Harford County Executive David Craig's administration remains at odds with the Harford County Volunteer Fire & EMS Association over the county's demand that all fire companies disclose budget information individually in order to continue receiving county funding.
Despite the impasse, at least one fire company has agreed to the demands of the county, its president confirmed this week.
The county and representatives of the association, an umbrella group representing the 12 private volunteer companies, met Friday, and association President William Dousa said Tuesday he still hopes to funnel the budgetary information through the association.
"The best I can say now is, we are still working on it," Dousa said. "Unfortunately, with the county executive's father's death, things have been put off."
Craig's father, J. Emerson Craig, died Sunday at age 94.
Dousa said the association is still working on a resolution with the county.
County spokesman Bob Thomas said each fire company must sign its own memorandum of agreement, or MOU, which in turn obligates the company to provide a copy of its annual budget to the county and evidence that its officers are bonded to an amount set by the county.
"Eventually they all will sign," Thomas said Tuesday. "It's a matter of making minor adjustments."
Thomas said the county law department has had "several calls" from fire companies indicating they would sign, but he declined to discuss how many or which ones.
"We don't want piecemeal this," he said, repeating his insistence that ultimately all the companies will sign, or be denied money.
"We are making progress. We continue to dialogue with the association and move to an amicable solution on their concerns and the county's concerns," Thomas added.
One company, Joppa-Magnolia, signed the agreement Friday.
"The county executive and his cabinet are making a very valid point [about] just more accountability for taxpayers' money," Joppa-Magnolia President Robert Russell said. "I am totally on board with the county executive's decision… We will stand behind the county executive."
"There's several lawyers that are looking into this, my attorney being one of them, that did not see an issue," Russell said. "One of the issues was the bonding [requirement]. All of the companies are bonded, but not to the dollar amount that the county executive wanted."
Russell said typically the organizations are bonded up to $100,000 and that Craig wanted to increase the minimum to $700,000.
He said Joppa-Magnolia is bonded to $700,000.
Thomas said last week the requirements in the Harford MOU are no different from those in neighboring jurisdictions. He noted that Baltimore County is more stringent in its regulation of fire and EMS finances than what Craig has requested.
Harford is set to allocate $11.8 million among the 12 companies in fiscal 2012, which includes $4.9 million for expenses such as workers compensation and the EMS Foundation that pays emergency medical technicians dispatched with fire company ambulances.