QUILCENE — Questions about special-project wages paid by Fire District 2 in Quilcene to Commissioner David Ward — who also approved the payments — has drawn attention from the state Auditor’s Office.
A letter from the Auditor’s Office dated Sept. 13 and presented at last month’s commission meeting asked for information related to commissioners’ actions in January that created the job and state retirement benefits that went with it.
It also requested time sheets and a job description for Ward’s work, said Chief Bob Low, adding that those records don’t exist.
A spokeswoman for the Auditor’s Office, which has authority over fiscal matters for state and local government, said the letter was prompted by a citizen hot line complaint.
Kit Kittredge, president of the Quilcene Volunteer Firefighters Association, plans to bring up the matter at the commission’s next meeting at 7 tonight at the fire station, 70 Herbert St., in Quilcene.
“I’m going to be giving the commissioners a letter at the next meeting requesting that we have some transparency, information and closure on this issue,” she said.
Last Monday, Ward said he was unaware of any Auditor’s Office investigation but cut an interview short for a meeting.
Multiple efforts to re-contact him have been unsuccessful.
Ward was paid $800 a month to retrieve and decipher district data from outdated computer disks left behind when longtime Chief Bob Wilson died in April 2009.
Chief Low said the disks may contain important department business, but so far, he’s seen data from five disks that contain only pictures.
He declined to comment further because the commissioners are his bosses.
Ward and fellow commissioner Mike Whittaker were asked to resign over the matter in August in a petition from 15 of the 30 firefighters in the all-volunteer department after they learned of the arrangement.
“Whether Ward’s actions are legal or not, they are wrong,” firefighter Mike Eastman said at the time.
“No elected official should be able to hire themselves or a member of their family or be able to take an official action that benefits them.”
Ward and Whittaker refused to resign, though Ward did quit the disk project.
No one seems to know how many disks there were originally, what was on them or what has happened to them.
“There was no accountability, like how many there were, how many hours were spent,” Kittredge said.
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Julie McCormick is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Townsend. Contact her at juliemccormick10@gmail.com.
