By Elena Olmstead
Tri-City Herald
Copyright 2007 Tri-City Herald
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
PROSSER, Wash. — More than half of Prosser fire district’s volunteers gave two weeks’ notice Monday, but the city’s fire chief said the department still will be able to do its job.
The mass resignation comes after months of internal unrest in the department, which includes the volunteers’ vote of no confidence in their chief and the six-member fire board last fall.
Tim Stewart, volunteer association president and spokesman, said it started when former deputy fire chief Richard Clizbe was placed on leave by the board last August. A reason for the move has never been announced.
“That was the last straw,” Stewart said after Monday’s meeting.
Stewart stood up during the meeting and told the fire board that the volunteers don’t feel like they’re being listened to or that their concerns are being addressed.
“You’ve treated us with a disrespectful attitude,” he told the board.
He told the board that the 14 volunteers’ resignations would be effective just after midnight July 3. He said the only thing that would prevent the group from walking away would be if Fire Chief Doug Merritt were to resign and the city council representatives on the board be replaced.
“We acknowledge your resignations,” said Ken Drewel, commission chairman.
Eight new volunteers were brought into the department in the past month to supplement the 24-member force. After the mass resignation was announced, the new volunteers were named as part of the department’s contingency plan.
“We anticipated this and prepared for this,” Merritt said.
He said the new volunteers will go through an intense training program and should be ready to start fighting fires in six weeks. He said two new paid staff members, interlocal agreements with area departments and the city allowing volunteers who are city workers to respond to calls during the day will help the department through the walkout.
“So we’ll still be covered?” asked Morgan Everett, board member and city councilman.
“Yes, we’ll still be covered,” Merritt said.
Merritt told the Herald he sees the resignations as a form of blackmail.
“They’re using public safety and trying to blackmail the public into getting what (they) want,” he said.
After the meeting, Stewart said the volunteers feel like they are paid no regard for what they do and that their concerns continue to fall on deaf ears. He said the group has many reservations about Merritt, including his questionable credit card usage.
Stewart said, and a recent state audit showed, that Merritt doesn’t always keep receipts for his credit card purchases. Stewart said the worst part is that the board supposedly never questioned Merritt about it and “just paid the bills.”
“We’ve lost confidence in the guy,” said Tom Freepons, a volunteer firefighter for six years.
Stewart said many of the volunteers aren’t happy that the resignations are what it’s come to.
“It’s sad,” he said. “A department should not have to go through this.”
Stewart said the two weeks’ notice isn’t a courtesy to the department. It’s a courtesy to the community they have all served for so many years.
Drewel said he was disappointed by the group’s actions, but said the state’s recent audit — which included no formal findings — speaks for itself.
“We’re sorry they feel that way,” he said after listening to Stewart’s resignation announcement.
The walkout has made Andy Freepons, 17, reconsider his decision to become a firefighter.
He has just finished his junior year at Sunnyside Christian High School and had planned on spending his summer as a volunteer firefighter in Prosser.
As he watched 14 members of the Prosser fire district’s 24-man force, including his father, walk out on the department, he had second thoughts.
“If these 14 guys quit, that’s all the experience,” he said. “I’m a newbie and I don’t trust my life to the eight other (new) guys.”
Stewart said the 14 volunteers represent 166 years of firefighting experience that will be missed this coming fire season.
“We regret that, but we feel we are left with no choice,” he told the board minutes before leaving the meeting, followed by a number of volunteers wearing dark blue volunteer firefighter T-shirts.
Merritt said after looking through his log of firefighter responses, he noticed a number of volunteers who have only responded to two or three calls all year.
“We don’t see them already,” he said of some of the volunteers.
Merritt said he hasn’t seen a list of the 14 members who are represented by Stewart.