On Jan. 11, 2005, more than 40 Peyton citizens arrived at the Peyton firehouse to attend a 6 p.m. scheduled meeting by the Peyton Fire Protection District Board. Instead, they found a note attached to the door that read:“Due to medical emergencies, the Peyton Fire District Board is unable to meet on January, 11, 2005. Because of these medical emergencies, there will not be an available quorum for proper meeting conduction. The meeting will be rescheduled for Tuesday 18, 2005 at six p.m. at the Peyton Fire Department. Thank you.”The note was unsigned. The group gathered inside the firehouse and decided to conduct an impromptu “citizens meeting” to discuss the issues that were going to be brought before the board that evening. The meeting was headed by Doug Martfeld, who, along with Bill Pike, Bob Joly and Jeff Wright, formed a committee – the Peyton Community Concerned Citizens.” Martfeld referred to himself as the “unofficial secretary” of the group since no one has officially been named as officers. The PCCC held its first public meeting in early January, and, despite bad weather and icy roads, Martfeld estimated an attendance of 50 people. Their first order of business was a discussion on what some Peyton folks view as serious problems with the Peyton Fire Department District Board.The issues discussed at the Jan. 11 meeting ranged from safety and training for firefighters to repairing the pumper truck, which has been in need since mid-2003. The pumper is used for structural fires and is currently unreliable, said several firefighters who attended. This is not news to the board of directors, who have discussed it repeatedly over the last year and one-half at public meetings. However, the attendees were most concerned with the board’s unresponsiveness toward Peyton citizens.Edward Stone, a 33-year retired firefighter and Peyton resident became involved with the committee after asking John Clowers, board president, questions regarding district finances. “Clowers told me it was none of my business,” Stone said. “That’s when I decided to get involved.”He arrived at the meeting ready to present a letter to the board requesting a complete accounting of all district monies, including taxes and donations, expenditures and debts from January 2000 to December 2004. Stone also would like to review the budget for 2005. He cited Colorado state law CRS 24-72-203, sub-section 3A as his authority to do so. The board will have three to seven business days to reply to the request once Stone is able to present it.The Peyton fire district consists of nine volunteers and only one has a “Firefighter 1” certification. Three are also board members who were not previously allowed to serve in the fire department. The board changed this policy as well as numerous others to the angst of the volunteer firefighters and the newly formed committee in November 2003.The area covered by the Peyton fire district is approximately 100 square miles consisting of nearly 6,000 citizens, 1,800 businesses or home structures and approximately 900 secondary structures that include barns and sheds. The Peyton fire district does not have a water supply, which means they are required to refill the tanker truck in Falcon or Calhan. They do not have transport capability. Medical emergencies are handled by AMR, which is housed out of the Falcon fire department. “The Peyton fire district can respond to medical emergencies but few volunteers are trained in anything more than CPR and first aide,” Bob Joly said. “Peyton cannot transport victims. They must wait for AMR out of Falcon to respond.”Joly became involved when his grandchild was born premature. His daughter was terrified that her child would need emergency medical help and her local fire department would not be equipped to deal with it. “I told her, if necessary, call Flight for Life yourself,” Joly said. “Anyone can call Flight for Life although you may end up responsible for the cost; it’s better than waiting for Falcon or Calhan to respond. They are both great departments with highly qualified people but there is still a wait time involved. Our local department should be better equipped to handle medical emergencies and it could be under the right leadership.”Another primary issue is how much the board is spending on legal fees. Out of an annual budget of $49,053, Assistant Chief Carol Hale speculated that as much as $20,000 has gone to the law firm of Hanes & Schutz.One battle costing money involved a former Peyton firefighter, Jack Rauer, and his Web site, www.Peytonfire.com. Rauer has received letters from Hans & Schutz, a Colorado Springs law firm, demanding that he turn over documents relating to ownership of the domain name, “peytonfire.” Rauer insists that he registered and paid for the domain name and Web site and will not turn anything over to the law firm or the board. He is considering countersuing for harassment and wrongful termination. Rauer stated on his Web site: “At this time, I feel as if I was terminated as a retaliatory action for opposing what I think to be illegal activities that the Peyton Fire Protection District is doing. I always found time to support our community whenever they needed me and I hope the community can help the firefighters.”Other issues with the board that possibly involve legal fees include term limitations, a request for former treasurer, Jeff Wright, to turn over any financial information he may still have and a recently failed internal audit. Regarding term limitation, Clowers has been on the board since its inception in 1988. Colorado statute dictates that a person can serve no longer than two four-year terms or no longer than eight consecutive years past the adoption of term limits, which became law in 1995. The Peyton committee has questioned his long tenure.On the issue of former treasurer Wright, he said he would have told the board where the financial documents were right down to which file drawer if they had only asked him. “There was no need for lawyers,” Wright said. The audit issue also concerned several of the meeting participants. Joly said that “the books” have been twice returned since August by the state of Colorado.A letter written by the committee was to be presented to the board at the Jan. 11 meeting. Because the board did not show up, it will now be presented on Jan. 18. The letter reads as follows:TO: Peyton Fire Protection District BoardFM: Peyton Concerned Citizens Committee (PCCC)SUBJ: Priority Items for Board ActionRespectfully,In the interest of improving the health, safety and effectiveness of the Peyton Fire Protection District and Fire Department in its service to the community, the PCCC strongly suggests that the District Board place on its agenda the following in priority order:1. Re-institution of the District Bylaws, Policies, Procedures, Regulations and SOP’s in force prior to mid-2003 that discussed all critical issues of conduct for District, Board, fiscal, financial, department operation, training, certification and SOPs. Those Bylaws, Policies, Procedures, Regulations and SOPs affecting the Department should be concluded with the agreement of the Department volunteers who are not Board members.a. Board members should immediately consider removing Board members once again from simultaneously being Board members and Department members, or exerting direct influence over Department members when it affects non-administrative operation of the Department and incident operations.b. Return of expenditure authority and discretion of adopted budgets to the Fire Chief and re-establishment of Department control over appointment, recruitment, training and certification of Department members and officers and the direct operation of the Department. Grievance procedures for Department members (again with Department member concurrence) should be re-instituted as well for redress within the department and escalation to the Board, only if required.2. Seek return of ejected members who were ejected simply for personality conflicts with Board members and who are acceptable to qualified Department members.3. Assist Department in recruitment of new Department members willing to engage in the commitment needed for the re-instituted acceptance, training and certification process.4. Development of specific plans for recovery and supply of public information on Board Activities (meeting minutes) Budget, Financial data and other documents requests required by law and responsive to taxpayer/citizens requests.5. End the use of District funds for unnecessary legal services to harass, control and intimidate members of the community and Fire Department.6. Development and publication of specific plans for the short to long term improvement in District Accountability, Financing, Equipment Acquisition and Expansion necessary to address future growth.The PCCC strongly suggests that the Board begin to worth with members of the Committee to progress towards resolving these and other issues of conflict with the Community and Fire Department. The committee strongly suggests that these items be addressed in open meetings in a professional manner, consistent with the Colorado Open meeting law and good practice.For the Committee,(Signed by Doug Martfeld)“We want to give the board an opportunity to get their house in order,” Martfeld said. “However, if they choose not to address the issues the people have brought forth to them, then it will be time for action.” The action Martfeld is referring to is a recall of some of the board members. The Peyton committee has already contacted an attorney to review the steps necessary to initiate a recall vote. Each board member would have to be recalled with separate petitions signed by 323 registered Peyton voters. Then, the county clerk would have seven days to verify the signatures and 30 days after verification to schedule an election.”If we get to the point of recall, we will need at least five dedicated and professional individuals to run for the district board,” Martfeld said. “What we want is accountability by the board, ongoing training and minimum certifications for the firefighters and a volunteer-friendly environment. The only way that is going to happen is by strong community involvement in the process.”
