The newly elected board members of the Estes Valley Fire Protection District made it clear at their first properly noticed meeting that they would be following the state’s Sunshine Laws related to open meetings and open records.
Ryan Leahy distributed a copy of an unsigned letter written by the former board that disputed a decision by Larimer County District Court Judge Juan G. Villaseñor that the District violated Colorado’s open meeting laws last fall. The court ruled that the Board had violated the law by making a decision in an October executive session meeting to hire Paul Capo as the new chief. By law, decisions cannot be made in executive session meetings.
Sandra Smith requested that at the June meeting, the matter of the letter be put on the agenda so the Directors would have the opportunity to take a vote to rescind the letter as the official position of the District on the court’s finding.
Both Leahy and Smith spoke about the importance of the District doing the District’s business publicly and with transparency moving forward.
After calling the board to order, Smith was elected to serve as the new chair, and Scott Dorman, who served as the EVFPD’s first paid fire chief from 1996 to 2016, was elected as the organization’s vice chair. Leahy, who has been a member of the fire department but has just stepped down from that role, was elected to serve as the District’s treasurer.
Erika Goetz, who works in an administrative role with the District, will continue to serve the board as their secretary.
Smith, who is an attorney, will provide the organization with a conflict-of-interest policy and form for the members of the board to sign.
Chief Paul Capo said “by design” he did not have a report to present to the board at their first official meeting, but said the District had just received an audit report and that the organization was in the process of changing accounting firms.
The new firm, the James Vincent Group out of Scottsdale, Ariz., will fly a representative to Colorado to attend the monthly fire district meetings in the future to present information about the District’s financials. The travel costs are part of the fees paid to the accounting, tax, and consulting firm which specializes in services to fire departments.
Dorman asked Capo if a public RFP had been issued to solicit bids from accounting firms. Capo said he had not done that but had instead individually selected the firm after doing his own review of options.
In revieing the financial report as presented, several board members had questions about the organization of the information and commented that with a new accounting firm stepping into the role, they would like to see some changes to the way the financials are presented for clarity. The District’s 2025 budget is $3.2 million.
With the money provided to the District from Town’s 1A sales tax funds, two new fire mitigation hires have been made. Chief Jon Landkamer reported on two fire mitigation efforts the District is doing with residents in the Little Valley neighborhood and the Estes Valley Investment in Childhood Services organization.
He also gave brief reports on the number of properties that have completed a fire mitigation assessment and the District’s new Neighborhood Ambassador Program which helps residents identify neighborhood vulnerabilities and develop and implement mitigation efforts.
Landkamer also reported on the fire district’s inspections of food trucks to ensure compliance with fire safety regulations.
On Tuesday night, the Town Board voted unanimously to approve allowing the EVFPD to keep $175,000 that the Town had given to the District. The funds had initially been given for a matching mitigation grant before it was learned that matching funds were not required.
Since the fire mitigation project was targeted for an area in unincorporated Larimer County and outside of the Town limits, there was some discussion at the Town Board about whether the funds should be returned. Because of the area’s proximity to the Town, the Trustees decided the mitigation effort was a wise use of the funds.
The EVFPD currently has 51 firefighters, with 47 volunteers. With the number of auxiliary members, the department has 57 members, with 5 new firefighters coming on board soon.
Dorman commented also on the District’s website and offered to work on updates for transparency.
The former Board did not vote on a strategic plan as presented in April, indicating at the time that they wanted to defer the decision to the new board which was elected on May 6 and also that the plan as written lacked measurable goals and objectives. A firm was hired for $20,000 to conduct a strategic planning process and develop a plan. The new Board will review the strategic plan draft and asked that the document be posted as a working draft to the website for transparency.