A judge found a member of a task force charged with studying whether the Duluth Fire Department should take over ambulance services in contempt of court this week for failing to pay back more than $122,000 in bank loans.
Jay Sparks was the most controversial of five members appointed by the City Council to the task force in November because he was a known proponent of combining ambulance services with the Fire Department.
But when the council formed the task force, members didn't know Sparks was an under a court order to pay back two loans to M&I Bank to help with his business, First Strike.
Sparks, a retired Duluth firefighter, trained paramedic and past president of the Fire Union, said in his task force application that he had been a private business owner for
14 years. Sparks said he is president of First Strike, which provides contract firefighting services for the federal government.
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According to court records, Sparks and First Strike took out the loans in September 2008 and October 2007 to pay for equipment and used fire trucks as collateral. Sparks was ordered by a judge to pay back the loans last March.
The attorney representing M&I Bank, Parrish Jones, accused Sparks in court documents of concealing his collateral and failing to comply with a court order to provide financial information to the bank, and of giving evasive information on his financial disclosures.
M&I bank obtained a writ of execution directing the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office to satisfy the judgment against Sparks, but Jones wrote that Sparks would not provide the information and is "wasting taxpayer dollars."
Sparks said he "knows nothing" about being evasive and not providing financial information, and that he intends to pay the money back to M&I.
He said there's no connection between his legal troubles and his work on the task force.
"It's a business transaction, and there's no overlap between that and any other activities such as the task force," he said.
The emergency services task force is expected to deliver its findings to the City Council on Feb. 22.
City Councilor Jeff Anderson, who helped form the task force and who supported Sparks' membership, said he doesn't believe Sparks' legal problems will harm the report.
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"The reason he's on the task force is because of his expertise in emergency medical services and not his personal life," he said.
City councilor and M&I Bank employee Todd Fedora, who in the past has been critical of the formation of the task force, declined comment on the case, saying he can't speak about customer relationships.
