Fireworks Fly For Dismissed Hayden Chief Citizens Group, Volunteers Present Letter Demanding Reinstatement

Embers stirred by the dismissal of two Hayden Lake Fire Protection District employees this month - including the chief - had fire commissioners facing an inferno Wednesday night.

A citizens group that includes several volunteer firefighters presented fire commissioners with a letter signed by 325 people demanding that Wayne Syth be reinstated as the department’s chief.

“We will not take any action tonight on anything you have to say,” Wayne Johnson, fire commission chairman, told the more than 50 people who jammed into the fire station board room, “but we will listen and we will weigh it.”

Commissioners also fielded a barrage of questions from the boisterous group about the district’s hiring practices and the recent dismissal of the district’s secretary.

Fire commissioners dismissed district secretary Beverly Byquist last week.

Syth, the department’s chief of 15 years, was fired on Oct. 7.

“I think the public is owed an answer to that question” (of Syth’s dismissal), said longtime volunteer Maynard Nisbet.

Commissioners declined to provide details of either decision, citing the threat of a lawsuit from Syth and the district’s policy not to publicly discuss personnel issues. Johnson said only that Syth had not made satisfactory progress toward recommended improvements made by the board during written evaluations in the past year.

“Mr. Syth was given all the tools to make those changes we felt he needed to make,” Johnson said.

Mark Dennison, who was hired as deputy chief earlier this year, has been appointed acting chief until Syth’s replacement can be found. Dennison held a similar position in Sagle, Idaho, where he still lives.

Several paid firefighters who attended the meeting said afterward that they respected Syth as a chief but supported the commissioners’ decision to fire him. They also defended the district’s fire protection during the past several weeks.

“Under no circumstances has the level of protection ever dropped,” firefighter Pat Riley said.

“The department’s not falling apart,” added Dean Marcus, Hayden fire inspector. “We’ve got our stuff together.”

Still, the chief’s firing has created a controversy in the community.

At least two unsigned letters have been circulated around the district since Syth’s firing. One of the letters questions Syth’s management skills and leadership qualities.

Critics have accused Syth of running a “good old boy” department, hiring and promoting relatives and longtime friends ahead of others.

Gwenn Stone, a former fire prevention officer, alleges in a lawsuit filed last December in U.S. District Court that the district violated her civil rights when they fired her. Stone contends in the lawsuit she was fired in retaliation for complaints she made about sexual harassment and discriminatory vacation practices.

The department, board of fire commissioners, Syth, Commissioner Dean McMillen, Johnson and Marcus are listed as defendants.

“It used to be whoever was Wayne’s best buddy got the job,” said Aaron Raap, a former Hayden firefighter who settled a wrongful termination suit against Syth and the district.

Syth attended Wednesday’s meeting but did not comment on his firing.

His supporters have met twice since his dismissal and have received enough signatures to certify a petition asking that Johnson be recalled.

That recall effort is a handful of signatures away from landing on a February special election ballot, Nisbet said.

Occupants of the commission’s two other seats will be decided after next week’s election.

Byquist’s husband, Ralph, is challenging Lynda Thurman for the subdistrict No. 2 seat occupied by Jim Fischer, who is not seeking reelection. Chuck Rhodes, Syth’s son-in-law, is challenging incumbent McMillen in the sub-district No. 1 race.

Rhodes was demoted from deputy chief and subsequently fired from the district earlier this year.

, DataTimes