Seeley Lake Fire Chief Resigns

SEELEY LAKE – After the Seeley Lake Fire District Board heard accolades from those that worked with Seeley Lake Fire Chief Bob Vanden Heuvel and district volunteers during the Rice Ridge Fire, Vanden Heuvel resigned effective immediately at the board meeting Oct. 17. The board will meet with the county attorney and human resources staff to determine the next steps since several questions on the agenda were left unanswered.

During public comment, Missoula County Commissioner Jean Curtiss, District Board Member Rita Rossi and Greenough/Potomac Volunteer Fire Chief Ryan Hall commended and thanked Vanden Heuvel and all the volunteer firefighters for their work on the Rice Ridge Fire and their ability to work with the other agencies.

East Missoula Rural Fire Chief Justin Shaffer wrote a letter that was read by volunteer member Kristy Pohlman. Shaffer sent a Type 1 fire engine and several Emergency Medical Technicians to help cover the district during the Rice Ridge Fire. Shaffer wrote this was voluntary through the mutual aid agreement, not paid for or assigned to the Rice Ridge Fire, because of his good working relationship with Vanden Heuvel. Also in that letter, Shaffer praised Vanden Heuvel’s ability to maintain good working relationships with other agencies.

After giving his reports, Vanden Heuvel read his letter of resignation

“Sometimes a person must step out of the way to shine the light on what the true problem is and where the true dysfunction and undermining in an agency comes from. I planned on exposing what the problem is right now at the SLRFD and I have decided not to do that,” read Vanden Heuvel. “You have planned an agenda that amounts to nothing more than a slap in the face for all the hard work the good members of my crew and I have done here for three years. The stress and strain that the Rice Ridge Fire brought to our department was intense. Now tonight we are going to go over an agenda that doesn’t even have a spot reserved for thanking any of us for what was sacrificed and accomplished. We were part of a larger effort that saved the lives and structures of our response area. Instead you have elected to engage in a broad attack against me and tonight’s agenda is proof of that. I’ve always been willing to look in the mirror to see my part in any problem and I’m not afraid to discuss any of that with you on the agenda including any credit card issues. And this is truly it, especially in the last few weeks, I’m tired. I’m tired of having to fight every month with the board and being undermined by my office. I’ve worked 24/7 for three years no matter how you want to look at that. I’ve given you my life for three years and I’ve decided I’m taking my life back. I’m exhausted, I’m stressed, I’m under heavy duress and I’m resigning effective immediately.”

Vanden Heuvel went on to apologize to his supporters in the room however added, “If I don’t have a supportive board and I don’t have a supportive office staff, I have too much risk of too much legal stuff. I can’t do it without support.”

After reading his letter of resignation, Vanden Heuvel left the meeting. The board then continued with the meeting agenda.

Board Chair Scott Kennedy said the board has received two insurance claims for an accident where Vanden Heuvel hit his domestic partner Kathy Hudak’s personal vehicle while driving the district’s command truck. Hudak is listed as the claimant.

“My understanding is if you hit another vehicle [the insurance company] is going to get that second vehicle’s information and seek it out because it is going to be an open claim for them anyway,” said board member Rachel Jennings.

Kennedy reiterated that Vanden Heuvel turned in the claim Sept. 11, three days after the accident. The board didn’t receive the correspondence until Sept. 20. He said there is “probably” several thousand dollars in damage “if it is what I’m seeing.”

District Administrator Lynn Richards said she had talked with the insurance representative who wanted to confirm that it was a legitimate claim and if the board wanted to pursue it further since she had no information.

“It’s not an issue, it’s a matter of having the proper information,” said Kennedy.

The board agreed to have Kennedy send Vanden Heuvel a letter asking him for the vehicle information, photos, how he wants to proceed and what his intent is.

The board next questioned the decision to allow a volunteer to regain membership. Kennedy wanted to know if a background check, application and all the membership policies were followed. Since Vanden Heuvel and the member were not present to waive their right to privacy, no specific issues were discussed.

Jennings asked when does the board allow the chief to make decisions regarding the membership instead of the board micromanaging those decisions.

Vice-chair Gary Lewis said membership guidelines are clearly stated in the District Policy Handbook.

The membership policies state, “All applicants must submit to a background check for consideration for membership. Any applicant who has been convicted of any felony offense or any registered sex/violent offender in any state will NOT be considered for membership. Any applicant that has been convicted of any misdemeanor will have their application reviewed by the fire company and the board for approval. Any applicant that has been convicted of a DUI in the last five years will not be eligible for membership.”

Lieutenant Bill Bogardus said that the Seeley Lake Fire Company votes on the membership. He said that if the company maintains the membership, then they should be following the District’s guidelines. He did not believe background checks were being done.

“A lot of time went into these policies and they are there for a reason,” said Kennedy. He asked, “Does anyone have a problem with how that policy reads?”

Jennings suggested they limit the misdemeanor look-back time.

“This is a volunteer department. We are begging people to come in here and help us for free,” said Jennings. “I don’t think we should create such large barriers to entering especially in a town where you’ve got a lot of people that are picking themselves up by their boot straps and trying to use this as an opportunity to do better in their lives and serve their community and be active members of society.”

“There [are] a lot of policies that we have not been following,” said Bogardus. “We may need to go back to following [the board] policies or rewriting [them] to follow what we are doing.”

Curtiss asked if the county attorney had looked at the policies and suggested they have him review them.

“It seems to me that your job, as a governing board, is to hire [the district administrator] and the chief. And the chief’s job and the company’s job are to make sure they have firefighters they can work with,” said Curtiss. “I think you are crossing the line. I just know what the other fire companies are doing. I don’t think you guys get to micromanage that.”

The board agreed that they needed to send the decision about the member back to the company and allow them to make the decision.

The discussion regarding financial charges to the Capital One credit card for expenses over the past four months was tabled since Vanden Heuvel was not present.

Kennedy raised concern about the chief’s absence for more than two weeks while caring for a sick family member and not notifying the board within two hours. Rossi said Vanden Heuvel notified her and he tried to call Kennedy but did not reach him.

Lieutenants Dan Johnson and Bogardus said Vanden Heuvel notified the captains and lieutenants of his absence through a text message and the command structure was in place. Richards was not notified.

“I have had conversations with the district county attorney and I’m also going to meet with HR,” said Kennedy. “There are a lot of issues going on. I’ve been receiving direction and I’ve been trying to follow the directions. The intent was to have another meeting in a couple weeks to address these privacy issues. Bob could have waived his [rights] tonight and we may have been able to resolve a lot of this. But he chose a different path. He avoided coming to the last meeting that was scheduled, he left, said he didn’t like the agenda instead of addressing the issues.”

Jennings said that statement wasn’t fair for Kennedy to speak on Vanden Heuvel’s intentions for leaving since he was not present to defend himself.

Lynn Richards asked to address the board.

“The last three months have been really stressful and difficult,” said Richards. “I find it almost insulting to hear Bob say that I didn’t support him. I don’t know what more I could have done to support him. Three years ago he wasn’t trained by any other chief. I tried to do my best to train him.”

Richards continued, “I didn’t know who to talk to about this until you saw it in the bills. I believe I had a fiduciary responsibility to this board to tell if the laws were being broken or finances were misappropriated. I’m sorry if the company members don’t see it that way but it’s just been very difficult when I have to work with a chief every day and knowing that I could go down with him.”

“Instead of dealing with [the issues], he went out and drummed up a bunch of support,” said Bogardus. “And his supporters attacked Lynn for two or three weeks. The liability the district has with Lynn is huge right now because of the hostile work environment.”

Mike Richards suggested an investigation to “clear the air. Don’t sit here and speculate, turn this over to the proper people and they will investigate it and tell you what they’ve got.”

The board did not act on Richards’ request for an investigation. They did agree to call a special board meeting to discuss the open chief position.

In other businesses:

• Curtiss notified the chief of a proposed 61-lot subdivision in Powell County. She felt it would be important for the chief to make comment regarding the impacts on services in Missoula County. “All of the emergency response would come from you and the Sheriff’s Department,” said Curtiss who pointed out in the application that states it is near a rural town center. “Yes it is. They are not on your tax rolls, they are not on the county’s tax rolls, there will be no income coming to your fire department.”

• The board voted to levy the full amount to taxpayers. This includes $211,044 plus $23,083 of state entitlement share for a total of $234,127 for the district for the next fiscal year.

• The budget was not available. Kennedy and Lynn Richards will prepare the budget ready for next meeting. Currently there is $42,000 income plus an estimated $15,000 that was made this fire season.

The next regularly scheduled board meeting is Nov. 21 at 6 p.m. at the fire hall. All meetings are posted 48 hours ahead of time on the district’s website, http://www.seeleyfire.org, and at the Fire Hall.