Fire chief and fire board chair resign: Boyceville fire district schedules special meeting Oct. 2
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
BOYCEVILLE — The Boyceville Community Fire District Board has scheduled a special meeting for October 2 that will include consideration of resignations submitted by the fire chief and the fire board chair.
Matt Shepard, chair of the Boyceville fire board, said he had planned to call the special meeting to re-evaluate the budget for 2025 and to hold a closed session regarding personnel matters.
Just prior to the Boyceville fire board’s September 11 meeting, Shepard said he had received notice that Matt Lunderville, fire chief, was planning to resign.
Following the meeting, Shepard also decided to resign as chair of the Boyceville fire board.
Shepard serves on the Tiffany Town Board and plans to continue serving on the town board but not on the fire board.
The agenda for the October 2 meeting will include the formal acceptance of Lunderville’s resignation and Shepard’s resignation.
The fire chief is planning to continue serving as the fire chief until November 30 in order to help the fire district clerk with the payroll, Shepard said.
Shepard indicated that following the September 11 meeting, he had written his resignation and e-mailed it to the other fire board members, effective immediately.
When both of the letters of resignation have been accepted by the Boyceville fire board, the letters will become a matter of public record, and the Tribune Press Reporter will have more information regarding the resignations.
An interim fire chief and a new fire board chair most likely will be selected before the Boyceville fire board’s next quarterly meeting on December 11, Shepard said.
Resignations
Shepard noted that two Boyceville fire chiefs have resigned in the last two years and that there may be internal problems at work within the fire department.
Former Boyceville fire chief Cory Green resigned effective as of December 31, 2022.
The fire board accepted Green’s resignation at the regular December 14, 2022, meeting and appointed Lunderville as interim chief at a special meeting January 4, 2023.
The fire board made Lunderville’s appointment permanent at the March of 2023 meeting.
The Tribune Press Reporter had attempted to obtain copies of Green’s resignation letter and complaints that were filed with the Boyceville fire district regarding fire department personnel, but there apparently was a computer glitch, and former fire board chair Chuck Siler said he had lost the files stored on his computer and could not fill the open records request.
While other members of the fire board said they did have copies of Green’s resignation and the complaints, they said there uncomfortable with providing them to the Tribune Press Reporter because they were not serving as chair of the fire board, and therefore, were not the official record keepers for the fire district.
Wisconsin’s Open Records law stipulates that the official keeper of the records is the person who fills open records requests.
Prior to Green’s resignation, as fire chief, he had refused to allow the Boyceville Community Ambulance District Board to meet at the new fire station that had recently been built by the Boyceville fire district.
The Boyceville ambulance district includes essentially the same municipalities as the Boyceville fire district, except that the Village of Wheeler, while a member of the fire district, is not part of the ambulance district, and the Town of Sheridan, which is part of the ambulance district, is not a member of the fire district.
For a certain period of time, until Green resigned, meetings of the Boyceville ambulance district were held in the Boyceville village hall or in the ambulance bay at the Boyceville ambulance service.
Minutes
The Boyceville Community Fire District Board held a special meeting in closed session at 7 p.m. November 2, 2022, specifically to discuss citizen complaints against fire district personnel.
According to the minutes from the November 2 meeting, at approximately 7:45 p.m., Matt Shepard, representative for the Town of Tiffany, appeared outside of the meeting room and requested that Chief Green and another person of the chief’s choosing appear before the board. Chief Green and Matt Lunderville were ushered into the closed session.
Some time later, Chief Green and Matt Lunderville exited the meeting room.
At 8:37 p.m., Luke Montgomery, representative for the Village of Boyceville, moved, and Lisa Pederson, representative for the Town of New Haven, seconded to reconvene into open session, and the motion carried.
The minutes go on to say, that after waiting 90 minutes, the audience reassembled in the meeting room.
Siler stated that Chief Green was given a set of sample policies, and it was suggested that the firefighters create a Code of Conduct Policy, a Complaint Procedure Policy, and a Disciplinary Policy for the fire district using the sample policies. Once created, the documents would be reviewed by a lawyer.
Pederson stated that the implementation of these policies would protect all volunteers.
An inquiry was made by one of the volunteer firefighters as to the nature of the citizen complaints. The chair responded that fire district personnel were reported to have made inappropriate gestures toward Boyceville ambulance district personnel.
Pederson stated that these complaints could not be substantiated, according to the minutes.
Chief Green then addressed the fire district board and read a prepared statement resigning his position as fire chief effective December 31 2022, and discussion followed.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 9 p.m.
December meeting
During a roll call vote at the December 14, 2022, meeting of the Boyceville fire board, the member municipalities present — the Towns of Hay River, New Haven, Sherman, Stanton and Tiffany and the Village of Boyceville — voted to accept Green’s resignation, according to the minutes from the meeting.
The Village of Wheeler, which is a member of the fire district, was absent from the meeting.
According to the minutes from the meeting, the member municipalities thanked Green for his service.
Fire board members suggested that the firefighters meet and discuss, who, from among their number, would make an acceptable replacement for the fire chief position.
The recommendation from the firefighters would then be brought back to the fire board at a special meeting in January of 2023, the minutes state.
January meeting
According to the minutes of the January 4, 2023, special meeting of the Boyceville fire board, Siler opened a sealed envelope containing the results of the December 19 meeting of the Boyceville firefighters concerning who should be the next fire chief.
The tally showed that Matt Lunderville had received 16 votes, and Tim Fasbender had received two votes.
Siler stated that in his opinion, the fire board would be wise to follow the recommendation of the firefighters, according to the minutes.
Montgomery asked if Lunderville would be willing to accept the position and whether he would be interested in the position short-term or long-term.
Lunderville said that before he accepted the position, he wanted to know who, among the fire board members, were in favor of combining EMS and fire under one chief because there were many rumors circulating.
The Towns of Hay River, New Haven, Sherman and Stanton affirmed their opinion that the two entities should remain separate, the minutes state.
A motion to appoint Lunderville as the interim chief and to make the position permanent at the next regularly scheduled fire board meeting in March of 2023 carried on a voice vote.
Special meeting
The special meeting of the Boyceville Community Fire District Board on Wednesday, October 2, is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. in the meeting room at the Boyceville fire station on Charlotte Street.
The meeting is open to the public, although members of the public, as per state law, will not be able to attend the closed session portion of the meeting.
