BUTTE — At a recent city council meeting, Butte's fire chief spoke in support of a controversial bill that he says will streamline the chain of command when it comes to fire services. But a county commissioner says that volunteers were not involved in drafting the bill, and it is causing a deeper rift between volunteer and paid firefighters.
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"You know, this is where this discussion should have started right here. It should have started in the council chambers. It should have been visited here, vetted here and then brought to the proper channels to see if we wanted to have a bill go to legislature," says Jim Fisher, the District 6 Commissioner for Butte-Silver Bow County.
Commissioner Fisher says House Bill 547 was drafted in secret and did not include input from the volunteer firefighters who stand to lose their board of trustees if the bill passes. Fire Chief Zach Osborne says he supports the bill because it establishes a clearly defined role for the director of fire services.
"When you do not have a structural plan—training, operations, a clear chain of command, a clear incident command at incidents—things can go terribly wrong," says Osborne.
The rift between departments has been widening for five decades.
"I don’t even want to go into any of the other parts that we brought up tonight because it will just, it’ll be an unhealthy therapy session, right? Fifty years later we either need to fire our marriage counselor or we need to get a damn divorce," says Bryan Cetraro, a Butte-Silver Bow County firefighter.
Several career firefighters joined Cetraro and Chief Osborne in support of the bill. Chief Executive JP Gallagher says he supports House Bill 547 and that it was not drafted in secret.
"I want to address one comment about that there’s secret meetings and this gets thrown around a lot. I can assure you, and on my mother and father’s grave, and you know me, I wouldn’t say this ever. I did not have a meeting with the firemen about this bill," says Chief Executive JP Gallagher.
Commissioner Fisher says he does not support the bill, but other commissioners expressed mixed feelings. Several commissioners agreed that the council should have been given input on the bill before sending it to the state legislature.
"Now tell me if that isn’t a shame that all these people from Glasglow, Eureka, Ekalaka, and back. From Billings, east of Billings, Miles City—they're going to tell us how we should run Butte-Silver Bow. You know what? We’re up against the blade," says Commissioner Fisher.
House Bill 547 will be heard before the Montana Legislature on March 28, 2025.
