BY ANDY TAYLOR
Montgomery County Chronicle
INDEPENDENCE — County commissioners on Monday denied reinstatement of Wilbur Schwatken, former coordinator of Montgomery County Rural Fire District #1, to that position following a grievance hearing held last week.
Commissioners Tony Fowler and Fred Brown voted in favoring of denying reinstatement while commissioner Larry McManus voted against the denial.
No comments were made when the commission made its decision, which was Schwatken’s third attempt to be reinstated.
Reached for comment on Wednesday, Schwatken said he and his attorney were exploring their options on how to proceed in seeking reinstatement as rural fire coordinator.
On an identical 2-1 vote made on April 20, commissioners voted to not reappoint Schwatken to his position, even though he had received a unanimous show of support from the Montgomery County Rural Fire District #1 Board of Directors and from a large number of firefighters in the district’s seven divisions. That support was publicly entered into evidence during Schwatken’s grievance hearing, which was held on June 24. Letters signed by 59 members of the Montgomery County Rural Fire Department were submitted as proof of Schwatken’s support from the rural fire divisions.
Also entered as statements of support was a letter from Jack Wishall of rural Coffeyville, who worked as Schwatken’s supervisor when Schwatwken and Wishall were employed at the Coffeyville Resources refinery. Wishall described Schwatken, who worked under Wishall from 2001 to 2004, as performing “above and beyond his duty.”
“I never had to worry about Wilbur doing his job and doing it well,” said Wishall in his letter. “He also did his share and more. Having 36 to 45 people answering directly to me, it was a big relief when good people like Wilbur take care of business. I had no worry if Wilbur was on the job.”
At the grievance hearing, Schwatken’s attorney, Terry L. Unruh of Wichita, sought an explanation from the commission as to why it decided to not reappoint Schwatken on April 20. He said no reasons were given to Schwatken as to why he was not reappointed, which, had caused Schwatken and members of the Montgomery County Rural Fire District #1 to “show box” and speculate for reasons of the dismissal.
“I’m not hearing any issue addressed with Mr. Schwatken or an attempt to resolve the issue,” said Unruh.
Lack of cooperation
Commissioner Fowler said he believed the dismissal was warranted for what he saw was lack of cooperation between Schwatken and the county commission. However, the specifics of that lack of cooperation were not revealed during the grievance hearing.
“There was many problems presented here,” said Fowler, “and so I just have my new direction upon cooperation and in our new direction there will be cooperation and other than that, that’s my, that’s what the public wants to hear and if it was a dismissal, which in my mind I didn’t have elusions or any pre-meetings or influence anybody, I did it from right here and had these two seats both voted yes then it would have just been a political thing that I had no sense to see was coming. I had no sense to see that. I did not sense that. That’s why we act here at this board. So, that’s it. It’s just about cooperation.”
Unruh and Fowler then sparred over whether Schwatken was made aware of any problems between himself and the commission. That’s when county counselor Paul Kritz interrupted the debate and suggested that those matters be taken into an executive session, which is closed to the press and public, to discuss the confidential nature of Schwatken’s job performance.
Commissioners then agreed to go into the closed-door session for 30 minutes with Schwatken and Unruh in attendance.
Schwatken allowed Unruh to present most of the statements during the hearing. Schwatken did say he was prepared to heal the divide that had been created with his dismissal in April.
“It is very unfortunate that the injustice of my dismissal of April 20, 2009, has caused pain to this community,” he said. “Upon the restoration of my position as rural fire district #1 coordinator, I would work for restoring the working relationships in this county.”
Earlier in the grievance hearing, commissioners heard comments from Larry Felts, who is a volunteer with the Liberty firefighting division.
Felts said he had volunteered with the Liberty division for more than 30 years, most of which he had served as division chief. He said he was relieved when Schwatken’s predecesor, Gene Tucker, retired in 2004. When Schwatken was hired as rural fire coordinator, things “turned around for the fire district,” said Felts. He said he felt good things were happening in the district under Schwatken’s leadership.
Later in the grievance hearing, commissioners heard comments from Marty Smith, assistant fire chief at the Dearing division of the Montgomery County Rural Fire District #1.
Smith said the cooperation that Schwatken has brought to the seven divisions of the Montgomery County Rural Fire District #1 as well as between other emergency agencies has improved the atmosphere and morale of the firefighting units. That’s why Schwatken was recommended to be reappointed by the rural fire board for 2010.
“You threw it out the window,” said Smith. “You’ve got a great man who did a great job and had a great future. We still can if you guys will open your eyes. Let the man have his position, let him do his job. Just like everybody in the county comes to you with their problems, we might have a problem but we can work it out. Open your eyes: you’ve got a good leader, seven departments, 140 guys, 40-plus pieces of apparatus, that’s a lot for one man, and seven chiefs, but he gets it done.”
Jerry Hall, a member of the Sycamore division, said he hoped the commission would reinstate Schwatken to his former position.
“I’ll stand behind the fact that I think this man was doing his job,” said Hall. “You know we are going to have personality issues no matter who we are. Maybe that’s part of the problem. I think to put the man back in this position to do the job would be the best thing for Montgomery County.”
Firetruck purchase
In a written statement presented at the grievance hearing, Hall said he had visited with commissioner Tony Fowler on June 9 regarding the commission’s decision to dismiss Schwatken.
“In the course of this conversation, Mr. Fowler made the following statement, and I quote, ‘The deciding factor in not reappointing Wilbur was the purchase of the firetruck’,” said Hall.
The vehicle in question is a 1992 Spartan firetruck that was purchased by Montgomery County in October 2008 for the Dearing division of the rural fire district. According to an invoice on that truck purchase, 1st Due Emergency Response Solutions of Bartlett, Kan., sold the truck to Montgomery County at a cost of $39,500. The commission in late 2008, which included commissioners Gene Tucker, Billie Lewark-Wood and Tony Fowler (Tucker and Lewark-Wood would leave the commission in January and be replaced by McManus and Brown), gave authority to the Montgomery County Rural Fire District #1 to acquire a truck for the Dearing division.
The 1992 Spartan truck was acquired by 1st Due Emergency Response Solutions at an auction in Bixby, Okla., and later sold to the Montgomery County Rural Fire District #1.
The issue of the truck purchase was discussed at the commission meeting on Feb. 2, 2009, two weeks after McManus and Brown were sworn into office. At that meeting, Randy Haymaker, president of the rural fire district board of director, said he had been contacted by county counselor Paul Kritz regarding the acquisition of that truck. Haymaker said the sale of the truck was done legally, in accordance with county guidelines, and that all channels of communication and purchasing authority were conducted.
“The fire board trustees approved the purchase of the truck, the board of county commissioners approved the purchase of the truck, and now we’ve got a problem with the truck,” Haymaker said at the Feb. 2 commission meeting. “It seems as though we can’t do anything without Big Daddy keeping his throttle on us.”
The “Big Daddy” reference was directed toward Tucker, who was rural fire coordinator before being elected to the county commission for one term in 2004.
Rural firefighters have told the Montgomery County Chronicle in recent weeks that the firetruck in question was believed to have been purchased by 1st Due Emergency at a lower cost at the Bixby auction compared to how it was sold to the rural fire district. However, those same firefighters contend that 1st Due Emergency Solutions outfitted the truck with a light bar and other equipment and provided a maintenance warranty when it was presented to the rural fire district for purchase.
• Editor’s note: quotes attributed to individuals at the June 24 grievance hearing were taken from minutes of that hearing, which were transcribed verbatim from an audio recording. The minutes of the grievance hearing were approved by the county commission at the June 29 meeting. Those minutes to the June 29 meeting were approved by the county commission.
