Heated hearing on HB 547 over Butte-Silver Bow fire governance exposes deep divisions between paid and volunteer departments

Representative Scott DeMaris (sponsor) opened the hearing on House Bill 547 as a narrow, targeted repeal aimed only at the consolidated city–county government of Butte-Silver Bow. The bill seeks to remove sections of Title 7 that sponsors say conflict with Butte Silver Bow's 1977 charter and prevent the county from implementing a single director of fire services with operational authority across paid and volunteer departments.

Sponsor and supporters described the bill as a "cleanup" restoring the local charter. "What we need in our community is chain of command," said JP Gallagher, chief executive of Butte-Silver Bow, who testified in favor of the bill and asked the committee for a due pass in the interest of public safety. Multiple paid firefighters, union leaders and the county's safety and health coordinator told the committee that inconsistent training, unclear incident command and fragmented budgeting among nine volunteer departments and the paid department create risk on emergency scenes. The paid department's testimony included operational details: the jurisdiction includes two career stations with 16 apparatus and 38 career personnel, plus nine volunteer departments with 27 pieces of apparatus and roughly 133 volunteer personnel (figures provided by testimony).

Proponents stressed the proposal would not eliminate volunteers, affect volunteer pensions or raise taxes; Representative DeMaris said he added explicit language to preserve pensions. "This is a local control bill, point blank, plain and simple," said John Liebel of IAFF Local 96.

Opponents — including several Butte-Silver Bow commissioners, rural fire-district trustees and volunteer chiefs — urged the committee to reject or table the measure because of process and substance. Commissioner Trudy Healy testified she and the full county commission had not taken a position and said the bill had moved forward without adequate notice to the commission or the volunteer districts. Attorneys and trustees representing rural districts pointed to a 1987 Montana Attorney General opinion they said protects preexisting rural fire-district rights during consolidation and warned the bill would remove long-standing statutory protections for rural districts. "This bill was drafted and brought forward without any solution to a Butte Silver Bow problem," said Jason Willoughby of the Racetrack Rural Fire District.

Several volunteer chiefs and trustees described local distrust and fear that the bill would centralize authority, hamper trustees' control over assets and budgets, and push volunteers out of service. Testimony included multiple procedural complaints that volunteers and trustees received limited notice and time to review the draft. Opponents also said the bill would not resolve local disputes and urged local mediation and stakeholder negotiation instead.

Committee members questioned witnesses about the sequence of events: proponents cited an independent comprehensive fire study that they said justified the change; opponents said they had not been given adequate time to respond. Sponsor DeMaris said he is willing to work with stakeholders on amendments and emphasized the bill affects only the two consolidated governments in Montana (Butte-Silver Bow and Anaconda-Deer Lodge) because of their charters.

No vote or formal committee action is recorded in the transcript. The hearing lasted more than two hours and included dozens of proponents and opponents, many of whom emphasized safety, training standards and local control. The record shows deep divisions between paid personnel and many volunteer districts over the appropriate balance of local autonomy, operational command and funding.