By QUINTON SMITH and JORDAN ESSOE/YachatsNews.com

Two members of the Seal Rock Fire District board last week said their counterparts on the Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue board intended to dismiss Chief Jamie Mason when they met in a closed meeting the night before, but then backed off that decision.

The comments in a public board meeting Thursday, March 16 by Seal Rock board chair Karl Kowalski and member Paul Rimola came one day after the Central Oregon Coast board held an executive (closed) session to discuss a document from their attorney.

Executive sessions are permitted under 10 specific exceptions to Oregon’s public meetings law, allowing elected boards to discuss sensitive topics like real estate or labor negotiations, potential or pending lawsuits, or the employment, discipline or dismissal of a chief executive officer. But any final decision must take place in a properly called open session.

COCF&R board chair Buster Pankey called the executive session under a clause that allows it to meet privately to discuss records exempt from disclosure.

When questioned by a YachatsNews reporter at its Wednesday, March 15 session, Pankey said it was a memo to the board from its attorney, Lori Cooper of the Eugene-based Local Government Law Group. He then called Cooper, put his cell phone on a meeting table and had her verbally walk the board through the memo.

Memos from attorneys to publicly elected boards – even when solicited by the board — are usually considered privileged, or private information and exempt from disclosure.

The first time the four other COCF&R board members saw the memo was when Pankey handed out copies at the meeting. He collected the copies afterwards.

Executive session disclosures?

But the day after Central Coast’s executive session, Rimola said during a public Seal Rock board meeting that the Waldport board intended to let Mason go “and then it got down to a vote, and they decided to go to mediation.”

Kowalski said if COCF&R fired Mason, then the Seal Rock district would have to be prepared to have its newly-hired chief Will Ewing “kind of step up a bit, and make sure things are still operational until they came up with some sort of a plan.”

But the only way Kowalski or Rimola would have known about the COCF&R executive session discussion would have been a conversation with any of the three COCF&R board members – Pankey, Todd Holt and Kathryn Menefee — who have been publicly and privately critical of Mason.

Two other board members, Reda Eckerman and Kevin Battles have occasionally, but not always forcefully, pushed back against the other three on issues with the district or Mason.

Kowalski and Rimola, Pankey and Menefee have also been representing their respective boards in meetings to see if disagreements over a 2-year-old agreement to share personnel and equipment can be ironed out. Kowalski announced at Seal Rock’s meeting they were suspending those talks to “see what happens” with the Central Coast district and that he expected to know more “in the next few days …”

Board members – and news reporters who can attend most executive sessions — are not allowed to talk about discussions outside of that meeting. Disclosing executive session discussions can carry a fine of up to $1,000 by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission — if a complaint is filed with the agency and is upheld after an investigation.

When contacted this week about his comments, Rimola first denied making them. When told that a YachatsNews reporter at the Seal Rock meeting had a recording and transcript of his comments about the Central Coast board and Mason, Rimola said he “was just speculating” and declined to comment further.

Kowalski, Pankey and Holt did not respond to emails or phone messages this week seeking comment. Menefee did reply, saying she talked to no one after the COCF&R executive session and left the following day to attend the funeral for her husband’s son in California.

Criticism and clashes with chief

Pankey, Holt and Menefee were elected last May, joined the COCF&R board in July and almost immediately began clashing with Mason, who had been hired months earlier by the previous board after it negotiated the departure of the previous chief, who had been sending pornography to employees.

Their relationship in public meetings seemed to smooth out after clashes over the condition of its stations in Five Rivers and Tidewater and business or work issues with office administrator Wendy Knudson and maintenance officer Erich Knudson.

While those issues may have been resolved, Pankey and Holt have continued to be the most vocal in their public and private conversations around town about their dissatisfaction with Mason.

Pankey also made five calls in January and February and Menefee made one in February to the board’s attorney to discuss personnel matters, according to invoices obtained under a public records request. Those individual inquiries could be in violation of board policy, which says individual members may not “speak for or act on behalf of the board or district, except as authorized to do so by official board action as recorded in the official minutes, guidelines, or policies of the district.”

Following the closed, executive session last week, Pankey said in open public session that “If we can work it all out, that would be wonderful.”

While three of the five board members have issues with Mason, he has been broadly supported by district firefighters and volunteers for his leadership, improved training, upgrading of equipment, and finding money in the budget to allow the board to hire more firefighters to fill shifts left open by fewer Seal Rock firefighters. To indicate their appreciation of his work and in a show of solidarity in front of the board, firefighters last week presented Mason with a large plaque with old pike poles to mark his first anniversary as chief.

But Mason irked the three board members by recently retaining an attorney to apparently look into workplace issues.

Attorney Jack Wray of Lincoln City sent Pankey and the board a letter March 8 saying he was representing Mason “regarding his employment” with the district.

“You have my authorization to continue communicating with my client regarding official fire district business,” Wray wrote. “However, please do not discuss his employment status or any potential legal actions directly with my client but address all of your correspondence regarding those issues to my attention at this office.”

Wray said his firm “is in the process of investigating this matter” and asked the board to have its attorney or insurance company contact him.

Recall effort gathers steam

Holt and Menefee are also the subject of a citizen campaign trying to gather enough signatures to hold a recall election in May. A group called Save Our Fire Services has until April 20 to gather 292 signatures of registered voters in the fire district to force a recall vote. Among other issues, the group is upset with Holt and Menefee’s behavior, their clashes with Mason, allegations they have misused executive sessions, and because Menefee’s husband is suing the district for $1.1 million for wrongful dismissal by the previous chief.

Last week two COCF&R employees — Wendy and Erich Knudson — posted statements on the Waldport Community Facebook page and their Information Station Facebook page urging residents to sign the recall petition. That followed a similar statement by Rick Booth, the COCF&R chaplain and head of the volunteer firefighters association, who also went public urging the recall.

• Quinton Smith, a longtime Oregon journalist, is the founder and editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
•  Jordan Essoe is a Waldport-based freelance writer who can be reached at alseajournal@gmail.com

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Transcript of Seal Rock comments

The Seal Rock Fire District board had its monthly public meeting Thursday, March 16 to go through a long agenda, including its negotiations with Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue over its intergovernmental agreement to share personnel and equipment. Here is a transcript of that discussion, where two board members also talked openly about the potential dismissal of COCF&R Chief Jamie Mason.

Board member Mike Burt: All right. Unfinished business. IGA. Paul and Karl.

Board chair Karl Kowalski: I think that I’ll take that on.

Board member Paul Rimola: Okay.

Kowalski: Paul’s about had it I think, but— [laughs] I think –

Rimola: Kind of.

Kowalski: Kinda.

Kowalski: Right now, Central Coast is in a bit of a pickle and I‘m not really sure what’s gonna go on or what is going on. It’s not really our deal, but I think for the time being I think that we’re gonna just kinda pull in our horns and suspend our negotiations with them for a month or so and just kinda see what happens there [pause] before we move forward. And we’ll definitely know more in the next few days what’s gonna happen down there, I think.

Burt: So that means both parties still believe it’s enforced and active?

Kowalski: Well, yeah, everybody still thinks that we’re still going until May 17th, so we’re still going to continue forward just like the old one is still —

Burt: ‘Cause last night engine 72 went blasting past this station at about 80 miles per hour, heading to Makai.

Kowalski: Well, I don’t know. I don’t know what that was about.

Guest: That was a neighbor of mine.

Firefighter Joe Schwab: Yeah, Micky was there.

Rimola: The biggest problem right now is that their chief is on – they’re gonna mediate [pause] they were gonna, I guess they were gonna to let him go, and then it got down to a vote, and they decided to go to mediation. For whatever reason. And so now he’s in limbo. And to me, mediation means the chair of the board, basically. You, [laughs] you’re one step away — (to Kowalski) well, you know more about it than I do.

Kowalski: Well, we’re not – we’re not going too deep into the woods with …

Rimola: We just don’t know. We just don’t know is the problem, so…

Kowalski: Yes.

Kowalski: I’m just, I’m not really sure quite what to do with the whole thing. Everything’s kind of up in the air, and I think the best thing to do with it right at the moment is nothing.

Burt: So does that put the burden on our chief to cover for their chief?

Kowalski: Well, they have a chief.

Burt: Mm-hm.

Kowalski: Their chief’s still there.

Fire Chief Will Ewing: The IGA would, if something happened down south, the IGA would be a mechanism to allow that to happen, if that’s – if it was agreeable to all parties.

Kowalski: If they let their chief go, [pause] then Will would have to kind of step up a bit, and make sure things are still operational until they came up with some sort of a plan. [pause] And I don’t even know what that would be at this point.

You can listen to this portion of the meeting recording here.