Baxter Cancels Fire Dept Insurance

 Baxter and Jacobi during the process of dismantling the Windcrest Volunteer Fire Department cancelled the Fire Department's accident and sickness insurance.  Now they are both back seeking election for a repeat performance. 

Windcrest officials consider fire department oversight

By Jeff B. Flinn, Staff writer

March 16, 2018

Three years ago, a representative of VFIS of Texas received an email from Windcrest Fire Department officials, asking them to cancel the department’s accident and sickness insurance with the National Union Fire Insurance

Since then, no insurance policy has been in place to protect Windcrest firefighters in the cases of work-related illness or injury.

At its Feb. 26 meeting, the Windcrest City Council heard a representative from the Martin, Cukjati & Tom law firm talk about auditing, accountability and management practices of the Windcrest Volunteer Fire Department. The council is considering two separate proposals on how to run the volunteer fire department and its supporting charity wing.

“Part of the purpose of a fire agreement is to insulate the city from liability,” said Jeffrey Tom, law firm partner, who criticized the former organization’s lack of professionalism and failure to provide insurance and pension funding for its firefighters.

“If you have auditing and accounting management, someone would have noticed that we canceled our insurance and that the amount of money in the insurance column on that audit report went down,” Tom said. “Someone would have noticed that we hadn’t made our pension payments for 11 firefighters over the last three years.”

In October 2017, Windcrest City Council replaced the longtime Windcrest Volunteer Fire Association (WVFA) with the Windcrest Volunteer Fire Department “Bugle Crew,” a newly formed organization designed to handle firefighting, fundraising and accounting practices that were lost under the former group.

The two organizations’ fire agreements, the WVFA and the Bugle Crew, have been put before council, with key structural and operative differences.

“The WVFA is a fund-raising organization,” the attorney said. “Their agreement says, ‘We’re going to fundraise, it’s not our job to respond to emergencies. You’re not going to see our bank records, we’re going to fundraise.’”

Under this agreement, Cukjati said the city is responsible for all of the firefighting.

“(The city) is responsible for responding to and fighting all of the fires. (WVFA) is going to fundraise. They’re saying, ‘Trust us to do that well, and trust us to spend your money well. We’re good guys, we’re your neighbors, and we’ll take care of you,’” he added.

Consequently, the Bugle Crew agreement requires staffing levels and response to emergencies, but also requires financial auditing by the city.

“The Bugle Crew agreement says, ‘We’re going to be transparent with our finances. We’ll take the obligation to respond to fires, and to make sure we’re meeting minimum staffing levels,’” he said. It also requires a fundraising arm that reports to the city with monthly statements and audits.

City Councilman James McFall, one of three councilmen who had been targeted for recall because of their votes to replace the WVFA with the Bugle Crew, explained why the vote occurred in the first place.

“This whole situation started because we were constantly asking for an audit, to be transparent,” McFall said. “Citizens are asking me, ‘What are you doing with the money,’ and when we’d ask, it was always, ‘We’ll get back to you.’ That’s what I have heard for five years.”

Councilman Gerd Jacobi, another councilman targeted by the failed recall, said he was stunned the WVFA would allow firefighters into its organization that would act only as fundraisers and not be required to fight fires.

“The main thing should be that they protect us when there’s a fire. I don’t want to have that separated, to where a fireman says, ‘Hey, I only collect money. I’m not going on a fire run,’” Jacobi said. “I want to have that fire protection. These guys are volunteers here because they want to fight fires, not become fundraisers.”

Councilwoman Joan Pedrotti said the city needs an agreement that ensures the city has adequate fire protection.

“Let’s not talk about fundraising. That’s not important. Firefighting is important,” Pedrotti said. “We need this agreement to protect our citizens and to move forward. I think we need an agreement with an association for exactly what Mr. Jacobi said, to protect our property and the citizens of Windcrest.”

Mayor Dan Reese, a former Windcrest Fire Department fire chief and volunteer, spoke up for the firefighters who served the city under the WFVA.

“It’s a misperception to say the fire association only did fundraising. Those people were firefighters first, and the fact is that they didn’t have to be part of the association to fight fires,” Reese said. “The fire association raised money, and I would contend … that there needed to be more oversight.”

Tom said any agreement the city abides by should include financial accountability and require staffing that reports to the city, so instances like canceled insurance policies and failure to make pension payments do not happen.

“There’s been no written agreement that’s supposed to tell us who does what. The purpose of an agreement is to fix those misunderstandings so everybody knows what the job is, what their role is,” the attorney said.

“It is unbelievable that we could not sit there and say, ‘This is the structure of the fire department. This is what the fire department does, this is what the volunteer fire department program means,’” Tom said. “None of this was down. None of this was documented. We lost track of what those rules were.”

A recall petition aimed at removing the Bugle Crew will be on the May 6 general election ballot in Windcrest.

jflinn@express-news.net