was actually a suspension of ambulance driving privileges, and that the termination followed several attempts by the board to get that volunteer to comply with its requests.

“The board of directors has nothing to hide and we’re willing to open it up to whatever you want discussed,” Goody told the town’s five selectmen Monday night.

Goody said that the squad’s difficulty in staffing daytime shifts began long before Cunningham became chief.

Despite alleged internal conflicts and the loss of crew members, residents’ access to ambulance service is not in jeopardy.

For coverage during shifts the Orrington crew is unable to staff, he said, Orrington for years has depended on its mutual aid agreements with the ambulance services in Brewer, its primary backup, and Bucksport.