| The public should know that Kitsap County Commissioners continue to do the wrong thing by taxpayers. They have hired back John Gibson, one of the deputies in the Fire Marshal’s Office who was fired for cause earlier this year following an investigation into fraud, waste and abuse in that office. I understand that meetings are being held with the other deputy, Keith Barkow, who was outright fired as well and he may yet be reinstated.
During the investigation, another employee was found to have committed wrongdoing; with additional allegations later made against that deputy; however, he was not fired. One can only wonder at the motives of the Commissioners and County Administrator. My experience with the County has been their primary goal is to withhold information from the public, cover up, and avoid as much liability as possible. Not the liability to the taxpayers’ pocket, but to their own personal careers and agendas.
Overall, little change has been made to improve the effectiveness of the Fire Marshal’s Office and improve public fire safety throughout the County. Lip service was given to a series of meetings between the local fire districts and the County. The public and other stakeholders were not involved, no substantive improvements were implemented and the situation actually appears to have worsened. Reporting of fire inspections and workload in the Fire Marshal’s Office has been discontinued. Information is unavailable to the public as to the number, kind, and staff conducting inspections.
How will the County know when the ineffective employees are not doing their job without any performance and workload information? How will the public know whether mandated inspections and investigations are being conducted?
No structural changes have been made to KCFMO. The Division continues to be buried within the Department of Community Development where it remains a low priority overseen by an Assistant and Acting Directors without backgrounds in fire prevention. It is a plus that Director Cindy Baker and Fire Marshal Derrick Crawley were ousted. But, without changes to the mechanism in DCD and KCFMO it will just be business as usual with different staff.
County citizens should be very concerned at the number and dollar amount of lawsuits being levied at the County. It is difficult to get this information, because the County deals with it in a more closed manner than it has to. But, judging from the number of claims for damages, typically between two and five on every given Commissioner meeting agenda, the total must be staggering.
Citizens should know that the performance audit of DCD was completed; however, the results have not been made public. Again, what is the motive?
Citizens should also know that one of the County’s prosecuting attorneys is the subject of complaints and investigation by the Washington State Bar Association due to possible illegal and unethical activities. This is in addition to the allegations and investigation into another attorney in the Personnel Department who continues to work for the County.
Unfortunately, public outcry over the Fire Marshal’s debacle wasn’t enough to send a continuing message to the Commissioners. We need to renew our efforts toward change in our government. We can all contact our current Commissioners and demand that laws, regulations and ethics be followed, so that lawsuits don’t ensue and settlements don’t have to be paid out routinely. We can demand that claims for damages be posted on the County website and that summary and status information be posted and maintained.
We can demand that ethical employees be hired and clean house of the others. We can demand that when members of the public request public information, that standard County policy is to provide it whenever possible, instead of current County policy which is to find any possible reason to deny the request. We can demand that the philosophy of our government is to do the right thing. We can demand meetings include the public and stakeholders, and we can demand that a genuine effort be restarted to fix the problems with the County’s public fire safety program.
As voters we can vote Patty Lent out of office this election and remember in the 2008 elections to vote out Angel and Endresen as well. It will take three new commissioners with a new directive from the top down if any change at all is to be made. Until Commissioners are elected who have the taxpayers interest in mind, there will be no change at the clubhouse.
Teresa Fox
Unemployed whistleblower and former
KCFMO employee (resigned)
Bremerton | 