Email to the Editor: Fire District No. 28 Commissioners Respond to Accusations

To: Our Community and Customers

Re: Rebuttal to letter from

Here are the allegations and the response:

1. "Corruption." The state auditor (SAO) found a violation of RCW 42.23.030, a conflict of interest statute, but did note that this statute allows payment of up to $1500.00 per month to a commissioner for goods or services. We believe it was a good business decision to pay the monthly charges temporarily for storage of the modular home, and in fact those charges were well under that amount monthly. If there was evidence of "corruption," the auditor would have followed up by referral of the matter to the Attorney General and/or the local prosecuting attorney, but that was not done.

2. "Fraud looks like a common practice." Actually, fraud is a very technical legal term and has nine elements of proof. Without getting into the technical requirements, we would note that the SAO has a fraud unit, which would have investigated this allegation if there had been evidence of fraud. Instead, the matter was handled as a routine audit. The finding was not one of fraud, or the SAO would have required money to be recovered by the district from the commissioner. That was not required here. In fact, the commissioner and his wife got no monetary benefit from the transaction -- the money for the space rental went to a third party vendor. The payment was made because the district could not move the modular building until permits for that were issued by King County.

3. Poor business practices. In reality, the district saved thousands of dollars by developing the Cumberland property the way they did, i.e. with a used modular home to be adapted for use as a residence for volunteer resident firefighters. This is a common practice for fire districts in Washington. Gig Harbor Fire did it for years at two stations in their fire district. When they finally got the money to expand and renovate their two resident volunteer stations, they were able this year to replace the two modular homes. The cost of remodeling the two stations, pursuant to public works contracts -- and prevailing wage laws -- executed pursuant to bid laws amounted to $3.1 million. Therefore, we estimate that a remodeling at Cumberland could well have cost at least a million dollars! Even with all of the bureaucratic difficulties encountered with the county and otherwise, the Cumberland station "remodel" looks like a bargain. Eventually, once all available volunteer firefighter EMTs are certified and trained, for the first time in many years the Cumberland part of the district will have much speedier response times. Thus, the commissioners' goals of better service to citizens will be achieved ultimately.

4. Fireman should not be commissioners. Yes, the current commissioners include a retired firefighter from Auburn Fire, an active paramedic from West Pierce Fire, and an active fire service employee from South King Fire, but all three of them live with their families in this fire district. They do not want to waste taxpayer's money any more than you do. But there are distinct advantages in having commissioners who are knowledgeable about the challenges and costs of the modern fire services in this state. Perhaps they are not as aware as they should be of all bid laws and other statutes, so they make mistakes, but the board is determined to make improvements in your service, and that is why they agreed to allow the City of Enumclaw to annex into the fire district for service in the first place. These three gentlemen have now all been fire commissioners for more than 6 years. They know the history and the challenges facing this regional fire department, and are addressing the needs one by one.

5. Access to commissioners/transparency. Although the Board believes that the majority of citizens in the city and the rest of the fire district are satisfied with their service, and that the criticisms are mostly attributable to one or two people, the district will continue to answer all questions and criticisms. Access to information and transparency, for the public and the media, will be kept at a high level, because the district has absolutely nothing to hide. Citizens are welcome to come to meetings and to request public records; or, to make an appointment for a meeting with our Fire Chief.

Very truly yours,

David Hannity, Chairman

Chris Ingham, Commissioner

Ryan Terhune, Commissioner

Editor's Note: This rebuttal is a response to Mike Quall's letter that can be accessed by . Fire Chief Joe Clow can be reached at the fire station at 360-825-5544.