The recall election date has been set for Tuesday, April 23. This will be a mail-in ballot. There are approximately 12,000 registered voters in the Evergreen Fire District representing a population of 40,000 plus hundreds of businesses. It is very important that everyone in the district votes because changing over a board could be detrimental to the life safety of the community.

The Recall proponents still do not have candidates for this election and yet they went forward in their recall drive.

For more information on the No Recall efforts, please visit http://www.no-recall.org

I, as a concerned member of the Evergreen community, have been following closely the recall debacle of the Fire Board.

If the Recall proponents want the community to vote yes, then the recall proponents need to provide some substance as to why the full board needs to be recalled, otherwise I would recommend that the community vote NO because the recall proponents have failed miserably to provide any hard proof, facts, or examples of any wrong doing by this board...other than the decision of the training building did not go by the way of the recall group.

I have looked at the Recall website and quite honestly I have to say – is this all they have? Where is the “Statements to the voters should include specifics and proof/examples for claimed facts.” (As they themselves have stated in one of their rebuttal statements.) Where are the recall group's claimed facts? It would seem that the recall group is putting up more smoke than the planned training building…there is absolutely no substance to their claims that would justify a recall. And yet the recall group is forcing the tax payers to waste $200,000.

I did see the below letter from the County Health department posted on the Recall site that supports the Fire Department “this Department has still concluded that risk and/or threat to human health and the environment is very low…” I’m glad the recall group is showing some substance even if it does not support their cause.

From: Tracy R. Volkman
Date: Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 8:37 AM
Subject: FW: Video of smoke training at Evergreen Fire Dept
To: Paul Peil
Cc: Craig Sanders, "Dearborn, Frank"

Good Morning Mr. Peil,
Thank you for your phone call and the information provided in your email below. Based on our review of the video you submitted to this Department today, the A. G. Wassenaar report and our consultation with other agencies, this Department has still concluded that risk and/or threat to human health and the environment is very low as long as these specific mineral oil and fog products are used in accordance with the manufacturers recommendations and the protocols and quantities indicated by Evergreen Fire Rescue.

I have been asking all along how they can say that all of the board members are bad and it has yet to be answered.

Coming in to what is sure to be a long fire season the community should be working on ways to unite the community not pull it apart.

IMHO

yeah - image heading into what could be our worst fire season yet, and either not having a board at all (what are they thinking?????) or having a completely new board that doesn't know what they are doing!!!

but that really isn't my concern as the community has already shown that they are supportive of THIS board and the recall will not go through - it's only (only...) going to cost the community a bunch of $ that could have gone into getting another brush truck or better equipment

I am under the Elk Creek Fire Dept. and will not support a recall - for many of the above-posted reasons.

News flash - A recall organizer just stated publically “….depending on the results of this election the burn building may not be around for long.” All along the recall folks have stated that “we support the firefighters”. Even on the website it is stated:

“The training needed for our firefighters consists of a multitude of setups, scenarios and procedures. We want our firefighters to be well trained, so they can provide the best service to the community and be as safe as possible themselves.”

Can somebody please explain to me how by tearing down the new training building by a “new” board would be supportive of the firefighters. Sounds to be just the opposite….”we support you but you can’t train in district….and try and not to get hurt while putting water on the fire because we wouldn’t let you train with it.”

The recall group calls that being supportive? I call that self-serving, selfish, and THAT is irresponsible to the public safety needs of the community!

Now here is a question for the recall group – now hypothetically speaking if there is a new board elected and it was made known their intention to tear down the training building and there was a mass protest by firefighters and community members clearly stating that they want the building to remain, what would the board do?

I believe I have yet to see someone who actually SUPPORTS this asinine recall!
It will lose by 80% or so and waste 100% of the money it takes to do it!

it's more like 90%
I wonder if the folks they finagled to sign the petition to get it this far had a clue as to what it entails - and how much money is going to be lost

it seems like something needs to be changed in the way recalls can happen, since they cost so much money - recalls need to be because of a serious offense, not because someone didn't get their way

and this seemes to me, since they are not announcing who they would want as replacements, that they themselves are going to run, and that is a hostile take-over

yep, they support the fire fighters, now don't they!!!

I am a bit concerned with the path that the recall group seems to be going down. In an effort to justify their flimsy and baseless recall bid they are looking at anything and everything in order to discredit the Board. Their latest tactic is to look at fire operations and specifically response times – which the Board really does not have control over. What’s next – how the firefighters drive the apparatus or how they put out a fire?

So where does their little witch hunt end when they can’t find anything wrong with the fire department or their recall bid fails to the tune of $200,000? And what is even more disturbing is that this group, which has absolutely no public safety experience or fire service expertise, believes that they have the industry knowledge and expertise to investigate into fire operations and training when clearly they do not have a clue. The democratic process of recalling a Board is one thing, but to be a self-appointed citizen oversight committee is out of their scope.

How ludicrous is it for a small group of people with nothing better to do but than to meddle into a public safety agency’s operations can cause problems and in turn affect public safety for the ENTIRE community as the $200,000 cost of the recall election is coming out of fire operations budget. Because of this little fiasco, the fire department has to delay in replacing an aging water tender for this fiscal year – which by the way if you have not already noticed, might be one worst fire seasons since 2002 given the lack of snow. I’m sure when Paul Piel and Dan Koller went around collecting signatures; they didn’t disclose to their target audience that even a recall election would have a detrimental effect on the community….and they are the cause of it. The fire department is not broken so let’s not try and break it by a few vocal folks who have nothing better to do with their idle time.

Rest of EG Citizens: As I explained to you on the other forum where you are a busy poster, the EFPD board DOES have to responsibility to oversee and monitor EFR's operations (yes, including response times). Just because the current board members didn't fulfill their responsibilities, doesn't mean they didn't have them. On the other forum I posted the related extracts from the EFR Master Plan and the EFPD board minutes. I trust most of your followers are active on both forums, so I won't list them again here.

By the way: If you want to know what the recall committee's website says (instead of just reading what Rest of EG citizens cuts out of context), go to http://efpdboardrecall.org

Wasting $200,000 is not "Fiscal Responsibility"