Walsworth appointed to Fire 12

Community voices concerns about commission

Matt Baide | Jul 13, 20230

Mason County Fire District 12 commissioners Albert Wilder and Cinda Compton appointed Kelli Walsworth, Wilder’s daughter, to a vacant commission position at a special meeting Tuesday in Matlock.

Walsworth is the district’s former fire chief who was dismissed and subsequently rehired as chief pro tempore prior to the state Auditor’s Office audit release in September. The audit found several fiscal problems in the district, and stated nepotism as a possible reason.

Commissioner Brian Jutson resigned June 26, Wilder announced at a special meeting Friday.

The resignation came as a surprise to residents in attedance. Wilder said it was posted on the district’s website and suggested the phrase “open commissioner position” on the front page of the site signaled that Jutson resigned.

“It’s been there for a week,” Wilder said during the special meeting. “We’re making it public right now, commissioner (Brian) Jutson resigned June 26. I’ve talked with our attorney to make sure, so it is what it is. Nobody has stepped up.”

Wilder claimed only one person showed interest in filling the position.

“We get a lot of negativity about the fire department but yet throughout this entire process, we’re still going out there, 24 hours a day, serving this community,” Wilder said. “Nobody else wants to step up. I see a group of you here, but nobody wants to volunteer. It’s no different than when Mike (Brown) was the chief or Joe Spalding was the chief. Joe Spalding wrote an article about the fire department when he was in here and he said there’s T-shirt wearers and there are volunteers. And at that point, Joe Spalding said the majority of his people in the department were T-shirt wearers. Now I’m not sure if Mike (Brown) remembers the article, but that’s Joe Spalding’s words. Any volunteers out here? This is the largest district in the county, well, I should take that back. Now that there’s been a couple mergers, I believe we are. District 11 is now part of Central Mason, you know they’re having meetings with District 3.”

Wilder said he doesn’t have to go out and tell everybody that commissioner Jutson resigned. State Sen. Drew MacEwen’s Senate Bill 5437 regarding vacancies of special district governing body vacancies passed the Legislature this session, but the law doesn’t take effect until July 23.

Wilder and newly appointed commissioner Cinda Compton voted to accept Jutson’s resignation Friday. After some back and forth between Wilder and the people in attendance, Wilder yelled at former chief Brown and said “We’re done!”

“You do this every meeting, you come in here and you know your RCW, become an attorney,” Wilder said.

Attorney Brian Snure’s name came up during the meeting, and former chief Brown said that Snure would not allow the commissioners to do what they are doing.

“All we have to do is take this to court and it makes it all null and void,” Brown said during the meeting.

The Shelton-Mason County Journal’s name came up.

“We don’t put stuff in the newspaper and we’re not obligated to,” Wilder said.

The Journal formally requested in May 2022, as the official paper of record in Mason County, that the newspaper be informed of all regular and special meetings in the county. Fire District 12 also has not followed through with the Journal’s public records request from last year.

Wilder said he didn’t believe the people in attendance didn’t know Jutson had resigned.

“You guys have your website, you’ve got all of your signs, you guys know what’s going on,” Wilder said.

After saying that, Wilder made a motion to adjourn the meeting, which was approved.

Brown spoke to the Journal on Monday, prior to Tuesday’s special meeting. He called Friday’s meeting a “clown show.”

“They have no idea what the RCW’s are. They are very unprofessional, they treat the taxpayers, their constituents, like trash and that’s what irritates me more than anything,” Brown said. “They look down on us ... we’re the ones paying taxes that they’re spending. I was totally disgusted with the whole thing and they tried to secretly bring in whoever, they already have it figured out who’s going to be their new commissioner. Everything they did was illegal. They don’t look them up, they just try to do thing their way.”

Brown said he anticipated Jutson’s resignation.

“This is something that they’re doing to try to keep the people they want in there so they can keep the embezzlement going,” Brown said. “To me, it’s bordering on racketeering. They’re not listening to the will of the people of their district. They believe it’s just a little group of us but we gathered over 300 signatures in a week’s time and we didn’t even go door to door. They don’t care about the taxpayer, they don’t care that the constituents want them out. They’re trying to figure out how to keep themselves in to keep the things going that they’ve done and they know when we go in there, it’s all going to get uncovered.”

At the Tuesday special meeting, an audience member spoke up during community comments about Wilder’s comment about the community not caring or supporting or volunteering for the department.

“I disagree with that because the community does care because that’s what this recall is all about,” the community member said. “The recall has 12 counts, 13 counts, 14 counts, and was upheld by two courts, and for a recall, you only need one count for a recall. So that is a win for the community and that shows the community does care. Removal of all the commissioners that are on this recall, that’s another win for the community and the fire department.”

Community member Trina Young said that she stayed after the meeting Friday for over an hour.

“When I left that meeting, I kind of felt like possibly you guys were interested in making sure that things don’t keep going the way they’ve been going and there would be a change,” Young said. “Not even 72 hours later, here we are with a surprise meeting with barely 24 hour’s notice. MasonWebTV today put on their website that they have submitted to you a request to be notified of all meetings and you’ve approved it and you didn’t notify them of this meeting today. To me, that just tells me you guys are still, I don’t know, it feels to me and a lot of the community you’re hiding something because you don’t want transparency, no matter how much you say you do. You can’t even post what your intent is today, all it says is commissioner position. What the hell does that mean? The people have a right to know what is going on and what you’re planning to do.”

At the special meeting Tuesday, Wilder talked about MacEwen’s bill. He said there are no statutory requirements for the board of commissioners to appoint a new commissioner.

“We don’t have to advertise, we don’t have to interview, we don’t have to do none of it, per RCW 42.12.074,” Wilder said. “There are no statutory requirements. So in the past in this fire district, a commissioner stepped down, the board of commissioners elected a new commission. It was never an issue until now.”

The Journal called Fire 12 for comment Monday, but no one answered the phone and the voicemail box for the district was full.

The next regular Fire 12 meeting is scheduled for 2p.m. July 18.