Fire District 12 answers community questions

Matt Baide | Jan 27, 20220

its monthly commissioners meeting Jan. 18 and responded to questions submitted by the community, which may have brought up more community questions than before.

The Journal attempted to schedule an interview with the commissioners and chief Kelli Walsworth, but commissioner Albert Wilder said the commissioners or chief Walsworth would not do any interviews until after the accountability audit being conducted by the state Auditor’s Office is completed. During the meeting, it was announced the district had its last audit meeting on Jan. 18. Walsworth stated that it will be three to four weeks minimum to “get everything closed up and exit meeting.” It was stated everything is going well with the audit.

“Everything that basically she wants that we have, she’s gotten. There are some things that we do not have that she wants,” commissioner Jon Pais said during the meeting in regards to the audit.

The meeting was conducted through Zoom due to the governor’s proclamation 20-05 and 20-28 about open public meetings being allowed to be held remotely due to COVID-19, according to the fire district’s website. The cited proclamation was put into place in January 2021, and the November and December 2021 meetings both took place in person. Both commissioner Pais and Albert Wilder were on camera and not wearing masks while sitting next to each other.

During the meeting, a COVID update was announced that the district received an email from its “NPD” requesting to increase the district’s personal protective equipment because of the increase in COVID-19 cases. Pais said that last week, there were four more families in the community that were ill.

There was no agenda posted on the website before the meeting. Pais said the website is not complete and said there are more places for buttons and links that will be added.

The community asked what the purpose of the levy increase was if the reserves are flush, and Pais responded the levy was asked for and approved by voters to install a helipad and refurbish station one and it is all based on the agreement to purchase the property adjacent to the fire hall owned by the school district.

“At the time, the fire department didn’t have enough funds to purchase the whole piece so we bought half with the agreement that when the monies came in, we would purchase the other half,” Pais said. “Well, the levy money did come in and the school board backed out of the agreement to sell part of the other half, so the levy money sits in reserve ready to be spent.”

Pais answered the community question of moving excess funds so they can be invested and Pais said his personal opinion is no, because they have that money to spend, not invest.

The community asked how many people are employed by the fire district and Pais answered two people, chief Kelli Walsworth and secretary Brenda Wilder. According to the meeting minutes from Dec. 21, chief Walsworth’s contract was increased from $42,712 to $52,743.60 after a unanimous vote from the commissioners following an executive session.

Commissioner Pais addressed the community question of conflicts of interest due to commissioner Wilder having his wife and daughter as the only two people on the fire district’s payroll. Pais said he had to go into some history for this answer, stating that it’s really difficult to avoid conflicts of interest “when you have just a handful of families that actually run the fire department.”

“When I joined in ’87 and ’88, we had so many Brehmeyers on the fire department, that it was hard to keep track of how many were there,” Pais said. “Over time, we know that we had Andersons, (Terry) Anderson and his family, there were four involved. We had four of the Pais’ that were involved. We had four of the (Woods) that were involved in the fire department. We had three of the (Elliotts) that were involved in the fire department. We had two, Mike and (Shirley) that were both being paid. We’ve had three of the Jutsons at this point that are involved in the fire department. (Kristin) and (Amanda) (Sanford), Amanda happened to be a commissioner and she was also the secretary for a period of time. And now we have members of the Wilder family joining and we have other family members with us too. So it’s really hard when you only have a handful of families who want to run or be involved in the fire department.”

“We appreciate people saying to me that they want to be involved in the fire department and we know the more people that are involved, the better, but I personally don’t consider people that attend a fire commissioner meeting being involved in the fire department. It’s just like going to a school board meeting and saying that you’re involved in the school when you’re not. Going to a board meeting or a school board meeting is for a transfer of information, getting your questions answered, but you’re not really involved so we invite those who want to be involved, to actually join the department and be part of it. That way, it makes it much easier so you don’t have a handful of families that are doing all of this work all of the time.”

Pais said the department did not receive any COVID relief money. Pais said if this created further questions for the community, contact the fire department at 360-426-0451.

MasonWebTV attempted to broadcast the meeting, but according to the website, was not allowed to attend the meeting. After initially being allowed into the Zoom meeting, the host “removed” MasonWebTV from the meeting and would not allow it back in, a note on its website said.

It was reported that the district responded to a structure fire in the beginning of January. It was fully engulfed and a complete loss of structure. Three engines, two tenders, two ambulances and a command raid from District 12 responded as well as Central Mason sending an ambulance, which is normal. The district was at the fire for about five hours.

In December, the district had 28 calls, including 10 EMS and 18 fire calls.

The commissioner meetings have been set for the year after a unanimous commissioner vote to decide the time, which will be the third Tuesday of every month at 2 p.m. due to each commissioner’s schedule. For the link to join the February commissioners meeting or more information, visit mason12.com.