NORTH SUMMIT, Utah, Dec. 13, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — In November, the Summit County Council terminated the contract of North Summit Fire District Chief Ian Nelson.
At the time it was announced in a Nov. 20 Facebook post, the council said the decision was made “at the recommendation of the North Summit Fire District Administrative Control Board.” No specific reason was provided for the dramatic action.
On Sunday night, the firefighters of North Summit Fire District submitted a letter to the district’s Administrative Control Board, addressing “comments and points that were made at the December 9th Administrative Control Board (ACB) meeting” and stating that the ACB’s decision to remove Chief Nelson was an “egregious mistake.”
The letter breaks down the costs associated with the ACB’s proposal to hire a full-time district fire chief and says, “The cost to taxpayers would be, if your proposal were adopted, $120k or just over one fifth of the NSFD annual budget.” For this, the firefighters say, the community would see no increase in response capabilities or services that they didn’t already have.
The letter goes on to express strong disagreement with the ACB’s proposal, outlines less-costly ways to achieve the same objectives, and questions how the budget proposed by the ACB could possibly work without raising taxes.
The letter, in its entirety, appears below.
Dear North Summit Administrative Control Board,
We the Firefighters of North Summit Fire District (NSFD) would like to reply
to some comments and points that were made at the December 9th
Administrative Control Board (ACB) meeting. For ease of reading we have
broken them down by topic.
First and foremost, the fire chief position; we still wholeheartedly believe you
made an egregious mistake when you removed Chief Ian Nelson.
You have stated that you need a fire chief to attend meetings, write policies, be
a fire marshal, and cover shifts. The cost to taxpayers would be, if your
proposal were adopted, $120k or just over one fifth of the NSFD annual
budget. For this expenditure, the community gets no increase in response
capabilities or services that they didn’t already have.
POINT OF ORDER, you have NOT formally voted on pursuing a full time
chief. You as a board have ONLY voted on presenting the budget to the
Summit County Council as if you were going to get a full time chief. So in the
end you have moved money around but you have not made the decision, and it
is not set in stone. Yet you behave as if the adoption of a full time District Fire
Chief is a foregone conclusion.
We strongly disagree with this approach for the following reason. When it
comes to policies the county already has the majority or personnel policies
written. Two, if you would subscribe to the Lexipol service as Chief Nelson
originally recommended, at the cost of roughly 3k a year, we could have
written operational policies that are constantly updated. As for Fire Marshal
duties, if West Coast Consultants (WC3) were contracted the Fire Marshal role
would be managed at no cost to the district. As a result, the only job left is
covering shifts and managing the personnel, which can easily be done by a part
time chief.
POINT OF CLARIFICATION, Chief Ian Nelson had already been working on
all these tasks and much more. As evident by the fact of how many tasks or
objectives that have now ground to a halt due to your recommendation to
terminate him.
If you were to hire a part time chief at $40k a year, and two part time on duty
firefighters, each at $20k a year. This would allow for the 3 people to work 8 hr
days covering the district 9am-5pm, 7 days a week. Your current plan would
only have the community covered at best 5 days a week, and not at all on
weekends, holidays, or vacation, at the additional cost of $40,000. When you
were presented with this concept you shot the idea down without any
discussion whatsoever. You made no attempt to see any other solution, but your
own foregone conclusion.
Moving to your comment about NSFD Firefighters following our chain of
command, we are volunteers when we are in uniform we have a clearly
delineated chain of command, out of uniform we are private citizens with all
the rights afforded to such by the Constitution. We have shared our thoughts
and concerns. We are sure that you have been seeing the post or reading the
paper. You have done nothing to address them, other than to request a sheriff
deputy be present at all meetings now, taking them away from other duties.
Have you invited us to talk with you? Have you attempted to address any of
our concerns publicly?
If you choose to read this letter to the public and then respond to it at the next
ACB meeting, and address our concerns. Along with pledge to no retaliation or
claims of insubordination against us. Maybe then tough questions can be asked
and answered. Till then you force us to conduct ourselves from the shadows for
fear of recriminations.
In light of the fact that during the last meeting not only did you decrease the
allotted time for each public comment by 40% but you also restricted what
people could talk about. So we are not optimistic that you will take the leap
that we are asking from you.
As for your plans related to the budget. We are highly intrigued to know how
you will make it work. As stated multiple times you will not raise taxes, so our
budget is what it is, yet you have decided that we need to pay $120k for a full
time chief that we do not need. We think it is important for the taxpayer’s to
know you have also lifted the restriction on your pay, which from discussions
around this time last year we can only assume you will be raising, and in the
process further depleting funds that could enhance response. What the public
and we the North Summit Fire Fighters really need is critical equipment:
radios, air packs, and vehicles. Items that keep us safe, able to do our jobs
properly and effectively, for the North Summit community. If you choose to
continue down this current toxic path, it will lead to nothing good.
We would now like to pose the questions to you, how much is it going to cost
when you have to pay hourly for firefighters?
Your actions are driving away all the volunteers, and the few that remain do so
with withering enthusiasm. Those who remain have chosen to continue to
serve the needs of the community, while hoping things will get better. We do
not want your cookies or thanks, Bread & Roses it was once called. What we
need is for you to start doing what is actually best for the community, not what
your blinded, personally driven checklist tells you that is best.
Your goal is to be power hungry. It is clearly evident when you make the chief
job description “The Fire Chief is an appointed position which reports to
and serves at the pleasure of the North Summit Fire District
Administrative Control Board (NSFDACB)”. Why should a person with
more training and experience than the board serve at its pleasure? At most it
should read “to advise the board on the best course of action and work towards
achieving the board’s intent for the district”.
In short, we will not be silent and we will forever be the watchdogs, pointing
out how your actions are destroying the emergency response for the community
which we love. You can either start listening to us and using the resources at
hand (our wealth of experience and knowledge) or you can keep blindly
following the leader, driving you towards your own failure.
