COMMENTS

COMMENTS FOR FIRE DISTRICT 18 COMMISSIONERS

By: George Wilson August 18, 2009

Our reason for city council meetings is to conduct city business such as approval for financial transactions, policy changes, and creating and updating existing ordinances. All of these actions include public input.

All (7) council members have different committees that we are a chairman for, and our individual responsibilities are to report to our fellow council members any issues pertaining to our respective committees. This form of communication allows us, as council members, to be able to address issues that get asked of us by citizens even though the question could be for a committee that we might not
be directly involved with. This teamwork and communication allows for the best type of open government our citizens could ask for.

My particular committee that I chair is Public Safety, which requires me to communicate with both the Police Chief and the Fire Chief. Recent actions of the District 18 Fire Commissioners put me in the awkward position of not having a clue as to what was going on with the Fire Department.

There is a public record of all of your District 18 Fire Commissioner meetings and they will prove my attendance at your meetings. You can imagine my surprise and shock to come back from a trip to Idaho on Memorial weekend to find that the Fire Chief for the City of Orting had been placed on administrative leave.

This meeting took place with no involvement from the staff or council members from the City of Orting. It would be rather difficult for us to attend a "special" meeting that we knew nothing about.

As a rule, all of the District Commissioner's meetings have always been held at 7:00 p.m. with public notice a month in advance. Why was a special meeting called at 4:30 p.m., when members of the Orting City Council wouldn't even be home from work yet?

If, as a group, you were even remotely interested in communicating with the city, the meeting you had could have been done at a regular commissioner's meeting. The results would have been the same, but you wouldn't be guilty of improper notification.

Your communication with Barbara Hansen with Orting News dated August 5th and I quote: "While District 18 District 18 Commissioners said they have wanted to increase communication with the City of Orting, the city's representative has
failed to participate on the board.

George Wilson, appointed as an Ex-Officio member of the commission since the city contracted with Fire District 18 for its fire and emergency services, has not attended the Fire Commission meetings
since May."

Well this may come as a surprise to you as a group, because if you check your own public records from your June 16th, 2009 Fire Commissioner's meeting, that was me sitting right next to your administrative assistant, Kris Helland and, oh by the way, right next to Troy West, and yes, that was me handing you paperwork
all night Troy.

I would also like to point out that up to this point, and including this meeting, nobody from the commission even so much as said hello to me. This
even includes your newly appointed Fire Chief.

Can you imagine the embarrassment of attending a public meeting where I represent the City of Orting
and nobody can even acknowledge my being there.

I would again like to quote from Orting News. I quote: "The allegations against Shelton were read into the record at a special meeting at 4:30 p.m. June 25." A public announcement for that meeting was not published in the News Tribune or local entities, but was posted on the window at the Orting Public Safety Building hours before the meeting. Again with the "special" 4:30 p.m. meeting and no notification.

I would, at this time, like to quote from Pierce County Fire Protection District #18 Employment Agreement - Fire Chief Section 3 Discipline and
Discharge. "The district may discipline, suspend for up to (30) days, or discharge the employee for just cause only (by a unanimous vote of the board).
Such a just cause determination may only be made after a hearing wherein the employee is given the opportunity to respond to any formal charges, and only upon a unanimous vote of the board. Prior to any such hearing, the employee shall have been given written notice setting forth any such charges at least fourteen (14) days prior to such hearing."

Well let's see now, if the charges against Randy Shelton were read into public record June 25th" at a "special" meeting that Randy Shelton was not even present at. Then, what this is telling me is that the public that was in attendance at that
"special"public meeting on June 25th" knew the charges against Randy Shelton before Randy Shelton even knew what the charges were, and being as Randy was terminated on July 9th, 2009, what happened to the (14) days of notification?

I do not claim to be an attorney and I have no idea if Randy Shelton's rights were violated, but I'm sure that this and many more questions will be addressed before this issue sees closure. I'm pretty sure that what we have just witnessed
here is nothing more than just a good old-fashioned witch hunt.

This leads me to the question that I wanted to pose to the Fire Commissioners had they chosen to attend this public, televised Orting City Council meeting.

Your choice of direction is apparent based on your actions involving East Pierce. The City of Orting has had no involvement whatsoever in the selection
(temporary or otherwise) of Fire Chief Dave Wakefield of East Pierce.

If you were to read and abide by the agreement that we are currently supposed to both be complying with under the heading of District Board of Commissioners Liaison, the Ex-Officio member may participate in the interview and selection process of a Fire Chief. The Board of Commissioners shall consider the recommendations of the Ex-Officio memberprior to appointment of a Fire Chief.

This Fire Chief was already in place in June with no involvement from the city. Obviously the District Fire Commissioners have no desire or need to comply with our agreement.

It's my opinion that not all options have been looked at. When you look at this geographically, Graham's new fire station will be located approximately (4) miles from the center of Orting.

East Pierce isn't anywhere near that close. My
responsibility is to make sure that the citizens of Orting (the ones that elected me) are given an opportunity to receive the best response time and I'm sure that the Graham Fire Department has the best opportunity to provide that service.

Your unanimous decision to not attend our televised, open to the public city council meeting speaks loudly just like your previous actions. It's a sad day when people that are elected by people expecting open government have to watch a group of commissioners hide from the general public because their legal council was afraid they might say something to incriminate themselves.

Just exactly what is it that you, as a group, have to hide from citizens that might be concerned about what is going on with the Fire Department?

If I could quote Shawn Mahoney's comment in the Orting News and I quote: "I'm not really sure
exactly why (legal council advised against attending the Orting City Council
meeting) said Commissioner Shawn Mahoney, but I think it has to do with pending litigation. Things could be misunderstood or misconstrued. That would affect ongoing mediation."

Come on you guys. Randy Shelton was terminated July 9th, 2009. It's August. The City of Orting has a right to know what's going on with the Fire Department.

My observations of the actions of the District Fire Department shows no concern for open government, no intent to abide by our agreement and puts the Orting City Council in the position of having to look at our options to ensure that the
citizens of Orting are guaranteed to receive the best service available.

Editor's Note: There is a public meeting of the Fire Commission 8/18, 7pm at the Public Safety Building in Orting. The community is welcome to attend and be involved. You can give your feedback in the Opinion Blog. Councilman Wilson went on record by reading this statement at the August 12th city council meeting that the fire commissioners were invited to attend, but failed to do so. At the end of the meeting Barbara Hansen apologized that it was her error in stating that Wilson was not in attendance at the June 16th meeting, in the previous Orting News article.

Artwork from Orting News Shutterstock file