Fire district board overturns termination; will look at culture

Issue brings up questions over culture and policies

[ by Mark Reaman ]

Concerns about the work environment at the Crested Butte Fire Protection District were brought to light last week during a termination appeal at the monthly board meeting. As a result, the district board of directors asked staff to dig deeper into evaluating the so-called “culture” of the district and a survey is going out this week to poll employees and volunteers on their thoughts and concerns.

Long-time CBFPD volunteer and employee Leah Fischer who had been promoted to a full-time paid captain position in the district was demoted in rank to line paramedic/firefighter in July 2020 and then let go in March of 2021. She appealed the decision to the board and during the April 13 board meeting the termination was overturned in a 5-0 vote. As of April 19, CBFPD chief executive officer Sean Caffrey said he had not heard from Fischer about whether she wanted to return to the district as an employee. She had been associated with the fire district for more than 20 years.

Given that such appeals are considered personnel matters, most times the board discussion is held behind closed doors in an executive session. But as is her right, Fischer requested that the matter be discussed in public. During the Tuesday hearing she repeatedly told the board that there was a “culture of fear” within the department that was resulting in the loss of good people. She also questioned the lack of “transparency” within the district and suggested a separate Human Resources (HR) position be created for CBFPD.

Long-time valley EMT, paramedic and nurse Sean Riley read a letter to the board supporting Fischer and stated there was a lack of oversight from the board of directors. He too said there was “a culture of intimidation and fear” within the district.

After a lengthy hearing that included a break to give board members a chance to review Fischer’s several page document outlining her concerns and response to administration details, the board agreed there might be issues with the district work culture. Generally the board members said mistakes had been made and there was concern when good employees left the department.

Board ready to look closer at culture
“We have to ask why,” stated board member Tina Kempin.

“I feel we have work to do within our culture and policies,” agreed board member Eric Tunkey.

Board president Jack Dietrich said following the meeting that he had served as a volunteer with Fischer and loved working with her. If she decided to come back he said the department would provide her training assistance in getting more up to speed as a paramedic.

“From the board standpoint we want to address some of the things that were brought up in the appeal,” Dietrich said. “We want to hear from employees and ask them if they too feel a culture of fear permeates the department.”

While expressing support for top administration who helped transition the district from volunteer focused to more paid positions, Dietrich said the board would likely hold a work session to discuss how to improve things between staff and the board. “We want to take a hard look at how we are doing business,” he said. “We want to look at our process and survey the employees, the volunteers and everyone. We want the district to work well.”

Caffrey said Monday that district team members will be contacted this week. “We have heard that organizational culture concern before. Based on exit surveys and an organization-wide survey in early 2020 we have received overwhelmingly positive feedback on the current state, culture and leadership of the organization,” he said. “That being said, there has also been a minority of respondents concerned with the culture and leadership. With the renewed concerns expressed at the board meeting we are doing another survey focused on organizational culture that will go out this week.”

The numbers
The district currently has 19 full-time employees, one regular part-time employee, 15 part-time reserve employees and 30 volunteers, according to Caffrey. “Since I started in mid-2018 we have had eight employees leave and 12 join so we have been in a net growth mode since the mill levy increase in 2017 that was intended to increase staffing,” he said. “Six of the departures were voluntary, mostly for equivalent or better positions elsewhere. Two were injury/disability-related.”

Caffrey said as far as volunteers, there has been some turnover. His numbers show that in 2019 there were six departures, five were voluntary resignations he said mostly related to relocation. One was because of a misconduct issue. In 2020, there were five departures, one for misconduct and four voluntary. Two were due to lack of participation and two for relocation issues. He said there have been no volunteer departures so far in 2021 and data from 2018 and before is not good. “Over that same time period starting in 2019 we added 13 new volunteer members,” Caffrey said. “So that’s a net gain of two. Additionally, over this period we hired four volunteers as part-time reserve employees.”

Caffrey said a strategic planning consultant has been retained for the district but given the latest situation, he will be directed to focus more on governance, administration and culture issues in addition to long-range planning.

“Like most organizations we can always do a better job at communicating,” Caffrey said. “In our case it is an interesting challenge where we have full-time shifts that don’t overlap, we have part-time reserve employees who show up occasionally and a volunteer group with variable schedules and participation. As such, we rely on a variety of methods to get information out. Our constant frustration is only getting to a few people at a time regardless of the approach so it’s really about multiple outreach channels and repetition of important information.”

When asked if the tensions were rising given the transition from a mostly volunteer department to a mostly paid department, Caffrey said that could be playing a role but he attributed it to growth in general. “Our paid staff are in large part former volunteers and all of them are aware that we are committed as an organization to maintaining an active part-time and volunteer force. Most of our challenges since my arrival, however, have been figuring out the right approach to using our various types of staffing. As such there has been plenty of trial and error as well as significant change over time in our operations which is inherently stressful.”
Fischer said she appreciated the board overturning her termination and giving her as much time as she needed to make a decision on whether to return to the department. She is looking at all her options.

“This has not been an easy thing to go through,” she said this week. “It has been humiliating and sad and I have lost trust in the top administration. But I also think it is really important for the board to understand the culture that is at play within the department. Just looking at the volunteers alone, we keep losing them because there is a lack of respect. That hurts not only the department but everyone in this town and valley. I am passionate about our department. I am frustrated my career was challenged in the first place but it has allowed for transparency and I am glad the board seems to be taking this situation seriously and I hope they really do something to fix it.”