ARLINGTON — A simmering feud between ambulance service volunteers and a local health district board in Gilliam County is placing emergency medical services along a particularly hazardous swath of Interstate 84 at risk.

The dispute, first reported by The Times-Journal in Condon, began when the North Gilliam County Health District board suddenly fired a longtime health care administrator, David Anderson.

Since becoming a clinic and ambulance service administrator in 2014, Anderson played an essential role in emergency services for the rural county of roughly 2,000 people, emergency responders and sources said.

Anderson said he was fired shortly after a month-long battle with COVID-19 beginning in August. He was hospitalized and then intubated in the intensive care unit at Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, in September. Due to his risk of blood clots, his provider had urged him not to get the vaccine.

Upon his return, he said health district board members told him he would likely be demoted. He was surprised. He received few to no reprimands or complaints during his years of service, Anderson and emergency responders said. Volunteers and community members describe him as a dedicated public servant who made countless sacrifices and saved lives.

Instead, the board fired Anderson in an Oct. 18 meeting without cause, according to news reports. The move shocked local residents and infuriated volunteer emergency responders. Still recovering from COVID-19, Anderson said he plans to sue the board.

“I don’t have a lot of options,” said Anderson, a veteran of the United States Air Force, who contracted COVID-19 while moving into his new home. He said he still struggles to breath and speak. And without his job, he’s concerned about how he’ll pay off his mortgage.

“It really scares me,” he said. “I’m 55. I’ve got a degree, but this has been my career pretty much my whole life. If my strength doesn’t come back, I might not be able to be a paramedic.”

Marcus Swift, Anderson’s attorney, said in a statement that his client alleges he was met with “discrimination and retaliation by the district and its board chair” when he returned home from the hospital. Swift called the board’s decision “reckless” and said Anderson claims he was “terminated immediately after he put the district on notice of his protected status as a whistleblower.”

Mark Mitchell, chair of the board overseeing the North Gilliam County Health District, declined to say why Anderson was fired.

Firing spurs resignation, walkout

A health district board member — who said he disagreed with the board’s decision and its timing — resigned after the October meeting. In protest, local emergency responders staged a 36-hour walkout.

“We lost all trust in the board at that point,” said Tiffany Wilkins, a local business owner and volunteer with the ambulance service. Wilkins said Anderson was essential in helping improve the ambulance service and its emergency responders.

The walkout left a large section of I-84 briefly without nearby ambulance services. From the John Day Dam to the Morrow County line, it’s a relatively remote stretch of road known for car crashes amid winter storms. Aside from the local volunteers from Arlington, the nearest ambulance would come from 30 miles away.

“We have a lot of accidents, a lot of nuts out there driving who shouldn’t be near a car,” said Julius Courtney, the board member who resigned after Anderson was fired. “A lot of wrecks. We’re going into the winter. Now is an extremely poor time to have those people upset.”

Several sources said they believe Anderson’s termination came because he hired an attorney after learning he would be demoted. Wilkins said a board member told her on the night they fired him they did so because “he lawyered up.”

Courtney said he could not discuss why Anderson was fired, but Anderson hiring an attorney may have played a role in the dismissal.

“Part of that was discussed in executive session, so I can’t answer that,” Courtney said, “but I’m sure it had some effect on it. I didn’t totally agree that it did have an effect, but I guess it could have.”

Mitchell said the board was hoping only to demote Anderson, but the board then had “several indicators that clearly showed that (Anderson) wasn’t satisfied with what was taking place.” Mitchell denied that Anderson was fired because he hired legal representation.

Discontent grows

The volunteers have since returned to work, but the situation has soured. Disturbed by the board’s decision, they have pushed for ambulance service to be moved under the city, the county or a fire district rather than the health district.

The Arlington City Council in a recent meeting said it would allow the ambulance services to operate temporarily under its umbrella. But the health district board moved quickly to prevent that, sources said. Mitchell said the district does not want to separate itself from the ambulance service, adding the situation is a personnel issue the district hopes to solve by hiring new employees.

But some volunteers said they feel unheard and unsupported by the board and Mitchell and are urging the district to relinquish its grip. Some said they are concerned that volunteers have relatively little legal protections and are asking for greater clarity about why Anderson was fired.

“If they can go after Dave, who has always been there for everyone in town, rain or shine,” said David Gossett, a pastor and former volunteer who recently left the ambulance service. “If they can go after him when he was in the ICU fighting for his life and fire him while he was still recovering, then why in the world would I ever think that I was anything special to them?”

Mitchell, a former police officer, said the emergency responders have a duty to serve the community without interruption.

“There’s no individual that they should place above that responsibility to answer,” he said.

Mitchell said the district is supportive of the ambulance service and often will approve the purchases they request. He noted the district has spent $937,000 on items the ambulance service requested over the past seven years.

“We show tremendous support of them,” he said. “Always have. Always will.”

‘There will be more.’

On Thursday, Nov. 4, Wilkins was about to sit down at the Bee Sweet Bakery & Deli in Arlington when her phone rang. It was the ambulance service. Her face grew serious. She needed to come in.

She rushed to her car, hopped in and drove off. The patient had a heart issue and was in rough shape, she said. The ambulance zipped through town and drove east down the interstate. Eventually, the patient received an emergency flight. It was the second patient with heart problems they’d seen over the past two days.

“If we weren’t there, they would have died,” Wilkins said. “There will be more. There will be more.”