Windcrest puts off
more agenda items than it passes
By Jeff B. Flinn, Staff writer
December 13, 2017
Windcrest City Council voted at its Dec. 4 meeting to table two
agenda items until next June. It denied presenting new Mayor Dan Reese with a
cellphone and tablet, and tabled an executive session.
Such is the new face of the city’s governing body, which met for
nearly three hours last week and tabled seven agenda items. Council members
also canceled their remaining December meeting and set the January meeting for
seven weeks later, Jan. 22.
A primary fixture on the agenda was creation of a new
firefighters association, the Windcrest Volunteer Fire Department Bugle Crew.
City Councilman Jim Shelton read the motion, which was approved by a 3-2 vote.
It pitted the city’s existing voting bloc of Councilmen Gerd Jacobi, James
McFall and Shelton against the two newly elected council members, Frank
Archuleta and Joan Pedrotti.
Shelton’s motion supplants the former fundraising arm of the
city fire department, the Windcrest Volunteer Fire Association, with a new
agency called the Bugle Crew, which will have sole fundraising and branding
rights for the city of Windcrest.
City Manager Rafael Castillo explained the new organization’s
status and role.
“We are still in charge of the fire department,” Castillo said.
“They (Bugle Crew) are just the volunteers to help us provide services for the
community. We will be responsible for the budget and the maintenance of
facilities and all the assets, in general.”
Castillo said the pact helps clean up issues the city had with
the former fire association.
“This is a lot cleaner contract than we had before, and it
separates a lot of liabilities that were not very clear in the past,” he said.
“There was a huge liability that was left in limbo before, and we honestly
believe that with these decisions that were made, as painful as they are, will
definitely provide less liability, and the assets will become a lot more
clear.”
Reese, a former Windcrest fire chief and volunteer firefighter,
was not happy with the change and questioned how the previous City Council gave
Castillo the authority to negotiate the contract in the first place.
“This fundamentally changes how we do fire in Windcrest.
Fundamentally,” Reese said. “This agreement never came before a City Council.
Never. It was never discussed, it never was outlined, and it never was used as
an agenda item so that the citizens could understand what this does.”
There were three agenda items addressing the status and future
of the volunteer fire department. Besides the 3-2 passage of the Bugle Crew
agenda item, the other two items were tabled until a meeting next June.
The first tabled firefighting issue dealt with delivery of a
report by City Attorney Michael Brenan concerning the status of the
firefighting function of the city. Brenan said he had the report ready, but
Jacobi’s motion and its passage prevented presentation of the report.
“We’re not making a new fire association. We are fundamentally
changing the way fire protection is done in the city of Windcrest,” Reese said.
“This is mind-boggling that we’re going to table the most fundamental change in
fire protection in the city of Windcrest, ever.”
No explanation was given for why Jacobi picked the third Monday
in June to next hear the issue, but McFall offered a retort to Reese’s
declaration.
“When we had the other (fire) association, citizens asked about
(the) money, about financial reports, about what’s going on with it,” McFall
said. “The association lied several times. They never brought any paperwork
about where the financial statements were, not one time.
“I had citizens sitting out there to ask, ‘What did you make
from the (annual firemen’s) gala?’ ‘Oh, we’ll show it to you next time’ was the
answer. Next time never came around. Those are things we are forgetting; we’re
forgetting that there are problems. We had to recognize the problems and
correct them,” McFall said.
The second agenda item tabled until June, this time on a motion
by McFall, dealt with council discussing “the firing policy” of the fire
department. Archuleta said he wanted a list of volunteer firefighters who have
been let go or whose service has been terminated over the past several months.
He asked for copies of their letters of termination, and any rebuttals or
exchanges between the dismissed firefighters and the city.
Brenan told Reese he would have Castillo get that information to
Archuleta.
Another tabled item dealt with items requested by Reese
following his Nov. 7 election. Among the items on the list were a cellphone and
tablet for his use as mayor.
Shelton made a motion to table the item until the council could
be presented with the costs associated with the purchases. The item will be
brought up at the Jan. 22 meeting.
But Reese closed the tense exchange by saying he’d changed his
mind about rejecting a mayoral stipend of $600.
“Now I am going to take the $600, because of the inability to
act on what I consider a very simple item that has grown into something that
will not happen, for seven weeks,” he said. “It is absolutely amazing that
we’re talking about whether a mayor can have a phone.”
Three other agenda items: board and commission appointments,
whether relatives of city officials are being appointed to commissions and
boards, and a request to hire an accounting firm to conduct a forensic audit,
were tabled on motions by Pedrotti, but not before the need for more
information on each item was requested.
jflinn@express-news.net
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