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Volunteer fire leaders said they were blindsided by a new county law that bans their companies from collecting emergency transportation fees, a practice eight companies have used for as many as 15 years to pay for apparatus and operational costs.

The executive order was signed into law by County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) on Aug. 12, in the midst of negotiations with county officials on an agreement to keep the fees in place. The county began charging for all ambulance services in July and wanted to establish a uniform billing service, said Public Safety Director Vernon Herron. Previously only advanced life support incurred a charge.

The county now charges $500 for basic life support, $650 to $750 for advanced life support depending on degree of service needed and a $5-per-mile transportation fee. Volunteer departments each came up with their own fee schedules. The College Park Volunteer Fire Department charged between $400 and $500 for basic life support service, said President Pete Piringer, who believed the fees were close to the national standard.

Although eight volunteer companies charged for service prior to the implementation of the county billing plan, including West Lanham Hills, which has charged for 15 years, Herron said it was a revelation to the county government that volunteers were charging.

"Once I realized they were billing, I wanted to sit down with them to mitigate this," said Herron, who found out volunteer departments were charging several months ago as the county pursued its own billing plan. "Shame on us for not knowing [sooner]."

Herron said county code prohibits volunteer fire departments from charging transport fees. While portions of the code cited in the executive order do not specifically deem volunteer billing as illegal, county spokesman John Erzen said they do give the fire chief and county executive authority over billing regulations.

"The volunteers provide a valuable service to the county … During talks [with volunteers] I realized that we were not going to be able to reach an agreement abiding by a current statute," said Herron as the reason for a breakdown in negotiations.

Money from billing has been a primary source of revenue for volunteer departments, with volunteers purchasing approximately $4.5 million worth of equipment with the funds over the last couple years, said Robert Russell, president of the Prince George's County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association. But volunteer leaders now worry the departments that charged will fold without the money.

"You're shutting us down slowly but surely," Russell said of the executive order.

Bill Smith, vice president of the volunteer association, said over the last several months a volunteer committee has met with county officials to address the disparities between what volunteer stations and the PGFD charge for emergency transport. He thought they were making progress on an agreement. So when a letter ordering volunteers to cease billing was hand-delivered to the West Lanham Hills Volunteer Fire Station, where Smith has volunteered for 29 years, he was shocked.

"We are absolutely dumbfounded," Smith said. "Everything is at a stalemate at this point."

Smith said he hopes to meet with the county executive and other top officials soon to continue negotiations.

"We were very hopeful we would be able to come up with an agreement to be able to share some of the revenue," said Piringer, who was also under the impression negotiations were going well.

The law also bans private ambulance companies from charging for service in the county, but Erzen said he was not aware of any private ambulance companies that operate in the county.

Whereas revenue collected by volunteer stations went straight into stations' coffers, revenues from the county billing plan will go into the general fund. In fiscal 2009, volunteer departments were allotted $14 million from the general fund. Erzen said the county expects to collect $4.5 million in revenues from the fire department in fiscal 2009, including the billing fees.

E-mail Andrea Noble at anoble@gazette.net.