Fire commissioners may face recall

Two commissioners in a northwest Spokane County fire district face recall over charges they’ve been holding illegal secret meetings and intimidating members of the small volunteer department.

An organization calling itself A Group of Concerned Citizens of Fire District 5 filed separate recall petitions Tuesday against James Ryan and Greg Lucht, two-thirds of the board. A third commissioner, Sheri Rhoades, apparently is not subject to recall because she was appointed, not elected, to the board this year, said Larry Wendlandt, a spokesman for the recall group.

The district serves about 800 residents in an area that includes Four Mound Prairie and Horseshoe Lake.

The petitions filed with the Spokane County Elections Department accuse the two commissioners of holding meetings that violate the state’s Open Public Meetings Act, contracting for work without calling for public bids, forcing the former fire chief to sign a personnel letter about an employee, and pressuring volunteer firefighters to remove their names from a vote of no confidence.

The petition to recall Ryan also contends that he told the former fire chief the board had “incriminating photos” of past volunteers, which would be used against them if they contested being fired from their volunteer jobs.

One of the actions that helped galvanize the recall group was the firing of Debi Davis, a volunteer emergency medical technician, in January, Wendlandt said. She’s also one of the people named in the allegation involving the incriminating photos.

“They fired her, and they would not tell us why,” said Larry Durheim, who has been a volunteer firefighter in the district for about 25 years. He worked frequently with Davis and called her the district’s “lead EMT.”

Davis, who was a volunteer in the district for about nine years, said she was told only that her firing was “in the best interests of the district.” Asked what type of incriminating photos the commissioners might have of herself, her husband and another volunteer, Davis said she hasn’t been told but thinks it goes back to 1997, when the district built a new fire station and was using the old station for storage.

The Davises and another volunteer asked the board at the time to store their campers in an unused bay in the old station and received permission, she said, but “we didn’t have anything in writing.”

Ryan said Tuesday night that he had not seen the petition and thought it was inappropriate to comment on the allegations in any detail. He said there were some disagreements over difficult personnel decisions in recent months.

“When commissioners do their jobs, sometimes they’re not loved,” Ryan said.

Lucht could not be reached for comment.

Under state law, the petition is sent to the Spokane County prosecutor’s office, which will review it to determine whether it contains all the items required in the statutes, then to the Superior Court, to see if the charges are “sufficient” to warrant a recall if they are true. If it meets that standard, organizers will have up to six months to gather enough signatures to get it on a special election ballot.

Because Lucht and Ryan were elected in different years with different totals, the number of needed signatures will be different. They’ll need about 111 valid signatures for Ryan, who was elected without opposition last year, and about 79 for Lucht, who was elected unopposed in 2001.