Dear Editor:
Leadership is needed in the Florissant Fire Protection District. What are the voters going to do about it?
Special District Fire Boards are expected to supervise their fire chief; they are expected to lead the chief, and they should be accountable to the taxpayers of the district; I don’t feel the current board are meeting these expectations.
The current FFPD board is STILL incomplete. The district has not had a full board of 5 members for most of the 9 months the board president has been in office. The special district rules state there must be a full board appointed within 60 days of a seat becoming vacant.
There is, I believe, some unsavory behavior by a couple of the current board members towards outspoken community members and previous board members who disagreed with them. Some of this behavior has been directed towards a local nonprofit group who does free fire mitigation. I believe this behavior has contributed to the internal conflict within the FFPD board that led to the resignation of three Board Appointees.
The FFPD board has ignored their own ruling document’s “best practices” and hired the current chief from his position serving on the board to being interim chief. By disregarding the 6 month “cooling off” period that is recommended they could have prevented the appearance of impropriety and cronyism.
The FFPD Fire Chief’s attitude towards and comments to and about the pubic I believe is completely unwarranted. I know of numerous instances of unprofessional remarks made by the Chief on social media directed towards the public and previous volunteer firefighters. Because of this, I believe, many volunteers and supporters have turned away from assisting the Chief and the board. It is the FFPD board’s responsibility to supervise the Fire Chief and direct the Chief in his interactions with the people he serves.
People of the Florissant Fire Protection District get to the polls and vote on May 2 at the fire station and replace the people who are frankly, I feel, a detriment to our district. It is time for there to be firm leadership and fiscal responsibility in our district.
Judy Dunn
Florissant resident and candidate for the FFPD Board
