Fire department struggles with politics
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POLSON — Underlying turmoil has been plaguing the fire department, and it came to a head when several fire department officers signed a letter of no confidence in Fire Chief John Fairchild and gave it to Polson City Manager Mark Shrives in November of 2014. Shrives immediately did his own investigation and then hired Chief Curt Belts, retired Missoula Rural Fire District Chief, to conduct a study of the fire department, which was submitted in April of 2015.
Belts used information from a 2013 Emergency Services Consulting International fire department evaluation.
Belts and the ESCI both brought up the fact that the Polson Fire Department and the Polson Rural Fire Department work together through an inter-local agreement and share the services of the fire chief. The PFD is governed by the City of Polson; the PRFD has an elected board of trustees; and the membership of the PFD votes on new members.
“While all three have a vested interest in the success of the PFD, each one has a different idea of how that should be accomplished and their own expectation of the fire chief,” Belts said in his review. “The lack of a unified form of governance causes great frustration where the fire chief is concerned.”
Every group and individual Belts interviewed had concerns about poor communication; lack of respect for leadership as well as each other; lack of trust; and inconsistencies in following department guidelines, especially discipline.
