Fire district merger is still on
HCFPD and CSFPD Boards agree to proceed
The merger between High Country and Colorado Sierra Fire Protection Districts is still on. Members of the Board of Directors from each district affirmed their support to form one district, although they had to work through some differences and decide on a direction to take from here.
High Country (HCFPD) and Colorado Sierra (CSFPD) Fire Protection District board members and fire chiefs met Monday evening, March 23rd, to consider the current and future status of merging into one department. The two began the process a year ago, after meeting with merger attorney Fred Huff who offered advice on the process, the first being to form an “authority.” That’s how Timberline Fire Authority (TFA) came about. TFA is not yet a fire protection district/department, and won’t become one unless residents of both districts vote to allow it. To show support of the merger, HCFPD’s Auxiliary, an independent support group, purchased shirts and jackets for members of both HCFPD and CSFPD which bear a new “Timberline Fire” name and logo. It may be because of the logo/label, or because some firefighters now say they are “with Timberline,” that Gilpnites are getting confused. HCFPD and CSFPD are still two separate, independent districts, but the firefighters from both are operating collaboratively and efficiently, providing better fire protection than ever to Gilpin residents. However, collaborative efforts at the board level had hit a snag.
TFA is the board of directors, composed of three members from each of the volunteer fire district’s boards of directors who are overseeing the merger process. TFA meetings, and progress toward the merger, came to a stop this year when the January meeting lacked a quorum (one was ill, one was working), and the February meeting was cancelled when a letter, received by HCFPD said a member of the CSFPD was bad-mouthing them in the community. Monday’s meeting was called to clear the air, reassess where they were and set direction for the future.
HCFPD President Paul Britton planned to systematically work through categories of operations, administration and management. Posted on the wall were large sheets of paper on which to write board member concerns and suggestions about ground rules, code of conduct, how to get there, the positives and negatives of merging, deal breakers, concerns, goals, completed items, and the parking lot. Also on Britton’s agenda: the need to look at what’s real, practical, affordable, can be accomplished and is in the best interest of the community. That agenda went by the wayside ten minutes into the meeting when CSFPD board member Rick Wenzel said he wanted to address the statements made in the letter from Gilpin resident Michelle Northrup to HCFPD about his board president, Gail Maxwell. Britton gave the nod. Nearly an hour and a half later, the letter had been gone through word-by-word and Wenzel had likened the HCFPD board’s reaction to the letter as “acting like 7-year-olds.” Although Britton had set the public comment for the later part of the meeting, some folks in the audience couldn’t wait, chiming in that HCFPD’s board members should get over hurt feelings and disregard a letter from someone “trying to stir the political pot.” HCFPD board members said it wasn’t a matter of hurt feelings but of credibility and trust, a code of conduct issue. HCFPD board member Robb Kambic, who initially expressed some reservation in proceeding, said, “I have no problems if you don’t like me or call me names,” He objected to “derogatory, inflammatory remarks behind our backs.” “How do you build an organization when you have representatives of the organization doing things like this?” asked Britton, later adding that such activity could undermine the merger. “Is it an appropriate statement to make?” he asked of one insulting comment the letter said Maxwell made. “No,” Wenzel responded. Maxwell didn’t deny making the disparaging comments and later apologized, “I’m sorry the letter was written, that my thoughts were misconstrued. I apologize to the High Country Board and want to see Timberline move forward.”
After that, the meeting got back on track. One issue, accomplishing a merger by dissolving one district and including it in the other, was laid to rest. It might be less expensive that way, but neither district wants to dissolve. Both want to come into Timberline on equal footing. “If it’s (dissolution/inclusion) not supported,” said HCFPD board member John Rittenhouse, “we’d save money, but we’d still fail.”
The districts are not rushing into a merger. They are one year into a process that takes from two to six years. Those members of HCFPD and CSFPD who also sit as TFA members agreed they weren’t sure where to go from here. They’re considering a facilitator or attorney to help guide them and discussed the need for a budget, records of accounts, timeline, action items and assigned responsibilities. On the list of accomplishments: picked a name and a logo, prepared by-laws, prepared standard operating procedures and there are more firefighters/less firefighter burn-out. Response times are also much quicker with collaborative operations. Several members of the audience commended the two boards for coming together to work out difficulties.
Rumors laid to rest:
1. The merger is off. (False – it’s still on.)
2. The merger means a big tax increase. (Maybe a fraction of a mil-and only with a vote of the district residents. Current annual levy is about $85 per $100,000 of home value.)
3. HCFPD has increased their pensions. (They have not.)
The decision makers:
HCFPD Board Members: Paul Britton, Roger Durham, Robb Kambic, John Rittenhouse and Dale Sternlicht.
CSFPD Board Members: Gail Maxwell, Walter Perryman, Chris Schimanskey, Taffy Skudenski and Rick Wenzel.
TFA Board Members: Durham, Kambic, Maxwell, Rittenhouse, Schimanskey and Wenzel plus HCFPD Chief Richard Bulich and CSFPD Chief Ryan Roberts.
The next TFA meeting has been set for April 9, 2009, 7:00 p.m. at CSFPD Station 2.