Timing is everything: Fire district worried word of underage drinking & coverup will impact funding.

An incident involving underage drinking by one of its members at a conference in June is coming back to haunt a Washington State fire department at what may be the worst possible time.  Word that 20-year-old volunteer firefighter Tim Nelson was terminated, along with other disciplinary actions, including demotions for a battalion chief, a lieutenant and an office employee, comes just before next Tuesday’s election where there will be a decision on a tax levy that funds EMS for the fire district.

If the levy fails half the paid workforce of the department could be laid off. This all stems from a June 11 incident during an annual training conference at a Wenatchee hotel.

It is clear from a reputation management standpoint that the best way to have handled this one is for the top officials to have known about it immediately and acted quickly to get the information out and behind them. Even without the election looming, delay in dealing with this in a public and straightforward way erodes trust.

Chief  Tom Lique, aware that some in the public think the department keeps information from public view, is trying to use the fact that they are releasing the details just before the election as something positive. he told The Bellingham Herald, “I’m hoping the timeline here, as uncomfortable as it is, demonstrates that just because of the levy, I’m not trying to stonewall or hide this information.”

Now that sounds good but later in the article reporter Christian Hill writes that Chief Lique refuses to release the internal report on the incident. The actions don’t appear to support the chief’s words.

Here are more excerpts from the article:

Tom Lique, chief of Fire District No. 16, had the support of most fire commissioners Friday as he terminated 20-year-old volunteer firefighter Tim Nelson for his part in the episode at a Wenatchee hotel in June.

Lique also disciplined to varying degrees a battalion chief, a volunteer lieutenant and an office employee for not putting a stop to the young man’s drinking and for not disclosing the incident to fire district management. 

The fate of the fifth employee who attended the gathering, also a battalion chief, remains undecided.

On Tuesday, voters will decide whether to renew the tax levy that funds its emergency medical response.

Greg Glassie, a union officer representing the two career officers, said they will weigh their options provided by the labor contract. He declined further comment until they can review the information.

“We are all very distressed about the timing with the upcoming levy,” he said.

Glassie said he hopes voters will see the discipline in action and recognize “it’s not a broken organization that needs to be cut in half by a crippling failure of the levy”

Lique said he began hearing rumors after the conference and directed, with the authorization of fire commissioners, that the district’s attorney begin a formal investigation.

Lique declined to release the 15-page investigative report to The News Tribune Friday. But according to his account of the findings:

Nelson got drunk, and the others reportedly didn’t act to stop him or remove him. Nelson later passed out or fell asleep in the shower of the hotel room with the water running and flooded the bathroom.

Lique said Friday their behavior violated the district’s code of conduct and represented a breach of the community’s trust.

“They need to be held responsible for that,” he said before the meeting.