RED SPRINGS — A judge has temporarily halted the decertification of the Red Springs Volunteer Fire Department at the request of the town.
The halt, issued Friday, came as a result of a petition sent to Wayne Goodwin, commissioner of Insurance and state fire marshal, by town attorney Neil Yarborough in February in an attempt to resolve the issue outside of court. A hearing will decide if the department was rightfully decertified and the Office of the State Fire Marshal’s decision reversed.
“We think when the true facts are revealed, the Insurance commissioner will withdraw the decertification or an administrative law judge will,” Yarborough said. “We hope we can talk to the insurance commissioner and he will reconsider the decision of his subordinate. We’d like to talk this out but, if no one is willing to talk to us, we’ll have to go to court.”
According to Red Springs Mayor John McNeill, the town has proof that seven infractions handed to the fire department in January 2015 had all been corrected, despite the Office of the State Fire Marshal finding that one of the seven infractions — low personnel — was still a problem.
“The town disagreed with this and attempted to present this to the Office of the State Fire Marshal but was told that presenting it for the purpose of voiding the decertification was not allowed,” McNeill said. “We are certain we did in fact have the minimum number of personnel with the required 36 hours of training and we need to have a process to show this. I am certain that the Insurance commissioner, Wayne Goodwin, who is also the state fire marshal, wants to protect our 3,500 citizens and another 1,000 in our fire district from having a drastic increase in their insurance rates. Our fire department and fire chief have worked hard to correct the deficiencies in our fire department and I pray that this set back is soon corrected.”
The de-certification dropped the town’s fire rating from a 6 to a 10, the worst on a scale of 1 to 10. Homeowners insurance is in part decided by the fire rating. Stephanie Chavis, Robeson County fire marshal, said insurance rates could more than double should the rating stay at a level 10.
The Red Springs Board of Commissioners decided during a March meeting to allow Yarborough to petition the Office of the State Fire Marshal to reconsider its decision. It was then that Yarborough found the agency did not offer an appeals process although one is required by the Administrative Procedure Act.
Colin Day, assistant director of public information for the N.C. Department of Insurance, confirmed that there was no formal appeals process to The Robesonian. Day said the department could petition to have its certification revisited.
Day said the Department of Insurance was unable to comment on the litigation.
According to the section 22 of the Administrative Procedure Act, any dispute between an agency that involves rights, duties or privileges, “including licensing of the levy of a monetary penalty,” should be settled informally. However, if the parties do not come to an agreement, “either the agency or the person may commence an administrative proceeding to determine the person’s rights, duties or privileges, at which time the dispute becomes a ‘contested case.’”
“The point is, the North Carolina Administrative Procedure Act provides a methodology to challenge decisions like these,” said Yarborough.
Yarborough said the appeals process has three steps. The first step, which was completed Friday, involved an administrative law judge granting a temporary halt on the action on the Office of the State Fire Marshal.
The next step will be a preliminary injunction hearing, which is scheduled for March 24 at 9:30 a.m. in Raleigh. During this step, the parties will present their information and a judge will decide if the injunction will continue.
In the final step, which Yarborough said will take place around July, a judge will decide if the fire department was rightfully de-certified if the town of Red Springs and the Office of the State Fire Marshal have not come to an agreement by then.
Gabrielle Isaac can be reached at 910-816-1989 or on Twitter @news_gabbie.
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