St. Mary’s County certifies 19 volunteers to LOSAP list and approves new response rewards program

The Commissioners of St. Mary’s County on May 6 voted to add 19 fire and emergency medical services volunteers to the county’s 2024 LOSAP eligibility list and to establish an active volunteer firefighting and rescue squad response rewards program.

County emergency services director Jennifer Utz told the commission that the 2024 LOSAP eligibility list had been posted as required by county code and that 19 members had filed formal appeals after their names did not appear. “The 2024 LOSAP list was presented and acknowledged approved on 03/11/2025,” Utz said, and the department asked the board to certify the 19 additional names.

The move to approve those additions followed commissioners’ questions about how the list is compiled and why members can be left off. Utz said departments use different reporting software and that individual departments maintain master spreadsheets that are submitted to the LOSAP executive committee; that committee then forwards the final list to Human Resources. She said part of the discrepancy is volunteers who are members of multiple departments and differences among department reporting tools.

On a separate, but related, agenda item the board approved creation of the active volunteer firefighting and rescue squad response rewards program (LOSAP plus). Utz said the county opened a volunteer portal to collect members’ program choices and supporting data and closed it April 28 so staff could scrub submissions. “There were 835 submissions at the time we cut the portal off,” Utz told the commissioners. She said 35 submissions were incomplete and 19 applicants had filed appeals that the commissioners had just approved for LOSAP credit.

Utz provided a financial snapshot for LOSAP plus: total submissions represented about $1,330,000 in claimed value (either property tax credit or stipend), incomplete submissions represented about $149,000, and approval of the 19 appeals would add roughly $23,000. Utz told the board the program was not expected to exceed the $1.6 million figure discussed earlier in the budget process. She said the treasurer requires state tax data uploads and that stipend payments, if approved and processed promptly, would not be expected before July and perhaps later depending on finance timelines.

Commissioners pressed staff about process fixes after the certification vote. One commissioner suggested standardizing reporting across fire and rescue departments; Utz and other staff said IT improvements to reporting and a consistent countywide process would reduce missed entries. Utz said Emergency Services and IT have prepared to review and either approve or reject each of the 835 submissions individually and to follow the county code’s appeal procedures.

The board approved both the certification of the 19 volunteers and the establishment of the response rewards program by voice vote; there was no recorded roll-call tally in the public minutes.

The decisions follow a public hearing held April 22 at Leonardtown High School on the rewards program. Utz said three speakers and one email supported the proposal and that a larger group of volunteers had attended the hearing in support. The commissioners asked staff to manage appeals and to work with the treasurer, IT, human resources and department partners to finish the eligibility review and payment processing.

Looking ahead, Utz said staff would re-open portions of the portal only as necessary to process valid late appeals and to finalize the roster for human resources and finance review. She emphasized the program is a new, countywide effort and that staff expect to refine data collection and reporting for subsequent years.