The current proposal to combine fire and emergency medical services entities in Ouray County could eventually make the new fire chief the highest-paid public official in the county and may base participating parties’ voting power on the amount of money they contribute.

The Plaindealer obtained new draft planning documents for the authority through an open records request.

The original entities involved in forming the fire authority were the Ridgway Fire Protection District, which funds the Ridgway Volunteer Fire Department; the Ouray Fire Protection District and the city of Ouray, which both fund the Ouray Volunteer Fire Department; the Log Hill Fire Protection District, which funds the Log Hill Volunteer Fire Department; and Ouray County, which funds Ouray County Emergency Medical Services.

The new draft adds the Montrose Fire Protection District, Cornerstone Metropolitan District No. 1, which helps fund public infrastructure for a 4,800-acre private golf course community on Log Hill Mesa that crosses into Montrose County, and the Ouray County sheriff in his official capacity as fire marshal. The fire marshal is responsible for fires in the unincorporated county outside the boundaries of fire protection districts. Horsefly Volunteer Fire Protection, which covers the far northwest part of the county, is the only fire protection entity not included in the draft agreement, though it has been included in authority planning.

No decisions have been made by the entities included in the draft intergovernmental agreement to potentially form the combined authority, which has a tentative start date of Jan. 1, 2027.

However, the Ridgway Volunteer Fire Department and Ouray County EMS are combining their 17 paid staff to provide services under a new collaborative staffing model starting this week, to practice transitioning into a combined authority.

A draft organizational chart obtained by the Plaindealer shows what the fully formed authority could eventually look like and the state’s average salary ranges for positions within the combined entity.

Ouray County EMS Chief Nate McCullough told the Plaindealer the organizational chart is a 10-year plan for the authority, rather than what it will immediately look like. He said he included current state salary averages for those positions, which are trained for both EMS and fire, with the idea that the authority will eventually be able to pay competitively for those positions, though he doesn’t expect raises immediately. He said he used multiple databases to identify those salary ranges.

“I need to prepare the county and all the parties that are involved to be like, you will have to pay state average — whatever that is at that point — to get someone in here,” McCullough said.

“In 2031, hopefully we’ll have this completed, and I’ll retire, and I bet you, they won’t do it for my salary,” he said.

According to that document, the head of the authority would be a fire chief, who, according to the state salary average listed, could eventually be paid between $185,000 and $215,000. That would make that individual the highest-paid public official in Ouray County. The authority’s board of directors would be responsible for selecting that individual.

Currently, the highest paid public official in Ouray County is County Manager Antonio Mendez, who is paid $175,000 per year. Only one of the fire departments in Ouray County has a paid chief: Ridgway Fire Chief Chris Miller, who is paid $95,000 annually. McCullough is paid $94,500 annually.

According to the draft document, the second highest- paid position would be an operations chief, who could be paid between $160,000 to $185,000, according to state averages. A fire division chief could be paid $140,000 to $168,000 and an EMS division chief could be paid $135,000 to $162,000, also according to state averages.

The document proposes roughly 30 paid positions, including paramedics and EMTs. The authority would still use volunteer firefighters. This would nearly double the number of paid positions that currently exist among Ouray County’s fire and emergency medical services entities. It’s unclear how the authority would pay for those positions.

The latest draft also says the board includes one representative from each participating entity’s board of directors, rather than four, suggested in an earlier draft. It would also include the Ouray County sheriff, who would be a non-voting advisory member.

The authority’s board members would be allowed to vote if their entity contributes at least $30,000 annually to the authority. If an entity contributes $500,000 or more to the authority, it would be allowed to have a second voting board member.

The most recent consolidation effort has been in motion since the summer of 2024, when the Ridgway Fire Protection District and the Ouray Volunteer Fire Department hired a consultant to study options, with the goal of lowering response times and reducing administrative overhead across the entities providing fire and emergency medical services in the county. The consultant offered multiple options for how entities could legally consolidate, most of which would require voter approval.

Leaders of the effort decided to pursue creating an umbrella authority that would keep the individual entities largely intact.

A first draft of an intergovernmental agreement establishing how the authority would work was released last spring. However new details have emerged from a working group formed in July, which has been holding monthly meetings that are not open to the public.

Funding the fire authority

The latest draft agreement would have the participating taxing districts contribute funds generated from their individual mill levies to cover at minimum the administrative costs of the fire authority. The document does not name that amount.

If an entity doesn’t contribute the amount it promised, the other entities would have the right to dissolve the entire agreement at the end of that year.

The document gives each entity power to decide what equipment, property and personnel it wants to transfer to the authority, which reverts to the original owner if it decides to leave.

Log Hill still not sold

Though Log Hill Volunteer Fire Department is included in the draft agreement, its leaders still aren’t sold on the consolidation effort.

During a Log Hill Volunteer Fire Department board of directors meeting on March 10, the agency’s leaders voiced concerns that the draft plans won’t reduce costs or improve services. But they also said they have a lot to learn because they said they haven’t been in the loop as much as other entities.

Log Hill Fire Chief Bill Martindale said his department still has a lot of questions, and their lack of involvement isn’t intentional. He said his department started regularly attending the working group meetings in January.

Martindale told the Plaindealer he’s primarily concerned about whether the proposed authority will actually reduce overhead costs.

“It didn’t appear to be fiscally responsible,” he said of the draft plans he reviewed.

He said he’s also concerned the staffing model, which still relies on volunteers, will actually discourage their participation.

“You will lose future volunteers that have the mindset of, ‘Why am I doing this for free when that guy is doing the same job for pay?’” Martindale said during the March 10 meeting.

Log Hill Volunteer Fire Department leaders plan to attend the next working group meeting on April 2 to discuss the latest details of the authority. While that meeting is not open to the public, McCullough said the group plans to present updates to Ouray County commissioners in April during a public meeting.