The Fairbanks City Council voted down a letter of agreement Monday that aimed to keep a long-standing paramedic training partnership afloat. That’s after the Fairbanks Firefighters Union had already rejected the proposed letter, partially because of safety concerns related to training multiple students at the same time.
The council was also confronted with the quandary last month and chose to postpone their final vote. That decision was in hopes the city, union, and University of Alaska Fairbanks Community and Technical College could find a solution amid disagreement about how the partnership should function.
City Chief of Staff Michael Sanders said Monday that nothing has changed since then. He said the fact that the firefighters union still isn’t on board means, for now, approval from the city council wouldn’t accomplish much of anything.
“To be honest, I didn’t put a lot of time into this because it’s a dead issue,” he said. “There’s nothing, literally nothing, that we can do right now on this.”
Sanders said the different parties are still communicating but that the relationship “is not repaired enough to be able to move forward.”
In August, the council and firefighters union agreed to a new contract, which was the product of lengthy negotiations and federal arbitration. That contract is what nixed the paramedic partnership.
At last month’s council meeting, the Fairbanks Firefighter Union’s president said union members support the idea of training students from the UAF technical college. But he said members reported getting overloaded with paramedic trainees and said they wanted a more structured training plan.
During that November meeting, the medical director for the program at the technical college said it produces about a third of the paramedics trained in the state, and that the end of the partnership will pose problems for eight currently enrolled students who need to reach their required 240 hours of field training.
On Monday, council members expressed disappointment for those specific students – and about the dispute not getting figured out.
“I just, you know, I’m kind of saddened by this whole thing because it’s a long-standing tradition that we work with them,” said Councilmember Jerry Cleworth.
Council members voted down the letter of agreement 4-2. Cleworth and Councilmember Sue Sprinkle voted yes; councilmembers Valerie Therrien, John Ringstad, Crystal Tidwell and Lonny Marney voted no.