Board: No fault in how fire chief handled meeting

By Staff | Jul 8, 2015

The Lehigh Acres Fire and Rescue District’s Board of Commissioners found no wrong in the way Fire Chief John Wayne handled the public meeting in May when 100 to 200 people attended the heated session.

The meeting was held so the board could legally finalize the fire assessment fee.

When staff discovered that there was not enough room in the conference room, the meeting was held in the bay area of the station. It was hot and fans were provided.

The commissioners gave anyone who wanted to speak three minutes. It appeared that the vast majority of the audience did not know there had been a fee until they received a provisional bill indicating that the new fee would be levied against them this fall.

Many said the fee was excessively high and many more than the allotted time to ask questions and make comments, many of which were shouted at the fire chief.

Wayne answered most of the charges lodged against the fire department about the fee, which voters approved in November.

Many observers called the meeting a shouting match. In most instances, they were right, many on the board acknowledged.

Commissioner Linda Carter called it a “highly contested one.”

“I was embarrassed and I think we were put in a bad light. I think the chief should have waited to answer the questions until the end. We should have searched for an alternate location with so many people there,” she said. “It was like a shouting match.”

Larry Becker, chairman of the board, took some of the blame.

“When people shouted out their questions and comments, the chief would look at me and I nodded that he should reply. I think we learned a lesson. I did the best I could. I could have done better,”?he said.

“It just wasn’t professional,” Commissioner Matt Smith said.

Commissioner Dave Adams thought the meeting was highly emotional. As far as sound system complaints, he said he could hear well, but people in the back – many standing – complained that they could not hear.

“They (the people) had perceived feelings about what they were going to do. It was like a free-for-all,” he said.

Commissioner Cathy Kruse felt that the chief and the board offered a good presentation.

“Some people didn’t know why they were there. There was some misinformation,” she said. “To have waited to answer all questions and complaints at the end of the meeting by the chief would have been crazy because people were leaving. I felt we were very accommodating.”

Wayne did not believe the meeting was anybody’s fault.

“I’m taking a beating that started out well. It’s nobody’s fault at this table. It is what it is,” he said. “People wanted answers. We did what we thought was appropriate.”

In the end, a motion to take further action failed with a 3-to-2 vote.

In other action, the board decided to ask the Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District, for an even billing swap.

The LA-MSID filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief against the district after officials learned that they were going to be billed by the district for more than $15,000 for about 113 parcels.

The board’s attorney, Richard Pringle, said he met with David Lindsay, executive director of the LA-MSID. Their law representatives believed that they had to file the complaint before June 26 in order to preserve their remedies to object to the district’s special assessment against the properties

Pringle suggested that the district enter into an interlocal agreement with the LA-MSID, in which the agencies would agree that they would not bill each other for their respective assessments against the other one’s real property.

The board voted unanimously to enter into one, directing Pringle to go back to the LA-MSID.

“Now it is up to ECWCD. It’s a win-win for both groups. It’s in their ball park now,” said Larry Becker, fire board chairman.

The board discussed the widening of Homestead Road, which is scheduled to begin in 2016. Station 102 is on Homestead and land in front would have to be assigned to the county for the widening.

Pringle said there are different options about signage to warn the public when emergency vehicles have to pull out of the station and about how much the county would want for the land.

It was decided to donate 498 square feet if officials with the Department of Transportation and county agreed to pay the $20,000 it would cost to install a single traffic light that would blink yellow.

When emergency equipment is exits the station, the flashing yellow light would turn to red, stopping traffic on Homestead.

The board also decided to close the matter regarding a complaint filed by Rick Anglickis against Wayne on the May 26 meeting.

Anglickis filed a written document he calls a “formal complaint” that alleges wrongdoing by the chief at the public hearing on the final assessment resolution.

Pringle said he was not aware of any violation issues by Wayne.

“I do not find where Chief Wayne’s actions were a violation of any law,”?he said.

According to the complaint, all of the commissioners were provided a copy of the allegations.

Pringle said that even though individuals who are not governed by the district can provide the complaint to third parties, because the allegations are involve a district employee, it was his opinion that the document is a confidential and exempt public record on a temporary basis until the board makes a final decision on the item.

Pringle said the question for the board is not whether Anglickis or the board members would have taken a different action as the action taken by Wayne.

“The question for the board is whether the chief’s alleged actions are an actual violation of a law or a district policy or of term of the chief’s employed agreement. I am not aware of a violation of a law or of a district policy or of term of the chief’s employment agreement that occurred as a result of the chief’s actions during the public hearing,”?he said. “However, it is the board’s decision as to whether the chief’s alleged actions may have violated the law or a district policy or a term of his employment agreement.”

The complaint was not available to the public at the June meeting.

The meeting will be July 28 at 5 p.m. at the fire station on Sunshine Boulevard and 16th Street.