Infighting over the leadership of Bainbridge Island’s nonprofit ambulance service has prompted an abrupt changeover of its board of directors and the freezing of the organization’s bank accounts.

Questions over the ongoing “dysfunction” of the Bainbridge Island Ambulance Association and its ability to provide medical transports when needed by the Bainbridge Island Fire Department boiled over Thursday evening as fire department commissioners voted to give notice to the ambulance association that the agency will be canceling its contract with the nonprofit.

The Bainbridge fire department will be giving the ambulance association a six-month termination notice of its 18-year-old contract after the notice is reviewed by the department’s attorney, officials said.

Fire commissioners repeatedly stressed at their meeting Thursday that they would not pick sides in the internal dispute, but were worried about the ambulance association’s ability to continue.

Concern about the ambulance association’s future started last month after the fire department received a letter from Gary Clough, vice president of the nonprofit’s board, who said it was unlikely the ambulance association would “be able to continue as a viable business entity” past the end of 2017.

In the letter, Clough said the nonprofit was taking steps to slow its financial losses, which he said stem from the association’s move to paid, full-time crew staffing in 2014.

Clough told commissioners Thursday that the nonprofit has been in further turmoil since last week, when some of the nonprofit’s paid employees voted themselves in as the new board of directors.

“It was a hostile takeover,” Clough said.

Clough, a former Bainbridge fire chief, said a new election for the board had been planned for August, but some employees called for an election on July 10 without the board’s knowledge or approval.

He said employees had broken into the nonprofit’s office to hold the election, and that Greg Walsh, now named as the president of the new board, had taken the organization’s set of minutes and changed the nonprofit’s registration with the Washington Secretary of State’s Office.

Walsh is now the registered agent of the nonprofit, and the association’s registration has been changed to include the employees who voted themselves in as the organization’s new officials. He could not be reached for comment Friday.

Clough said Thursday the takeover of the board of directors presents conflicts of interest, as employees will now be able to vote to raise their salaries and benefits or make other changes to policies that affect them personally.

The ousted board continues to meet each week, Clough said, but the association’s new leadership has refused to talk about resolving the crisis.

Clough said the nonprofit’s bank accounts have been frozen by their bank, and the company that does the association’s billings for medical transports has been contacted and that firm will not release any funds or make any deposits into the nonprofit’s accounts that have been made by islanders who’ve paid for ambulance services.

Payments already received are being held in the billing company’s safe, Clough said, and the company has said it will cease sending out bills for medical transports made by the Bainbridge Island Ambulance Association.

“They aren’t going to bill any of these new people because they are not going to get paid,” Clough told the fire board Thursday.

With its accounts frozen, Clough said it was uncertain how the nonprofit will now pay its 28 employees, or cover rent, utilities and other bills.

The takeover was a surprise to the assocation’s board of directors, he said, as none of the employees had ever shared any concerns about the nonprofit in the weeks before they voted themselves onto the board.

“It’s a tough situation,” Clough said.

“We’re doing the best we can,” he said of the previous board and its attempts to right the ship.

“Who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow?” Clough said.

Fire Chief Hank Teran said Thursday he has had no contact with any of those who now claim to run the association.

Fire department officials said it was unclear if ambulance service has been disrupted.

“We have had some delays in the evening hours that I’m trying to assess,” said Assistant Fire Chief Jared Moravec, but he added the cause of the delays was uncertain.

Clough asked fire commissioners to send a letter to both sides involved in the conflict in the hope that it force a conversation over the nonprofit’s future.

But while fire commissioners said the turmoil within the nonprofit was troubling, they also stressed that the department could not get involved in the organization’s internal problems.

What was important, commissioners said, was that the department make sure islanders are not adversely impacted when they call for emergency services.

The Bainbridge department relies on the nonprofit for taking people with basic medical needs to the hospital, with the fire department’s medic units transporting the more serious cases.

A medical transport can take a fire department unit off the island for two to three hours, sometimes longer, depending if the destination is Bremerton or Seattle.

Teran said officials have started to assess options, which may include relying more on for-profit ambulance companies, if the Bainbridge ambulance association ceases operations. The fire department does not have the capacity to quickly staff up if the ambulance association closes its doors.

Fire Commissioner Scott Isenman noted his long history with Bainbridge’s storied ambulance agency, which began service on the island more than 60 years ago using volunteers and a surplus Army ambulance.

“The indicators are very grave,” Isenman said, adding that the situation was “unprecedented” in the organization’s history.

“It’s their business; it’s not our business. But we are totally dependent on them to provide those transports,” he said.

Giving notice of termination of the contract could give the ambulance association time to get its house in order, Isenman said.

“I really want it to survive and thrive,” Isenman said,

Not everyone on the fire board wanted to move forward with the notice of terminating the contract, however.

Commissioner YongSuk Cho raised concerns about the department’s legal risks and suggested they not get involved in any way.

Other commissioners disagreed, and said the ambulance association was a vendor for the department, and giving notice on the contract was strictly a business decision and not a personal one.

“This organization is in dysfunction and we need to protect the people of Bainbridge Island from that dysfunction,” Commissioner Tim Carey said.

“How can we ignore what we’ve heard?” Isenman added.

Officials with the Bainbridge Island Ambulance Association would not comment on the turmoil within the nonprofit when contacted Friday.

Doug Jones, the organization’s office manager, said he had not heard of the fire department’s move to give notice of the cancellation of the contract.

He declined to comment further, and said officials would work to prepare a statement.