(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Firefighters' association: No fireman is safe with pension ruling – Daily Montanan [1] ['Darrell Ehrlick', 'More From Author', '- July'] Date: 2022-07-21 What’s the difference between a firefighter working at the Great Falls airport and one working at the Billings airport? Well, besides working in different Montana cities, that distinction may now be in the hands of a Helena judge. The state’s firefighting association told a Lewis and Clark District Court judge on Thursday that a recent decision by the state’s pension board may put all firefighters — not just those in Billings — in jeopardy of being excluded from a retirement fund created especially for firefighters. For two years, the state firemen’s association has argued that firefighters working at the Billings Logan International Airport fit the legal definition of firefighters, and should be included in a pension fund established for firefighters. And for two years, the City of Billings and now the state’s pension board have argued that even though the airport personnel are trained to fight fires, drive firefighting equipment, and are called “firefighters,” they’re really not, and therefore should not be entitled to the more generous retirement plan. Lewis and Clark County District Judge Mike Menahan heard oral arguments in the case, which the firefighting union appealed. Siding with Billings, the Montana Public Employees Retirement System Board had decided that because Billings airport firefighters weren’t given the same test as other firefighters and because they are hired differently, they should be excluded from the retirement fund. MPERS board attorney Nick Dimitrovich told the court that the board can only interpret the statutes, which is what it did. “We don’t have skin in the game,” Dimitrovich said. “We don’t disagree that the work description and the work looks very similar. And we can’t settle an HR dispute between the Airport Rescue and Fire Fighters and the City of Billings.” Meanwhile, an attorney for the firefighters argued that state law doesn’t specify all the different acceptable tests, giving cities flexibility, not rigid, prescriptive requirements. Raph Graybill, who is arguing the case for the firefighters, also told the court that if the decision stands, nearly any firefighter in the state wouldn’t match the definition used by the board, and cities could “make mischief” by not allowing them into the firefighters retirement system in order to save on bottom-line costs. The arguments also centered on the role of the court: In order for Menahan to rule on the case as an administrative appeal, he will first have to find that the board acted “arbitrarily or capriciously” in its ruling, or did not apply the law correctly. For years, the City of Billings’ has used slightly different tests when hiring for “city” firefighters and hiring airport firefighters. Both sides acknowledged the doctor employed for the different sets of tests was the same, and his testimony confirms the similarity of the tests. “This board reasoned backwards, looked at the differences between the two sets of firefighters and found five different input requirements, but there’s nothing about those in statute,” Graybill said. “This is a legal determination. The board failed to provide any reasoning for this decision in law, which makes it arbitrary and capricious.” The City of Billings has said that because the airport firefighters are not hired by the mayor and confirmed by the city council, that they’re not the same. Graybill pointed out that none of the current firefighters go through that process, raising the possibility that none of Montana’s largest community’s firefighters should be in the Fireman’s United Pension System, a more generous retirement system created to recognize that the average career of a firefighter is shorter and more physically taxing. Graybill pointed out that state law also requires the city clerk to keep records of every firefighter hired by the city, but the City of Billings’ clerk does not, which means that no firefighter in Billings meets the legal definition and therefore may be considered ineligible for FURS. “The City of Billings has tremendous pressure to place fewer people into the (FURS) system,” Graybill said, noting that the more firefighters who join FURS, the more expense placed on the city. “They can use this error to keep people out.” However, attorneys for the MPERA board argued that larger cities have delegated the appointment process to city staff, and that the city administrator approves the “city” firefighters while the airport director hires firefighters for that facility. “If they’re right, then the vast majority of FURS members are out,” Graybill said. “This is a real threat because there is tremendous pressure to reduce baseline costs. This will allow cities to introduce errors that members cannot correct and remedy and city leaders can cause mischief with it.” Graybill pointed out that one of the board members, an attorney for the City of Kalispell, questioned whether the decision meant his own city could lower its costs. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2022/07/21/firefighters-union-no-fireman-is-safe-with-pension-ruling/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/