Following the Feb. 19 Falcon Fire Protection District board meeting, director Greg Heule sat down with community members to answer questions about the circumstances surrounding last yearís suspension of three chief officers and the subsequent Mountain States Employers Council investigation. Three FFPD members and director Mike Smaldino also sat in.Confidential matters were off the table for discussion, Heule said. He did address aspects of the investigative process already made public by resident and former board member Dick Stuart ñ and others.Heule said he received anonymous information that necessitated an investigation. ìI don’t know why it was sent to me,î he said. When asked why he shared the information only with directors Smaldino and Henry Allen, and not with board president Kelly Starkman or vice president Dan Kupferer; Heule said he was ìmore comfortableî speaking with them about the issue. He said the three of them made the decision, although Starkman called in sick for the April 24, 2013 board meeting when the three chiefs were placed on administrative leave.Resident and former FFPD member Rick Wildman pointed out that board members should know procedures to convene an emergency meeting within 48 hours and said not notifying the entire board wasnít the right course of action. ìI would have been on the phone that day with every board member with something this serious … you are talking (about) people’s lives.îìThere were mistakes in my process. I did learn from those decisions … I could have handled it better,î Heule said.Stuart said he believed that Heule did receive information that required attention but still felt there was a ìcoup attemptî to replace current leadership. Resident and former FFPD member Don Watts said it was the ìgeneral feeling of the public that someone was out to put a knife in those three men’s backs.îHeule said that wasnít the case. ìAll I can say is that I had to address some serious issues,î he said. ìThat investigation would not have taken place unless there was good reason … there are decisions I made that could have been made better.îOne contentious point of discussion centered on ìThe Listî ñ a list of FFPD personnel who would and would not be willing to participate in investigative interviews that Heule sent to the MSEC investigator. Stuart contended that the eight people in the ìwonít interviewî column and other staff members were not asked whether they wanted to be interviewed.Resident Terry Reed said, ìItís our opinion that they (MSEC) were told these people weren’t going to interview so the investigator wouldn’t talk to them.î Reed also said the list appeared to be split along shift lines and asked if anyone was discouraged from speaking with the investigator.Heule said he would need to refer back to his own emails and notes to provide specific answers on his communications with MSEC. However, he said that the initial list was only ìa starting point.î He reiterated several times that anyone who wished to be interviewed was given that opportunity. ìThere was no one intentionally or accidentally excluded,î he said. ìThe intent was that everyone who wanted to be interviewed would be interviewed Ö that was my direction to (the investigator) as a representative from the board.î He added that he felt there was too much emphasis being placed on this list as ìsomething nefarious.îHeule also said that Glenn Levy, former division chief of training, was involved in the interview scheduling process because Levy had to coordinate staffing to ensure the needs of the district were met. In addressing his absences from several board meetings, Heule said, ìI do have (another) job,î he said. On at least three occasions, he said he had been in his rental car, while deployed, on his cell phone participating in the meetings via teleconference.At the end of the impromptu question and answer session, several attendees said they felt that Heuleís agreement to speak with them was a positive step toward healing some hard feelings. Don Watts said, ìThatís a start.î
