||| FROM THE VOLUNTEER LIEUTENANTS OF ORCAS ISLAND FIRE & RESCUE |||
Commissioners,
We are sending this letter on behalf of the volunteer lieutenants of OIFR. This is a difficult letter to send but it is the result of lengthy discussion, deliberation and analysis.
The volunteer officers of San Juan Fire Protection District 2, hereby submit this letter of No Confidence in Commissioners Ehrmantraut, Gaylord and Hansen. We have serious concerns about their performance, ability, and intent to fulfill their sworn oath to “faithfully and impartially perform and discharge the duties of the office of commissioner, according to the law and the best of (their) ability.”
We have come to this No Confidence conclusion based on the following actions and inactions of the commission:
- Failure to engage and communicate with the broad public, staff, volunteers, or Chief in a timely manner to plan a levy strategy.
- Prioritizing relatively immaterial issues to the exclusion of urgent business regarding budgeting, staffing, and functionality of our fleet.
- Voting to squander significant funds to conduct a legal review of the chief’s contract, despite overwhelming community opposition demonstrated in public comments. This poses a risk to critical leadership and corporate knowledge, damages the district’s ability to attract and hire future leaders, diverts attention and funds from pressing business, and may result in the departure of a competent, collaborative, caring, dedicated, and respected leader.
As supporting evidence, we cite the following specifics:
- Unwillingness to learn about the department that they took an oath to support.
a. The new Commissioners have failed to take the initiative to learn about the department. During a recent BOFC meeting, Chief vanSchaick describes the deleterious effect of the Commissioners not learning about the department. [BOFC meeting on 1/2/2024: recording at 41:52.]
b. The Commissioners have refused to schedule a BOFC training designed for newly appointed Board members so they can learn about OIFR. Commissioner Hansen asked questions about the Board’s responsibilities and delegation of responsibilities, then Chief vanSchaick made remarks about the proposed training and its removal from the 1/16/2024 agenda. [BOFC meeting on 1/16/2024: recording at 1:46:10 and 1:47:40, respectively. Discussion about not rescheduling the training is at 2:22:28.] - Non-collaborative and disrespectful treatment of Chief Holly vanSchaick and other OIFR employees and volunteers.
a. Within a month of the new Board members being sworn in, the attitudes and behavior of the Board contributed to the resignations of three staff members who filled key positions, announced at the 12/18/2023 meeting. In addition, the Board Secretary resigned during the 1/16/2024 meeting. All resignations specifically cited the conduct of Commissioner Gaylord as contributing to their decisions. [The Board Secretary resignation [BOFC meeting on 1/16/2024: recording at 30:49.]
b. OIFR staff, volunteers, and the public have witnessed disrespectful treatment of Chief Holly vanSchaick, routinely displayed at Board meetings by not allowing the Chief to speak or comment on topics on which she is a subject matter expert. [BOFC meeting on 1/2/2024: recording at 42:30 demonstrates one example. Also hear Commissioner Fuller’s comments about this on 1/16/2024 at the 2:00 mark.]
c. Considering the budget and other urgent challenges facing the fire district, Commissioners Ehrmantraut, Gaylord and Hansen seem unduly focused on nullifying the contract of Chief vanSchaick. It appears to many to be a personal vendetta against her; their biases are evident throughout several meetings. Commissioner Fuller summed up his observations of this at the January 16, 2024 meeting. [BOFC meeting on 1/16/24: recording at 1:51:02.]
d. Commissioners Ehrmantraut, Gaylord and Hansen on 1/16/2024 voted to allocate up to $20,000.00 for legal services to review the contract of Chief Holly vanSchaick. [BOFC meeting on 1/16/24: recording at 2:16:00.] They ignored overwhelming public comment against the motion to allocate funds for legal review of Chief vanSchaick’s employment contract. [BOFC meeting on 1/16/24: comments recorded at the beginning of the meeting and again at 1:58:20.]
e. When called by volunteers, Commissioner Chair Ehrmantraut does not return phone calls. [Personal observation of Lt. Anthony Simpson on January 15, 2024] - Poor use of time during and between meetings, with an inability or unwillingness to prioritize urgent budgetary, personnel, safety, and operational issues facing the department.
a. The BOFC has made essentially no progress in preparing a levy for the April 2024 San Juan County ballot, despite numerous “special meetings” at additional cost to the district. After agreeing on a timeline for preparation of the April levy during the 1/16/2024 BOFC meeting, Commissioner Gaylord admitted “I’m concerned about the 5th being too late almost.” [BOFC meeting on 1/16/2024: recording at 1:13:14.]
b. The Board spent time during three different meetings discussing the purchase of new laptops and cell phones for the commissioners, despite testimony that the district could not budget for these and is currently even deferring maintenance on fire apparatus. [See this issue listed on several previous BOFC meeting agendas.] - Burdening an already overworked and under-resourced OIFR staff with tasks that can wait until above referenced urgent priorities have been addressed.
- a. Assigning staff, on 11/29/2023, to research and report on software alternatives to enhance the agenda distribution of materials for board meetings.
b. Assigning staff to research and report on hiring the county auditor’s office to take over the district’s bookkeeping, despite the Chief describing how that historically was not an effective strategy. The board then declined to give Chief vanSchaick the opportunity to present prepared information on the topic. [BOFC meeting on 1/2/2024: recording at 47:26]
c. Commissioner Gaylord has initiated repeated Public Records requests with unclear goals as to why, costing additional legal fees and excessive amounts of staff time to fulfill said requests. One such request is referenced during public comment. [BOFC meeting on 1/2/2024: recording at 6:51]
We request that the Board of Fire Commissioners take immediate and appropriate action to address the issues raised herein. We request a prompt response to this letter of No Confidence and anticipate that necessary measures can and will be taken to safeguard the district’s well-being. Please contact our appointed representative, Greg Sawyer, by January 26, 2024 to discuss steps to restore our confidence in your oversight of the district, interest in the morale and work environments of OIFR members, and the safety of the public.
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LET THE SUNSHINE IN!!!
Who are you? Your names please. We will get to your nonsense later.
What do you expect to happen here? Who wrote this? Who put you up to this simpleton politics?
Why did the Chief not lead here?
Nearly all subjective and false statements. I want to know who is driving this. Who is leading this No Confidence blather?. No confidence in our elected board?
Really? Stand up. Who are you? Defend your adolescent text and let’s go from there.
Gary, you can see the list of lieutenants on the OIFR website.
All I can say is that we did not elect new commissioners to create greater turmoil.
I am beyond disappointed.
Time to let the new commission do their job. Let’s all begin to work together for the OF&R service that we all want.
For starters:
Where were these voices of outrage when the previous board spent $91,771 in legal fees in 2022 or the $38,960 in 2023?
$15,000 to undo some of the damage caused by the previous appointed board seems like a deal!
Thankfully this “elected” board recognizes their fiduciary responsibilities and thus has no choice but to attempt to fix it.
I ask the board to stay the course please while asking these precious volunteers to dig a bit deeper into the details. I suspect there is a lot going on behind the curtain of which they are unaware.
We need everyone to take a step back for the good of the community.
This is unfortunate. The newly elected majority appears to have reached “peak douchebag” by pissing off the volunteers. The newly elected fire commissioners just got volunTOLD that they need to shape up or ship out. What about the budget crisis? When I call for life support, will it come? I can’t believe that this is happening now.
Bill King …. This is my first time in making a comment on this platform and barely others.
1. Why do the volunteers need to keep track of the expenditures ? Most of the volunteers are people who work full time jobs. People who choose to support their community After their off work, leave from their Jobs with no pay, retired and want to give back in a very serious way. That’s a special person who chooses to do so.
2. Does the community understand the regulations to become a volunteer in this department? ( It’s truly not a volunteer position because you need to be qualified in all the the requirements set forth by by the government standards )
How do I know the requirements. I truly don’t read every one of them but I know being married to my husband for 24 years we have seen and abide those requirements set forth. He was born, raised, by his father who is a icon in this community. Go by station 26 and see who it is dedicated too. This family helped start this department and his father told him (Son serve your community it’s a honor to do so. )
So unless you have walked in their shoes please do not judge their decision to do what they are doing.
My husband says Go to the rescue if you can and go home. STAY OUT OF THE POLITICS. So for him to become involved in the political side I ask our community to please wake up , find the truth and let’s move forward to support the great people who serve you. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and hopefully this will help our community GROW , and figure out this very serious situation.
This is a very unfortunate letter. The voters approved all three candidates by a significant margin. There have only been a few meetings. There has been significant progress on a new levy.
We need to give them a chance to govern.
Will the community rally behind and listen to the good people on the front lines and first responders saving lives day in and day out? Or will they defend the administration to ensure they get new smartphones and make budget decisions?
Stay tuned …
Yes this was a desperate move for the departments lieutenants to take . Bravo to take a stand for us and the department they have dedicated so much to.. How else do you get their attention. Has anyone else tried to reach the commissioners vie their web site email addresses ? I did and they were all BLOCKED . How else to we communicate with them ? This should be the way to contact them .I have to agree the few meetings of the new commissioners have been not been spent on moving forward on essential matters. Holly’s contract should not be the most important thing to deal with before anything else . Efforts need to be made at this time to work with our volunteers and the chief .They are needed and work with them .NO levy will pass while the department is under attack and in turmoil . Please commissioners work with and for the department . Nothing can be achieved by the present direction you are going .
Thank you Velma for your response. You have also given so much time to this Fire Department and community.
Stunningly disappointing and bias letter directed at the fire commissioners by supposedly “volunteer lieutenants” which are not identified on the OIFR website, so essentially the group is anonymous to the general public. The key word here is volunteer … the full time paid lieutenants are identified in the financial data. So much for transparency that the public is seeking.
The new commissioners have been on the job for what … 30+ days? It’s not like the three new commissioners are strangers to government or fire districts … it’s a rather minuscule government agency, not unlike thousands of other rural fire districts.
The levy is dependent on 2024 budget data requested from the Fire Chief at the January 2 meeting. Staff is responsible for proposing a budget. That then goes to the commissioners for public debate and decisions. The levy for funding operations is relatively elementary from there since Orcas assessed valuation for 2024 is known. The complicated issue is all the new fire apparatus the consultant programmed into her report and whether to fund some of that in the levy or do a separate bond.
The public has been making levy proposals and suggestions to the commissioners … just alike anyone can do and have been doing since the original $1.06 levy was so crushingly defeated.
Contacting the commissioners has not been an issue using the contact e-mail on the OIFR website. That e-mail goes to the OIFR staff and is sent on to the commissioners. I was suspicious that might not work, but a test this week showed it got to the commissioners with very little delay.
In conclusion, I think the new commissioners are doing a commendable job despite some strong opposition comments.
Robert, “… supposedly volunteer lieutenants…”?? Why don’t you just take the letter’s statement at its word? It sounds like you are not very familiar with the department. So I suggest if you want to name names, you just call up and ask.
Safety Officer, Lt. FF Greg Sawyer,
Lt. 21 EMT/FF Rita Harvey,
Lt. 22 EMT/FF Jim McCorison,
Lt. 23 FF Kevin McCoy,
Lt. 24 EMT/FF Kat Banard,
Lt. 25 FF Gehl,
Lt. 26 FF Liam Nutt,
LT. 27 EMT/FF Tony Simpson,
Wildland Lt. Dave Halloran,
Rescue Lt. Rich Harvey:
Your letter states a 26 January 2024 deadline for response from the Fire Commission. Surely you realize that this is before the next scheduled meeting on 05 February 2024. Therefore, your deadline seems designed to accomplish one of two things:
1.) Catch the commission in a ‘gotcha’ by discussing this outside of public session in a violation of the OPMA to comply with your deadline.
2.) Not hearing back from the Fire Commission by your deadline, because the Commission is unable to legally discuss this…and then claiming that you are being ignored.
Placing an unreasonable response deadline on the Commission only casts your list of grievances in a non-serious light.
Signed,
Alex Conrad
p.s. I hope I got your names and designations right…it’s harder when letters are unsigned.
Dan Christopherson: Great idea! Have the general public all call OIFR to get the unpublished names of the unlabeled fire department volunteer lieutenants.
Now that seems like transparency at it worst.
My journalism training and experience would support requiring Guest Opinion letters sharply disparaging criticizing newly elected officials be identified as to who was actually signing on to the guest opinion.
I’ve followed and written about fire departments over a number of years … I’ve NEVER seen fire employees or volunteers go public with the level of vitriol as exhibited in this unnamed guest opinion.
I think the public has considerable respect for the firefighters, EMT’S, volunteers. and staff. I know I do, but open public disparagement of the new commissioners is not helping to maintain that respect. I suspect I’m not alone in that opinion.
After carefully reading this letter, I find it difficult to even consider “a lack of confidence” in the newly elected commissioners who have been in their positions for only one month. Taking into account the simple fact of two failed levies, I welcome a close perusal of the department’s spending and leadership.
The Volunteer Lieutenants have a sincere interest in these issues, and earnestly seek public support for what they feel are the highest priorities for our Fire District, including proper funding.
Speaking as one who voted to approve the recent levies, I do not see how it helps achieve proper funding to publicly attack three of the five commissioners who will draft the next levy. I share Velma’s concern that turmoil makes it harder to pass a levy.
I am also troubled by the demand that the commissioners explain public records requests and why money is being spent on legal fees. I don’t know any details, but it seems possible that the commissioners are investigating concerns or exploring options. If so, then they ARE carrying out their duties!
Let’s remember that it would be irresponsible for a commissioner to prematurely make public or private statements regarding personnel matters or potential legal issues. For more than 50 years, Washington’s strong public disclosure law has balanced the public’s right to know with exceptions for sensitive situations. If those exceptions may apply, the commissioners must carefully avoid premature comment.
We all knew when we voted that we were electing new commissioners to take a fresh look at complicated and controversial challenges which have historically defied easy financial or political solutions. Our new commissioners can’t possibly make everybody happy. Those of us who may discover we are unhappy with their decisions must recognize that if we want good candidates for public office in the future, we must avoid counterproductive acrimony and instead respectfully acknowledge the present office holders who were willing to run for these thankless positions.
Build trust first…putting out fires is the easy part.
The election is over, the voters have spoken.
I believe that the new commission intends to fund the department well and to replace aging apparatus.
We all need to work together to pass a levy asap.
An UNSIGNED opinion piece is nothing but whinging. The election is OVER. The voters have spoken. Give the new commissioners a chance to get the fire and rescue department sorted out and back on sane financial footing. Reorganizing anything from a toolshed to a fire department will inevitably require a period of turmoil and disruption before new practices and systems are implemented. Have a little patience.
To those that keep focusing on the lack of names signed, did you question the previous vote of no confidence regarding Chief Williams from the career staff where no names were listed? (there are no comments on the Orcasonian thread to that article). This current group of volunteers originally wrote the letter with names at the bottom, however after speaking with a union member about how they would present a letter such as this they decided to follow the professional protocol and just sign as a group. Those who know this group certainly understand this is a last resort and very difficult decision that is taking its toll on families and health.
To those that keep saying “give them time to figure things out”. Have you watched the meetings where important items get tabled and finance discussion get dismissed? Yes, this is a short time frame, but there have been six meetings since taking oath. These commissioners also said they were coming in with a plan. At the Jan. 2nd meeting, the finance manager (Audra McClain) was in attendance on zoom and ready to share her plan and answer any questions. This was after her resignation date. Each time an item came up (3 or 4 times), Chief asked the board if the finance manager could present and answer questions. They dismissed them both (Chief and Audra) every time! It was unbelievable to watch and so disappointing from a board that promised to be ready with financials walking in. Chief reminded the board this was our last opportunity to ask financial questions of Audra and that she had come to the meeting for this sole purpose. What a lost opportunity and a waste of Ms McClain’s time.
Correction: An unidentified person sent me a screenshot of the career staff vote of no confidence of Chief Williams with names, however there is another letter in the Orcasonian (Oct. 20, 2021) where no names are listed and that is the article to which I was referring.
Let me get this straight. Former supporters of the failed levy now want to blow up the elected board
in an effort to accomplish what exactly?
Show the voting public that drama rules OIFR and no one can get along? And you expect us to trust you with millions of our dollars?
Mission accomplished. Seems foolish from my seat.
There seems to be confusion about The Public Records act. If you’re confused by that title it addresses why it’s a good idea to use agency purchased (OIFR) computers and cell phones. Here’s some great information to help get up to speed. https://mrsc.org/stay-informed/mrsc-insight/january-2020/elected-officials-guide-what-s-personal-and-what-s
Clark, great article.
“However, you don’t have to let someone else search your personal account. You are allowed to conduct the search of your personal account and retrieve and submit any requested records; you should be asked by your agency to sign an affidavit about your search. Another option is to use a dedicated app on your personal device that remotely accesses your agency email account.”
As Chair Ehrmantraut noted or acknowledged in a meeting, like this article, there are easy work-arounds and protections that negate the need for dedicated devices.
When the experienced people in the trenches (that actually know what is going on) risk repercussions to publicly state that there is a problem, it’s worth paying attention to.
Mr. Simpson,
True that it’s not mandatory but should be noted it’s much cleaner to have everything separated. Just because you can doesn’t make it best practice. District Personnel come and go but agency owned devices and data stay with the agency. Lord knows I have as tired of hearing about Hillary Clinton’s personal email server.
For those asking all to allow the new Commissioners to govern/figure things out since they are so new… I would also ask the same of the Chief. She was appointed at the end of August, so she’s only about 5 months in. In the private sector, new leaders are usually given at least a year or two before their Board of Directors choose to take action on their employment. I’m disappointed that reviewing the Chief’s employment contract is what the commission has chosen to do so early in their tenure.
More than anything, those commenting here should prioritize attending the BOFC meetings. The next one is on Feb 5 and details can be found on the Orcas Fire website. This is also where you can find the recordings of the previous meetings. I encourage you all to listen to them and read the notes.
Heather, Just so information such as yours is not taken out of context: yes, the commissioners are reviewing the contract only because it appears that it was executed illegally and they have a fiduciary’ responsibility to correct it. Nothing in their actions indicate that the contract will change except for possibly a few minor tweaks. Nothing in their statements have indicated that this has anything to do with her job performance or that they intend to make a change. That has been a false dialogue.
So I agree with you . Attend the meetings and let’s give the chief of 5 months a chance. And while we are at it how about we extend that same courtesy to three new board members that have been on the job for two months.