What’s next for the Port Edwards Fire Department after 11 members resign amid claims of false accusations and bullying?

PORT EDWARDS – After 11 members of its fire department, including its fire chief resigned last week, the Port Edwards Village Board met Tuesday to discuss the overall structure of the department and hiring a new chief.

Residents filled the Marshall Buehler Center, 211 Market Ave., to ask questions or protest what was going on with the fire department.

Matt Fletcher, a department captain who resigned, told the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune ahead of the meeting that the Village Board, interim village administrator and the Police and Fire Commission have conspired and bullied the Port Edwards Fire Department.

"It's just crazy," Fletcher said. "They've overextended their reach."

Firefighters claim false accusations and bullying. Village denies allegations.

Fire Chief Jason Worden, who also resigned, said during the past year, he has been falsely accused of fundraising ethics violations, falsely accused of violating state statutes and had an investigation done against him for a discrimination complaint. The discrimination complaint came because Worden wanted to promote Fletcher to the assistant chief position and not a person with connections to the Village Board, Worden said.

Worden said he went to a Village Board meeting after the dismissal of the complaint against him and asked for an apology. He said he not only didn't get one, but the next day he was given a write up for not following the village's grievance procedures.

Village President Betsy Mancl said she stayed away from the issue when her husband told her he wanted to apply for a promotion in the fire department. Mancl said she didn't know what position her husband was applying for.

Scott Stewart, chairman of the Village of Port Edwards Police and Fire Commission, told the Daily Tribune Tuesday in an email, there was no influence on the commission to choose one candidate over another.

The department lost control over final decisions on hiring and promotions when the village created a Police and Fire Commission in 2017. It led to some resentment, but it isn't the only issue the frustrated firefighters are concerned about.

Worden said he was accused of unethical fundraising practices by not clearly identifying the Fire Department Athletic Group, which is not associated with the village, as the recipient of fire department fundraiser funds.

Mancl said the village understands the Fire Department Athletic Group is a fundraising group made up of fire department members and is not under the village's authority. However, Mancl said people have approached her following the Port Edwards Fire Department's annual street dance and asked her how much the village made. She feels the fire department hasn't been clear to people that the fire department, and not the village, benefits from the fundraisers.

A lot of the problems between village officials and the fire department have been firefighters not understanding the village is responsible for making sure the Port Edwards Fire Department meets state and federal regulations. The fire department members haven't always been open to working with the village to meet those requirements, Mancl said.

The village has given the fire department all sorts of unreasonable tasks and deadlines, Worden said. If he spoke out against the tasks, he would get punishment, he said. Worden said he once went to the board asking for help with recruiting new members. In response he was given a performance improvement plan that set a goal for the number of people he attracted to apply each month.

After the resignations were turned in last week, Interim Village Administrator Duane Gau sent out an email to department officers stating their presence was required at a meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday to take part in an "orderly transition" of department officers. He threatened to send village police officers to find any fire department members who didn't show up. Gau later admitted he had overstepped his authority and could not send officers to get the firefighters.

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‘This fire department is over 100 years old, and it worked fine’

During Tuesday’s special meeting, Fletcher told the Village Board they had lost 11 firefighters with a combined total of 300 years of firefighting experience.

"What people don't understand is it takes two years just to train a firefighter for a department," Fletcher said.

Mancl admitted there is a significant amount of training that has to happen before the Port Edwards Fire Department can recover from the loss of so many members.

Town of Port Edwards Chairman Randy Moody questioned whether the fire department still had enough members to meet the contract the town had with the village for services. Moody said he needed an answer because the town needed to get a refund on the money paid to the village and find another department to meet the town's needs.

The Port Edwards Fire Department still has 10 members, Mancl said. It also has mutual aid agreements with Wisconsin Rapids and Nekoosa, so it will be able to meet its obligations, she said.

Dennis Saeger said he is a retired assistant fire chief who was a member of the Port Edwards Fire Department for 36 years. Since the 2023 spring election, things have changed, Saeger said.

"This fire department is over 100 years old, and it worked fine," Saeger said.

The board members pushed buttons, prodded and pulled until the point where Worden couldn't stand it anymore and left, Saeger said.

Former Fire Chief Tom Bartlett said he served with the Port Edwards Fire Department for 40 years with seven of them as chief. Bartlett said he made three trips to Port Edwards, a two-hour trip from his current home, to speak about what was happening, but the Village Board wouldn't listen.

The Port Edwards Fire Department gets a staggering number of calls, Bartlett said. On top of that, the board has required Worden to submit grants for funding. It takes three months to write a grant, Bartlett said. It takes an incredible amount of work and time, he said. When Worden couldn't get it done on time, the board disciplined him, Bartlett said.

The village is trying to do some good things, Bartlett said. It's the way the board went about it that needs to change, he said.

What’s next for the fire department?

The Village Board agreed Tuesday to move forward with looking for a new fire chief. Brian Luebke, a fire department member and former Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources forester for a large area in central Wisconsin, has been named interim chief.

Worden said he has nothing but respect for Luebke and feels terrible about the mess Luebke is inheriting.

Gau said it will likely be difficult to find someone to take the chief's position. He told the firefighters present Tuesday evening, many of whom had resigned last week, that the village would consider them if they applied for chief position.

The fire chief's position pays $10,000 per year, with no extra pay for fire calls or meetings, Worden told the Daily Tribune Wednesday. There is no minimum amount of hours required, but the list of requirements of the fire chief is three pages long.

The Village Board decided to postpone discussing the structure of the fire department Tuesday evening, deciding it would be better to wait until more discussions had taken place.

Contact Karen Madden at 715-345-2245 or kmadden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KMadden715, Instagram @kmadden715 or Facebook at www.facebook.com/karen.madden.33.

This article originally appeared on Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: 11 firefighters resign from Port Edwards Fire Department