Voters move to recall Elsie-Vinemaple fire district board
ELSIE — Three of the four board members of the Elsie-Vinemaple Rural Fire Protection District who were facing recall Tuesday night were trailing with most of the votes counted.
Voters in Elsie and Jewell were rejecting board chair Vivian McCann and board members Staciy Morrison and Wayne Carmichael. Board member Thomas Hecox was holding his position by one vote.
Elsie-Vinemaple
The Elsie-Vinemaple Rural Fire Protection District is governed by a five-member board.
Clatsop County elections officials will count votes postmarked by Tuesday and received over the next week.
Jachin Crawford, a member of the firefighters’ association, filed the recall petitions in February after the board fired fire chief Mike Wammack. The board alleged Wammack had deliberately disobeyed board and county directives by making his own repairs and construction to Station 2.
The board appointed Rob Davis, the former acting chief at the Vernonia Rural Fire Protection District, as interim chief.
The termination of Wammack’s volunteer status after more than two decades in charge at the fire district divided the rural community. After Wammack’s departure, the board documented the poor condition of the fire stations and the equipment and medication available for emergency response. Wammack pointed to a lack of finances, which is the board’s responsibility.
“Whether the old fire chief comes back, that’s for the next board to decide, and we don’t know who that’ll be,” Crawford said Tuesday night. “Hopefully, they’re more fiscally conservative and maybe not quite as abrupt. Hopefully, they’ll give Mike another chance, but we’ll see.
“I’m pretty happy with the results so far, and I think the community needed to be aware of what was happening and now most are. And they voted for what they needed, and that’s what’s most important.”
If the recall holds after all of the votes are counted, vacancies would have to be filled on the five-member board. The Clatsop County Board of Commissioners would appoint enough board members to establish a quorum of three, according to Patty Jo Angelini, the county’s public affairs officer. The board could then make appointments to fill the remaining vacant positions.
“My understanding is that it will become official in a week or 10 days, because they have to check mail-in ballots, and they have to do challenges and things like that,” Carmichael said. “But the differences indicate that it is a recall, so I can’t say much more than that. Because if you read the recall election rules, we no longer serve. So that’s kind of it.
“It’s unfortunate, because I think the community is going to suffer for it. But that’s the way they voted.”
McCann claims that the petitions filed to gather signatures for the recall contained numerous false statements, an allegation that the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office is examining.
Kerry Walsh, the sole board member who was not targeted for recall, said the outcome is democracy in action.
“Unfortunately, the effort was based on misinformation and friendships, and not the betterment of the community,” he said in an email. “I believe any competent person appointed to serve on the board, when faced with the information we have, will come to the same conclusions we have made, and ongoing improvements to the safety of the Jewell and Elsie communities will continue unabated.”
